SBS Submission

ACMA Review of the captioning obligations in theBroadcasting Services Act 1992

Executive Summary

  • SBS submits that any increase in the time period to which it is required to provide closed captions is resource heavy, impractical and onerous in the current financial environment.To comply, SBS would have to reduce its services to its broad audience base or receive additional funding.
  • SBS supports the removal of annual reporting requirements for closed captioning as the requirements are onerous on SBS and of limited value to the public as the time-lapse between a fault and the reporting can be significant.

Introduction

SBS is Australia’s multilingual and multicultural national broadcasting service, operating under the Broadcasting Service Act 1991. SBS’s principal function is to provide multilingual and multicultural radio, television and digital media services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians, and, in doing so, reflect and promote Australia’s multicultural society.

SBS broadcasts four free-to-air national television services – SBS, SBS 2, NITV and SBS Food Network. SBS ON DEMAND delivers online catch-up television and on demand video services. SBS also operates one subscription channel which is available through Foxtel, World Movies.

SBS is committed to making its content as accessible as possible for its wide audience base and one way that is achieved is throughclosed captioning and subtitling. SBS provides captioning services for its free-to-air television services (including its online service: SBS ON DEMAND) in two forms: closed captioning services for English language content and subtitling for programs in a language other than English. SBS is committed to fulfilling its captioning requirements under Part 9D of theBroadcasting Services Act 1992.

SBS welcomes the opportunity to comment on captioning reforms and understands that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will take into account the comments made by SBS in the Department of Communications and the Arts Captioning regulatory framework policy consultation paper (Department Consultation Paper). However SBS wishes to reiterated its comments on the following issues.

Captioning obligations for free-to-air television

The basic rule

In regards to the captioning obligations for free to air television and the ‘basic rule’, SBS supports the requirement to caption 100 per cent of programming broadcast between 6 am and midnight as well as 100 per cent of news and current affairs programs. SBS believes these requirements are important, as they give deaf and hearing impaired viewers the ability to access and understand SBS’s programs.

However, submissions put forward by numerous advocacy groups propose that the hours of required captioning should be extended.[1] SBS acknowledges that extending captioning requirements to a 24-hour period, or increasing the hours by some degree, would be beneficial for viewers.However, in the current funding environment, the cost and resources required to achievethis are out of the reach for SBS. SBS contends that any increase to the amount of time SBS is required to caption would place a significant burden on the organisation. Closed captioning is a resource-heavyservice, requiring SBS to undertake substantial internal coordination as well as managing an external captioning service provider to ensure closed captioning is availableat a high standard.

SBS submits that, when balanced against cost and resource-use, the benefits of closed captioning are reduced as audience numbers fall in non-peak times. SBS submits that there should be no increase to the total hours a broadcaster is required to caption.

Reporting and record-keeping

SBS reiteratesits supports the removal of the annual reporting requirements as put forward in the submission to the Department of Communications and the Arts.[2] SBS is of the view that the current reporting requirements are burdensome in their processes and do not provide a change to the viewer experience due to the time-lapse between a fault and the publication of reporting.

Burdensome requirements

The current annual reporting requirements are particularly onerous. The report SBS is required to submit to ACMA detailing how it met its captioning obligations is resource heavy, as it requires reports to be provided in a form approved by ACMA and in order to meet these requirements SBS must compile material from a variety of workflow areas within the business. This takes significant time and resources as SBS must collate all the data for its 12 markets and ensure that it fulfils ACMA’s reporting requirements.SBS supports the removal of annual reporting requirements for closed captioning as the requirements are onerous.

No change to the viewer’s experience

SBS submits that due to the potential time lapse between a closed caption fault and its reporting the benefit to a viewer is negligible. SBS supports the removal of annual reporting requirements for closed captioning they are of limited value to the public as the time-lapse between a fault and the reporting can be significant.

Advocacy groups have arguedthat if annual reporting requirements are removed the burden of monitoring captioning obligations would move to consumers,

“consumers know that a regulated quota is being met and that the regulations designed to protect their interests are being properly and fairly enforced”[3]

However, SBS undertakes the following internal process and will continue to do so, even if captioning reporting was altered to ensure viewers receive the best possible service.

  • SBS monitors all SBS output and reporting captioning faults on a daily basis, though SBS’s master control room team, the presentation team, SBS’s captioning service provider and SBS’s audience relations team;
  • captioning issues are referred on to SBS Subtitling team for investigation and action as required; and
  • regular reviews of quality control are conducted by the SBS Subtitling team and SBS’s captioning service provider.

SBS is motivated to fulfil its captioning obligations primarily because of its legal obligations under Part 9D of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, but also because of its commitment to audience accessibility and to see a return on its investment on the captioning services that have been contracted. Currently, the closed captioning service provider is Erickson. The annual reporting requirements do not add to SBS’smotivation to fulfil its obligations and SBS will therefore continue to maintain its services even if the reporting obligations are removed.

Conclusion

SBS welcome the review of captioning reform and supports the removal of annual reporting requirements due to their inability to provide a practical and timely reporting on captioning issues. SBS does not support any increase to the hours it is required to caption, as although SBS believes captioning is important in giving accessibility to those who are deaf or hearing impaired, the financial cost of doing so is insurmountable at this time.

[1]Review of the captioning obligations in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 Consultation paper. Australian Communications and Media Authority, June 2016, p. 16.

[2]SBS submission to The Captioning regulatory framework policy consultation paper, Department of Communications and the Arts, December 2015

[3]MAA submission to the Captioning regulatory framework policy consultation paper, Department of Communications and the Arts, December 2015, p. 2