ACMA to spot check networks over poor captioning
Media watchdog says there are too many complaints about the quality of captioning, with networks outsourcing to third party operators.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Media watchdog the Australian Communications and Media Authority is stepping up its monitoring of closed captions, following recent viewer complaints.
The Australian reports ACMA has announced plans to do spot audits of TV broadcasts to check for the accuracy of closed captions, after years of complaints from deaf and hearing impaired viewers.
ACMA chairwoman Nerida O’Loughlin said the regulator had long received complaints about the quality of captioning, which many networks outsource to third party operators.
Networks are bound by the statutory requirement to ensure the accuracy of those captions, she said. They could face enforcement action if they fail to lift the quality of the captioning, Ms O’Loughlin said.
Last October ACMA uncovered problems with the positioning of the captions against displayed graphics made them difficult to read in one segment, whilst others were out of sync with the visual displays, not displayed for a sufficient length of time or did not clearly identify different speakers.
Recent breaches over closed captioning include Seven, WIN TV, 10 and Fetch TV.
6 Responses
It’s about time something was done about the appalling mess made of the captions – if it isn’t white words against white backgrounds, it’s the dreadful use of totally incorrect wording, and no clarification as to what is being said by which characters! It’s a shambles!
FYI, hearing impaired is an outdated term. The correct term is hard of hearing. The word impaired has a negative connotation.
Thanks will do some research. I’ve always sought to be inclusive but accept that language evolves.
The term “hearing impaired viewers” is the definition used in the “Broadcasting Services (Television Captioning) Standard 2013 Broadcasting Services Act”.
“which many networks outsource to third party operators” … there’s really no such thing as a “television station” in Oz today with pretty-much everything except sales and news “outsourced” !!!
Nothing has changed. On ABC News channel today the finance figures were covered by the hideous black caption bar. They were not read, the caption was obscured, so who knows what was what. The CC box could have easily been lowered on the screen to avoid this as there was plenty of room but it wasn’t. Can’t see how this change will make any difference.