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TEN fails to add captions to Jamie Oliver show

ACMA rules TEN in breach of the Broadcasting Services Act for failing to provide captions to Jamie’s Thirty Minute Meals.

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The media watchdog has ruled TEN in breach of the Broadcasting Services Act for failing to provide captions to an episode of Jamie’s Thirty Minute Meals.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority upheld a complaint that the episode on 3 September 2011 did not carry captions.

Captioning is required for programs broadcast between 6-10:30pm on Primary channels.

TEN said, “Unfortunately, a captioning service was not scheduled to accompany the program. We apologise for this error and regret any inconvenience experienced by caption users.

“Network TEN takes its captioning responsibilities seriously. We are implementing a technical process improvement to clearly alert staff if a captioning service has not been scheduled in such circumstances. Relevant employees have also been reminded of Network TEN’s captioning obligations.”

19 Responses

  1. Just to add to my last comment, Ten have started adding the up-to-the-minute timings on the previous late afternoon (rather than on the morning of that day) since late last week.

  3. A Lurker, but in the instance you have mentioned they had arranged for closed captioning to accompany the broadcast but for some reason they were having difficulties in providing them for that broadcast.

    In this case as well as the broadcast a week later they had not arranged to get the programs captioned in the first place (the episodes were not captioned on their original airing as it was outside primetime).

  4. @ JamesJ.
    Mostly true, except that you will find that overseas program suppliers are under no obligation to supply closed captions, likewise local program suppliers. It is up to whoever purchases these programs to buy closed captions as an added extra or arrange for captions to be added at the broadcast stage. And on top of this, UK captions are on a different teletext page (888) to Australian page 801 captions, thus meaning techincal conversion is either done at the supply end and or captions are added or re-encoded here in Australia at the broadcasters expense. And as for US programs which used CC captioning, special converters are required to transform US CC data to Australian teletext data. And on top of that, most US programs which are now supplied in HD do not carry any caption data on the master tapes yet from the US. And on top of this, any new programming on multi-channels not previously aired on the main channel under current arrangements do not require captions. Thus new eps of Simpsons whcih air first on Eleven are not legally required to carry captions. But if the same episode were to be later repeated on the main TEN channel, and if in primetime, then it would need to be captioned, and if repeated on Eleven again after being aired on TEN, it would then require captions on any further repeats. Capition rules are very complex already, instead it is high time all programming was captioned 24/7 like the UK. This includes community TV as well.

  6. What if Ten simply told the audience that captioning wasn’t available?

    I remember watching a Simpsons episode a few years back on Ten, towards the end there was a notice on the bottom of the screen stating “Captioning not available”.

  7. The Simpsons I’m pretty sure come supplied with closed caption subtitles… are they not shown on Eleven?

    In fact I think most US series come with closed captioning already embedded, so you’d think they’d just get shown accordingly here.

  8. I mean it’s TENs fault for not following their obligations, but seriously, all programmes that they purchase these days should come with them. I never understood why programmes don’t just come packaged with them; programmes like Supernatural or The Simpsons on ELEVEN surely would have subtitles available.

  9. Maybe David, we could have a list of suitable punishments that the ACMA could dish out. OS far, it seems like, slap on hand, promise to read guidelines again,
    slap on hand with wet fish, say you are sorry in funny voice and slap on hand with feather,
    Be nice to know, that ACMA had the guts and ability to actually punish the networks.

  10. I don’t understand this issue. This is a non-starter for me.

    Ten should only be responsible for not broadcasting the subtitles. Why on earth in today’s day-and-age are the production companies not providing them To the TV stations — already proofread and edited?

    This issue should never arise. But it keeps cropping up.

  11. @ Moanique

    I hope you were joking? Seriously, surely nobody is that heartless that they couldn’t give the slightest toss about how less abled people fare?

    As for the ACMA, they’re a toothless tiger. Ten hasn’t been sending out EPG ‘minute accuracy’ updates until *very* late on the actual day of broadcast for nearly 6 months now (all others do it late the day before broadcast, as they are supposed to). When the issue was raised with the ACMA, they contacted Ten, who more or less told them to go jump in the lake.

  13. How trivial that somebody actually complained there were no captions for a cooking show, some people probably look for things to complain about

  14. Mikeys,

    i take great offense with your comments. It’s obvious you are not deaf.

    I am a deaf viewer and it frustrates me that all channels does not put much effort to make sure no one misses out. But tiem and again they did. Shows liek So you think you can dance, Smallville, etc were originally captioned but whent hey moved to digitial none were contained because it was outside teh regulations thus allowing them to get away with it.

    So thanks to websites like this helps me to see work is being slowly progressed.

  19. So, it took ACMA two and a half months to rule that Ten didn’t put captions on a show. They then release a statement saying they didn’t. And that’s the end of the whole thing… Yet again ACMA proves how useless they ate…

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