Investigation Report No. 3337
SummaryFile no. / ACMA2015/228
Licensee / Prime Television (Northern) Pty Limited
Station / Prime 7 NEN
Type of service / Commercial television
Name of programs / Winter
The Chase
Downton Abbey
Dates of broadcasts / Winter – 25 February 2015
Downton Abbey – 1 March 2015
The Chase – 2 March 2015
Relevant Legislation / Subsection 130ZR(1) of Part 9D (captioning) of theBroadcasting Services Act 1992 (the BSA)
Paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA
Date finalised / 10 July 2015
Decision / No breach of subsection 130ZR(1) of Part 9D of the BSA.
No breach of paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 of the BSA.
Background
On 2 March 2015, the ACMA received a complaint alleging that the licensee of NEN failed to provide a captioning service for the following broadcasts (the programs):
Program Name: Winter / Date of broadcast: 25 February 2015 / Time of broadcast:
9pm;
Program Name:Downton Abbey / Date of broadcast: 1 March 2015 / Time of broadcast: 10pm; and
Program Name: The Chase / Date of broadcast: 2 March 2015 / Time of broadcast:
3pm.
The complainant alleged that each ofthe programs completely lacked captioning.
Thecomplainthasbeeninvestigatedinrelationto thelicensee’scompliancewithparagraph7(1)(o)ofSchedule2totheBSA. This provision requires the licensee to comply with the captioning obligations under Part 9D of the BSA.
The programs
Winteris an Australian mystery drama-thriller program. The duration of the program is 43 minutes and 2 seconds.
Downton Abbey is a British period drama program set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey which depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants with the great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy. The duration of the program was 47 minutes and 49 seconds.
The Chase is a game show involvingfour contestants who go into battle against the Chaser as they try to win thousands of pounds.The duration of the program was 42 minutes and 19 seconds.
Submissions
The complainant’s submissions are at Attachment Aand the licensee’s submissions are at Attachment B.
Assessment
Did the licensee provide a captioning service for the program?
Relevant provisions
Clause 7 of Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the BSA
(1)Each commercial television broadcasting licence is subject to the following conditions:
[...]
(o)If a provision of Part 9D (which deals with captioning of television programs for the deaf and hearing impaired) applies to the licensee – the licensee will comply with that provision.
Subsection 130ZR(1) (basic rule) of Part 9D of the BSA
Each commercial television broadcasting licensee, and each national broadcaster, must provide a captioning service for:
(a)television programs transmitted during designated viewing hours; and
(b)television news or current affairs programs transmitted outside designated viewinghours.
Subsection 130ZL(2) of Part 9D of the BSA
For the purposes of the application of this Part to programs transmitted on or after 1 July 2014, designated viewing hours are the hours:
(a)beginning at 6 am each day or, if another time is prescribed, beginning at that prescribed time each day; and
(b)ending at midnight on the same day or, if another time is prescribed, ending at that prescribed time on the same day.
Finding
The licensee complied with subsection 130ZR(1) of the BSA by providing captioning services for:
the Winter program broadcast on 25 February 2015;
the Downton Abbeyprogram broadcast on 1 March 2015; and
The Chase program broadcast on 2 March 2015,
in accordance with that subsection of the BSA.Therefore, the licensee complied with the licence condition in paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA.
Reasons
As the programs were transmitted during designated viewing hours (the hours between 6 am and midnight each day), the licensee was required to provide a captioning service for the programs.
The licensee submitted that the programs were broadcast with captions. The ACMA reviewed recordings ofthe broadcasts provided by the licensee, which each contain captions throughout.
The ACMA acknowledges that some captioning issues may relate to the equipment used by viewers to receive and view programs. The ACMA isalso concerned to achieve the best outcome for the complainant in terms of the captioning issue experienced.
In this regard, the ACMA accepted an offer from thelicensee toconduct further internal investigations to determine whether a technical or other issue may have prevented the captions from being transmitted to the complainant. As a result of these investigations, the licensee identified an unforeseen technical issue not previously detected by the licensee – a DVB-T flag (Data unit ID) –which might have prevented captions from being decoded by a small number of receivers. The licensee submitted that the issue appears to have resulted from the deployment of a new compression head end over the period of the broadcasts. The licensee advised that it rectified the issue by rolling back to the original compression platform, and that anew version of the firmware,which provides the option to set the DVB-T flag to work correctly, is currently being tested prior to deployment.
