0/5

Captions missed by Seven shows

Technical fails impacts broadcasts of My Kitchen Rules, Instant Hotel and an AFL match.

Technical fails at Seven meant closed captions were missing during broadcasts of My Kitchen Rules, Instant Hotel and an AFL match.

Media watchdog the the Australian Communications and Media Authority received complaints that three Seven broadcasts lacked full captions for deaf and hearing impaired viewers.

It found Seven failed to provide captions in accordance with the Broadcasting Services Act, but concluded the problems could not have been foreseen.

My Kitchen Rules and Instant Hotel episodes aired on 4 March 2019.

Seven indicated there were hardware issues that remain undiagnosed, but there was no evidence to suggest that other factors, such as human error, played a role.

Lack of captions for a Collingwood vs Geelong match broadcast on March 22 2019 were attributed to software incompatibility.

On both occasions ACMA accepted that the captioning outages could not have been reasonably foreseen.

Seven also told ACMA its captioning system would be completely replaced, via the outsourcing of the Playout function, in June 2019.

“Seven appreciates the importance of the captioning service that we provide to deaf and hearing impaired viewers and takes its captioning obligations very seriously,” Seven said in its response to ACMA.

Under the BSA each commercial television broadcasting broadcaster, 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 viewing hours.

Leave a Reply