Application for further temporary exemption: Free to air television captioning (no. 4)
See now submissions in response (updated 12 January 2012)
The Commission has received an application (attached, Word format) from the Seven Network Limited group of companies, the Nine Entertainment Co group of companies, the Network Ten Limited group of companies, Prime Media Group group of companies, the WIN Corporation group of companies, the Southern Cross Australia group of companies, Imparja Television, SBS and the ABC (‘the Applicants’) for a temporary exemption under s55 (1) of the DDA so as to build on the achievements made under the exemptions which were granted on 13 October 2008 to metropolitan television licensees and 12 May 2009 to Prime Media Group, WIN Corporation and Macquarie Southern Cross Media television. These exemptions expire on 31 December 2011.
The Applicants advise they are committed to building on the achievements made to date in terms of television captioning, whether through the Commission’s temporary exemption processes or through compliance with new captioning legislation as proposed by the Government.
As a legislative process for reform of captioning regulation is currently underway, the Applicants seek a short-term temporary exemption during this period of potential transition.
The Applicants advise the terms of the exemption being sought are consistent with the general approach taken in the previous temporary exemptions and with the regulatory policy expressed in the Media Access Review’s recommendations regarding free-to-air television captioning. The Applicants advise that the exemption is designed to ensure the same outcomes as would be achieved for 2012 had legislative amendments to implement the recommendations been in place.
Background
The exemption granted on 12 May 2009 to Prime Media Group, WIN Corporation and Macquarie Southern Cross Media television was on similar terms to that granted on 13 October 2008 to metropolitan television licensees.
The Applicants advise that they have complied fully with the terms of the current exemptions, conducting substantive consultations with deafness community groups, reporting on those consultations to the Commission, meeting staged captioning increase requirements and regularly reporting captioning levels to the Commission. (See June 2010 report on captioning consultations (MS Word) and 2009 Report from FreeTV on captioning quality (MS Word))
During the period of the exemptions, the federal Government has been conducting a review of access to electronic media for the vision and hearing impaired. Amongst other things, that review sought to investigate and make recommendations into the future regulation of television captioning.
On 3 December 2010, the Government released the final report of the review, which included several recommendations regarding free-to-air television captioning.
Relevant to this application, the recommendations included:
Recommendation 1—That the Government includes new captioning targets in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, mandating 100 per cent captioning between 6.00 am and midnight on the primary television service provided by national broadcasters and commercial television broadcasters by 2014.
Recommendation 2—That the Government prescribes the sections of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 that mandate captioning targets under subsection 47(2) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. The legislative amendments would result in anyone acting in direct compliance with the prescribed part of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 no longer being subject to complaint under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.
The Applicants seek a short-term exemption under the DDA whilst the legislative process for reform of captioning regulation is continuing.
The Applicants seek exemptions as follows:
The Applicants seek an exemption until 31 December 2012 in relation to captioning of free to air television programming on all of the Applicants’ own television services. The exemption is sought on condition that each of the Applicants implement the following undertakings in relation to its own services:
- All broadcasters to caption primary channel programs (other than sport) that commence in prime time until their conclusion.
- The commercial free-to-air broadcasters to continue to caption all new P and C programs on their primary channels.
- ABC to continue to caption all new schools programs. ABC to continue to caption new Australian pre-school and children’s programs with an annual target of 50 hours.
- ABC to continue to caption new overseas children’s programs with an annual target of 50 hours.
- ABC will caption approximately 1000 hours of pre-school and children’s programs broadcast annually.
- In addition, in relation to the ABC, the percentages applying to the primary channel will apply to all nationally transmitted programs broadcast on the primary channel. In addition to these nationally transmitted percentage targets the ABC will caption all state and territory news and current affairs programs on the primary channel.
- Measured at the end of the calendar year of the exemption, the level of captioning on each broadcaster’s primary channel should average at least:
- 90% of programming over the broadcast day (6am to midnight) for the period ending 31 December 2012.
- Applicants to report on the level of captioning on primary channels (6am to midnight) to the Australian Human Rights Commission at the end of each calendar quarter. First report to be provided for the period ending 31 March 2012 by the end of April 2012.
- Applicants to report to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission by the end of January 2013 on implementation of this proposal.
- Programs do not include advertising, sponsorship or promotional material, or community service announcements.
- Captioned programs include foreign language subtitled programs.
- Hours of programs broadcast exclude foreign language programs exempted by clause 38(7) of Schedule 4 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.
- Participation by broadcasters in ongoing discussions facilitated by the ACMA regarding the quality of captions.
Request for submissions
In accordance with its policy on exemption applications , the Commission seeks to give interested parties an opportunity to participate in the process of considering this application.
The Commission seeks submissions by 27 January 2012, preferably by email as a Word, text, html or rtf document, to disability@humanrights.gov.au .
To promote open public discussion and exchange of views, the Commission intends to post submissions on its Internet site. Any request for material to be treated as confidential should be clearly indicated. Please note that the Commission is subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.
Cristina Ricci
Acting Director, Disability Rights Policy
14 December 2011
