Television captioning
The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 provides for the captioning of free-to-air television programs. In addition, under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, disability discrimination is unlawful and the Act aims to promote equal opportunity and access for people with disabilities. For more information about the regulatory framework, see the television captioning background page.
Captioning is the presentation of the audio component of audio-visual content as text on screen. It is generally intended to assist viewers with a hearing impairment.
Captions include descriptions of sounds, laughter and music and are usually situated on screen to minimise interference with the picture. They are timed to appear with speech and are usually coloured and positioned to indicate who is speaking. Where speaker identification is not relevant, captions are usually in the form of white writing on a black backdrop.
Two types of captioning are generally used—closed and open. In relation to television captioning, closed captions are encoded into the television signal as teletext data, for example. Closed captions are then decoded and viewed with a decoder or teletext-capable television or capable digital set-top box. Open captions are overlayed or burnt onto the original print recording of a program and do not require a decoder.
In December 2010, the department completed an investigation into access to electronic media for the hearing and vision-impaired that involved significant public consultation. For more information, please see the media access review page.
Exposure draft - Broadcasting Services Amendment (Improved Access to Television Services) Bill 2012
The government has released an exposure draft of the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Improved Access to Television Services) Bill 2012.
The Bill will incrementally increase captioning requirements on free-to-air and subscription television, require the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to develop captioning standards, and require emergency warnings to be transmitted in the form of text and speech and captioned where reasonably practicable.
Exposure draft—Broadcasting Services Amendment (Improved Access to Television Services) Bill 2012 (PDF, 123.9 KB)
Exposure draft—Broadcasting Services Amendment (Improved Access to Television Services) Bill 2012 (DOC, 269.5 KB)
The Bill implements the government's response to key recommendations from the Media Access Review final report, which was developed after extensive stakeholder consultation.
Please email comments to mediaaccessreview@dbcde.gov.au with comments by close of business on Monday 7 May 2012.
Captioning amendments
The Bill will create a new part in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 which deals with captioning. The key components of this new part include:
- new captioning obligations and targets for commercial television broadcasters and national television broadcasters
- captioning obligations and targets for subscription television broadcasters and narrowcasters
- enabling the ACMA to develop captioning standards
- requiring broadcasters who are requested by an emergency service agency to broadcast emergency warnings to transmit those warnings in the form of text and speech, and to caption those warnings where reasonably practicable
- introducing new annual compliance reporting and record keeping requirements to support new captioning obligations
- extending the current licence condition for commercial television broadcasters to include the new captioning measures and introducing a new licence condition on subscription television broadcasters and narrowcasters.
