Notice of draft exemption order for
ThoroughVisioN Pty Ltd
(Application Ref. 52)

This notice sets out the draft exemption order for ThoroughVisioN Pty Ltd’s TVN channel and invites persons to make submissions to the ACMA within 30 days of 7 February 2013in accordance with subsection 130ZY(6) of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.

ThoroughVisioN Pty Ltd(the Applicant) is a subscription television licensee. It providesthe TVN service (the Service).

TVN is a premium thoroughbred horse racing channel with a particular focus on New South Wales and Victorian racing. The majority of the content is live horse racing, broadcast every day of the year with the exception of Christmas Day and Good Friday. When there is no live racing, the service broadcasts content such as race replays, race meeting preview programs, race meeting review programs, industry based magazine programs and archival based programs.

The Service is available to subscribers of the Foxtel Sports package and subscribers to the Austar platform.

Summary of reasons – unjustifiable hardship

It is the ACMA’s preliminary assessment that a refusal to make the exemption order would impose an unjustifiable hardship on the Applicant. The expenditure required for the Applicant to meet its captioning obligations, should the ACMA not make an exemption order, is significant in the context of the Applicants financial circumstances. These are also other relevant circumstances, in that the Applicant provides a level of access for deaf and hearing impaired viewers, having regard to the information provided as text during key programs shown on the Service. The ACMA therefore acknowledges the likely minimal impact of making an exemption order on deaf or hearing impaired viewers, or potential viewers, of the Service. The hardship that would be imposed on the Applicant would therefore not be justifiable in these circumstances having regard to both cost and the operational difficulties inherent in captioning key programs.

For further detail please refer to ‘Preliminary Statement of Reasons for Application # 52’ document.

To view the draft exemption order please refer to ‘Draft Order for Application #52’ document.

All submissions received up to and including 8 March 2013, will be considered in making the ACMA’s final assessment. Submissions received after that date will not be considered.

Publication of submissions

In general, the ACMA publishes all submissions it receives. The ACMA prefers to receive submissions that are not claimed to be confidential. However, the ACMA accepts that a submitter may sometimes wish to provide information in confidence. In these circumstances, submitters are asked to identify the material over which confidentiality is claimed and provide a written explanation for the claim.

The ACMA will consider each confidentiality claim on a case-by-case basis. If the ACMA accepts a claim, it will not publish the confidential information unless authorised or required by law to do so.

Please note that the ACMA does not acknowledge receipt of submissions.

Effective consultation

The ACMA is working to enhance the effectiveness of its stakeholder consultation processes, which are an important source of evidence for its regulatory development activities. To assist stakeholders in formulating submissions to its formal, written consultation processes, it has developed a guide called Effective consultation: A guide to making a submission. This guide provides information about the ACMA’s formal, written, public consultation processes and practical guidance on how to make a submission.

Please forward submissions quoting Application Reference 52 to

Email:

Post:
Submissions to Order Applications
Content Monitoring and Review Section
PO Box Q500
QVB NSW 1230

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