Part Three - Current Levels of Captioning and Audio Description
Free-to-air television
The current level of captioning on free-to-air television in Australia is estimated to be more than 70 per cent of programming between 6am and midnight. Some representatives of people with a hearing impairment have indicated that this should be increased to 100 per cent captioning.
Television captions are broadcast as teletext data encoded into the television signal. For digital broadcasting, the analogue television signal and the encoded teletext caption data is converted into a MPEG file. This preserves the caption data, though the position of captions on screen may differ to the analogue transmission.
Captions may be prepared in advance of broadcast, known as offline captions, or provided at the time of broadcast, known as live or online captions.
Offline captions are manually incorporated into programs using the timecodes in the master recording of programs, which is usually in a tape or print form.
These timecodes indicate when captions should appear and disappear from screen. It is estimated to take up to eight hours to fully caption a 30 minute program.
Most overseas programs shown in Australia are provided with captions from their originating market. The timecodes of the source material may be modified to accommodate Australian conditions, such as timing for commercial breaks, though the original text is generally retained.
Online captions are generally used for live broadcasts, such as news, sport and some special event programming. Where time permits, online captions are prepared using the tapes and scripts of items that are to be included in a program and then applied manually as the program is broadcast. Where time does not permit pre-preparation, captions are provided manually at the time of broadcast. Pre-prepared captions appear as blocks of text, whereas manually applied captions appear one word at a time and are usually verbatim.
The quality of live captions depends on a number of factors, including the experience and skill of those manually applying the captions, the quality of their equipment, and the amount of time they have had to prepare for the program. There is generally a limited delay between the audio transmission and the transmission of captions which may be further affected by the quality of the audio feed and other technical matters.
In addition, a method of providing online captions using speech recognition technology is being developed. This method converts spoken dialogue into captions for automatic broadcast. Speech recognition captioning is being used for a variety of programming in Australia, including news and some sports programming.
Programs broadcast nationally, regardless of the method of captioning, are generally produced at a central point before being distributed to regional stations where local advertising is incorporated.
There is no regularly scheduled audio description on free-to-air television in Australia.
Television commercials
With regard to television commercials, there are no legislative requirements for television commercials to be captioned or audio described. However, the Australian Association of National Advertisers recommends responsible advertisers caption their commercials. Figures from MAA indicate that around a third of all television commercials are captioned.
| Broadcaster | Per cent of commercials with captions |
|---|---|
| Seven | 38 |
| Nine | 26 |
| Ten | 48 |
| SBS | 38 |
| Total | 37 |
Source: Media Access Australia.
Subscription television
Approximately 40 subscription television channels provide captioned programs. Although there is no specific legislative requirement for subscription television providers, such as Foxtel and Austar, to provide captioned programming, the industry has negotiated an agreement with HREOC to provide captioning across an increasing number of channels (see further below).
There is no regularly scheduled audio description on subscription television in Australia.
Cinemas
Ten cinemas in Australia provide films with captions: one cinema in each of the eight capital cities and in Newcastle and Maroochydore. Captioning in Australian cinemas is the result of an agreement between the HREOC and the cinema industry that was negotiated in 2001 after HREOC received a complaint from a deaf person about the absence of accessible films in their local cinema. Representatives of people with a hearing impairment have stated they are seeking captioning in a further 70 cinemas across Australia which they believe would be consistent with the per capita provision in some overseas markets.
MAA reports that during August-October 2007, an average of 76 people per week attended captioned screenings at the ten cinemas offering captioned films. In the previous three months (JuneAugust) the average was 78 people. From October 2005 to October 2007, the average was 53 people, with an average of 12 days between the captioned release of each title and the general release. From October 2005 to the end of October 2007, the average difference between the general release and the captioned release was 16 days.