With the complainant’s consent, the ACMA also asked the licensee to contact the complainant directlyto attempt to determine the cause of the complainant’s captioning issue and resolve it. The licensee submitted that based on its discussion with the complainant, the timing of the complainant’s captioning issue appeared to match the timing of the unforeseen technical issue relating to the DVB-T flag. However, the licensee was unable to confirm the actual cause of the complainant’s captioning issue.
The licensee also submitted that there may have been some confusion as to the identity of the station providing the broadcasts due to the complainant’s use of the PVR function on the set-top box to record programming and the fortuitous reception by the complainant’s television equipment of broadcast signals from the Brisbane TV1 licence area, as the programming on the Prime 7 NEN and Channel 7 BTQ stations is identical and both stations identify themselves with the same logos.
The licensee submitted that the complainant was satisfied with the attention received from the licensee in relation to the captioning issue andhas not experienced captioning issues on the service since March 2015.
The ACMA considersthat there is no evidence available to the ACMA of the actual cause of the complainant’s captioning issue.While the unforeseen technical issue identified by the licensee (the DVB-T flag issue) might have prevented captions from being received by the complainant, there is no evidence to confirm this. Further, the evidence available to the ACMAindicatesthat thelicenseeprovided a captioning service for the programs.
Accordingly, the licensee provided a captioning service for the programs that complied with the basic rule, as required by subsection 130ZR(1) of Part 9D of the BSA.Consequently, the licensee complied with the licence condition in paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA, which requires the licensee to comply with the relevant provisions in Part 9D of the BSA.
Attachment A
The complainant submitted on 2 March 2015 that:
[…]
- “The Chase”, a British quiz show which is broadcast most afternoons at various times between 3:00 pm and about 4:30pm has not had captions for the last few episodes, after having captions for the last 12 months we have been watching it.
- “Winter”, the Australian drama starring Rebecca Gibney, shows at 9:00 pm on Wednesdays did not have captions last Wednesday. My memory (not foolproof) suggests that earlier episodes had captions but I may be wrong. Interestingly, some of the advertisements shown during “Winter” had captions.
[…]
Further to my earlier email today, I am just watching a replay of Downton Abbey, (originally broadcast last night) also on Channel 7, and it has no captions. Amazingly, the little box with “CC” came up at the start, but no captions.
Attachment B
The licensee submitted on 12 May 2015 that:
The video clips provided are from our off-air logging system and show that a captioning service was provided for these programs.
If you require, I am able to undertake a further investigation of this matter.
The licensee further submitted on 18 May 2015 that:
I have conducted a further investigation into whether a technical or other issue may have prevented captioning from being transmitted to the complainant. As a result of this investigation I have discovered an issue that may have prevented captioning being decoded by a small number of devices.
Our engineers deployed a new compression head end over the period in question. An unforeseen technical issue (not found during pre-deployment) was discovered post the transition where an obscure DVB-T flag (Data unit ID) was not set. The option to set this flag is not available through the manufacturers interface of the equipment and has previously not been an issue.
During pre-deployment in house testing was done with several receivers and technical test equipment from different manufacturers and vintages, none exhibited an issue as the caption data was received and decoded without issue.
Our engineers have since discovered it is common practice for receivers to decode the captions without the flag set, however there are a very small number of receivers that use this obscure DVB-T flag for caption decoding.
Upon making this discovery the platform was rolled back at the earliest possible time to restore the flag in our transmission. We have since received a new version of firmware delivered from the vendor which provides the option to set the flag to work correctly. It is currently going through final pre-deployment checks.
The licensee further submitted on 3 June 2015 that:
We are unable to confirm the number of receivers affected by the issue, our technicians have not been able to identify a brand or vintage for receivers that utilise the DVB-T flag, although we understand they do exist. We discovered the issue during monitoring and interrogation of compression data after the change was instigated.
We rectified this issue by rolling back to the original compression platform on Monday 2nd March. The new platform is still undergoing pre-deployment checks.
The licensee further submitted on 24 June 2015 that:
I have spoken with [the complainant] today regarding his complaint.
The timing of the captioning issues experienced appear to match the technical issues we have identified. [The complainant] did feel that the issues continued for longer than the period in question, however he does use the PVR function on his set-top box which could result in him viewing programs many days after broadcast.
An additional level of confusion could arise due to the ability of [the complainant’s] television to receive broadcast signals from Brisbane broadcasters and regional broadcasters. It can be very difficult to differentiate the signals when the programming is identical, and we identify ourselves with the same logos.
[The complainant] advised me he was very satisfied with the attention he has received from PRIME7 regarding this matter and confirmed that he had not experienced any issues since March.
ACMA Investigation Report—Winter, Downton Abbey and The Chasebroadcast by NEN on 25 February 2015, 1 March 2015 and 2 March 2015 1