Law / Colombia

CRC Resolution 5050 of 2016, Title XV, access systems for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers of television: closed caption, subtitles and Colombian Sign Language

Resolución CRC 5050 de 2016, Título XV, Capítulo 2, Sección III, arts. 15.2.3.1 a 15.2.3.18

In force.

An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 1 November 2026.

What it requires

• If you operate open television of public interest, social, educational and cultural character with national or regional coverage, implement closed caption or subtitling of the programming of your main analogue and digital channel, and Colombian Sign Language interpretation in at least one daily news programme and in the programmes of public interest, within the weekday and weekend time bands the article fixes (Resolución CRC 5050 de 2016, Art. 15.2.3.9(1)).
• If you operate private national open television, or hold a concession for public television spaces, implement closed caption or subtitling of your main analogue and digital channel, and Colombian Sign Language interpretation in at least one daily news programme: on weekdays between 12:00 and 15:00 or between 18:00 and 22:00, and at weekends between 12:00 and 15:00 or between 19:00 and 21:00 (Art. 15.2.3.9(2)).
• If you operate local for-profit open television, implement closed caption or subtitling of your main analogue and digital channel (Art. 15.2.3.9(3)); if you operate local non-profit open television, implement it for the hours of programming that the rules of that service set (Art. 15.2.3.9(4)).
• If you operate subscription television, implement closed caption or subtitling in your own production channel for the hours of own programming that the rules of that service set (Art. 15.2.3.9(5)).
• Give Colombian Sign Language interpretation to the presidential addresses and institutional messages you broadcast (Art. 15.2.3.9, paragraph).
• If you hold a concession for spaces on Canal UNO, agree with the other concessionaires how you will meet the obligation to implement the access systems (Art. 15.2.3.10).
• If you run a thematic satellite channel, work toward the progressive implementation of the access systems, according to your technical and financial conditions (Art. 15.2.3.2, paragraph 1).
• Provide the access systems in the programming transmitted between 6:00 and 23:59; programming outside that window does not count toward the level (Art. 15.2.3.8).
• Apply the access systems to the genres and formats of programmes you transmit, except the transmission of sports and musical events (Art. 15.2.3.7).
• Broadcast closed caption at a reasonable speed for the scene, fully legible and understandable, in the official language of Colombia, and do not use it to broadcast advertising, although the sponsor of the closed caption may be named under the conditions the Resolution sets; for a foreign programme that uses subtitling, the subtitles may come with the original programme (Art. 15.2.3.5).
• Place the Colombian Sign Language interpreter in the set of the programme where the format allows it, and otherwise in a frame of at least one ninth (1/9) of the screen showing the interpreter from the head to the waist with space at the sides (Art. 15.2.3.6).
• Announce to the audience whether a programme carries closed caption, Colombian Sign Language interpretation or subtitling, using the wording the article sets (Art. 15.2.3.11).
• Have your viewers' ombudsman state, at least once each semester in the space assigned to the ombudsman, whether petitions, complaints or suggestions on the access systems were received, the answers given, and your actions to implement the access systems (Art. 15.2.3.12).
• In programmes broadcast in episodes, keep the access systems in every episode until the programme ends (Art. 15.2.3.13).
• If you operate closed, subscription or non-profit community television, do not restrict, modify or deactivate the access systems included in the signals of the Colombian open television channels and of the channels of public interest (Art. 15.2.3.14).
• For closed caption, adopt the aspect control tables of international standards compatible with the analogue and the digital signal (Art. 15.2.3.18).
• If you receive a new concession or enablement, take on the obligation to implement the accessibility mechanisms in the content transmitted through the television service (Art. 15.2.3.16).

These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of 1 November 2026.

Who enforces it

What it reaches

When LexLint raises it

When your app profile says your app provides telecom services.

Back to the example  ·  Lint your app