Nine appoints auditor for caption services
Nine will appoint an independent auditor to oversee captioning services after ACMA found it had failed to meet requirements.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Channel Nine will appoint an independent auditor to oversee captioning services after the Australian Communications and Media Authority found it had failed to meet captioning requirements.
Since 2005, TCN Sydney and NBN Newcastle have breached the captioning requirements on several occasions. NBN failed to provide a captioning service for NBN Evening News for four broadcasts between 24 June 2010 and 28 July 2010 and TCN for a segment of A Current Affair on 28 July 2010.
Under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 it is a condition that commercial television licensees provide a captioning service for all news and current affairs programs on their primary channel.
As a result Nine has now agreed to put in place an independent audit system to prevent future breaches. It is the first time an investigation by ACMA has received a voluntary undertaking for a captions-related breach.
“Given Nine’s patchy track record in providing this essential service, the ACMA considers that the introduction of outside auditors reflects an appropriate measure of independence and oversight,” said ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman.
“We welcome Nine’s initiative in resolving this matter, however, the ACMA will naturally continue to closely monitor any complaints received about caption delivery in the broadcasting sector.”
The audit for NBN and TCN will see six monthly audits over a period of two years. It began these on 14th March.
Nine recently messed its captioning for Underbelly when an edited version in Sydney carried the same captions as interstate editions, potentially placing it as risk of contempt of court.
ACMA says it is working with industry, consumers and government in the development of indicators for the assessment of caption quality.
Media Watch recently raised the issue of poor captioning on several networks, particularly in relation to hearing-impaired viewers.
Share
- Tagged with A Current Affair, Media Watch, NBN Evening News, Underbelly
9 Responses
…but it was Seven whose captions proclaimed that northern Japan had been hit by a salami. 😮
very informative blog!!!!
My Best Friend’s Wedding would have required captions as it had previously been shown on Nine in primetime with captions. Gem did have an on screen apology that captions were unavailable due to technical reasons, but still a breach of the regulations.
Here we are in 2011 and you would think technology would play a bigger part in making captions automatic but no. Watching Media Watch on the topic and the automatic onces just don’t work, the most effective way is to have some one still listening to it and typing them up.
I think the service should be extended to the digital channels, at least for prime-time shows.
Captioning should just about be on most programs on both primary and secondary channels, as well as pay TV. There really isn’t any excuse to not provide captions for international programs where captions are readily available.
Also, why is news captioning so much worse than it used to be? Why can’t they just use whatever is on the teleprompter?
Hopefully the auditor picked up the absence of captions during My Best Friend’s Wedding last weekend on Gem.
As the story indicates it’s only primary channels that require captions (and only in primetime).
How exactly will agreeing “to put in place an independent audit system to prevent future breaches”? An audit will catch the problem, but not necessarily prevent it from happening.
At my gym, they have channel 9 on spread across a panel of four screens. It has closed captioning on, but it is terrible. There are so many spelling and word errors, and often more so on saturday mornings the captions freeze and hang around for hours. I remember last year seeing Kerri-Anne saying goodbye and make sure we watch the Logies, that caption froze on screen for the full hour I was there.