Open captioned film prints are prints of films with captions overlayed or burnt into them and were used in Australia until 2005. This form of captioning in cinemas is no longer used in Australia as it requires a special print to be made and distributed to cinemas. Today, the ten cinemas in Australia that offer films with captions use the DTS Cinema Subtitling System, which is also used in the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand and parts of Europe.
The DTS system projects captions onto the screen rather than overlayed onto a print of a film. This enables a cinema to use a standard release print for captioned screenings. The system consists of a hard drive/processor installed in the projection room of a cinema and a data projector for displaying captions on screen. Captioning information is provided on CD-ROMs and synchronised with the timecodes on a film in the same way that digital soundtracks are linked to a film. DTS captions are open and visible to the entire audience without the need for patrons to use any special equipment or be seated in particular locations in a venue.
Dolby produces a similar access system to the DTS system. The Dolby ScreenTalk system superimposes subtitles over the projected image using a video projector or via an alternative subtitling device. Special prints are not required as captioning information is provided by the film producer as a computer file on CD-ROM which is then operated by cinema staff.
Another form of access is known as Rear Window captioning technology, which is understood to have been developed by the Boston public broadcaster WGBH. Rear window captioning technology displays captions on the rear wall of a cinema theatre with patrons using portable reflectors at their seats to view the captions. Only those patrons wishing to view the captions through the use of the reflector can see them. Rear window captioning has been deployed in the USA and Canada.
Audio description in cinema is provided via a sound system that uses an FM or infrared transmitter to provide audio to individual headphones or personal listening devices, comparable to inducted hearing loops. Audio description files can be provided via CD-ROM for use with DTS and Dolby systems, as well as the DVS Theatrical system from WGBH. WGBH provides its rear window captioning technology and DVS Theatrical audio description technology collectively under the MoPix brand.
Australian cinemas do not currently provide audio description on a regular basis. However, some film festivals, such as the 2007 Sydney Film Festival, have screened films with audio description. MAA estimates that of the films shown with captions since October 2006, approximately 67 per cent of them have had an audio description file provided as part of the access disc.
Australian films
The Film Finance Corporation is the Australian Governments principal agency for funding the production of film and television in Australia. It is a wholly owned government company. All Australian film and television producers/production companies can apply to the FFC for funding. To be eligible, projects must meet the criteria set out in the FFCs Investment Guidelines, which are the major tool for communicating FFC policies and are revised each year in consultation with the industry.
On 8 June 2007, the FFC announced that all feature films it finances will have captioning for both cinema and DVD from 1 July 2007. Under the revised FFC Investment Guidelines, producers who seek FFC funding will be required to caption all feature films for cinema and DVD release. The FFC has agreed to pay the cost of captioning each film. Captioning had previously only been available in Australia for films imported from overseas.
On 1 July 2008, the FFC will be merged into Screen Australia along with the Australian Film Commission and Film Australia Ltd. Continuation of the FFCs policy on captioning will be a matter for the Board and CEO of Screen Australia to consider.
DVDs
Access features on DVDs, such as captions and audio description, are provided as language options from the DVDs main menu and can be viewed with standard DVD players.
According to figures from the Australian Film Commission report, Get the Picture, of the top 25 DVDs sold in the years 2003-2006, an average of 93 per cent of titles had captions and six per cent were audio described. Access to the top-selling childrens DVDs in 2006 was significantly less, with eight of the ten top sellers either captioned or subtitled, but none were audio described.
MAA estimates that 60 per cent of retail and rental new release mainstream entertainment DVDs are captioned and three per cent are audio described, and approximately 83 per cent of television series released on DVD are captioned.
Most audio described DVD titles are imported, however Red Bee Media Australia (formerly the Australian Caption Centre) provides audio description for some titles released in Australia by Roadshow Entertainment.
| Year | Number of titles (approx) |
|---|---|
| 2002 | 6 |
| 2003 | 6 |
| 2004 | 17 |
| 2005 | 31 |
| 2006 | 14 |
| 2007 | 19 |
Source: Media Access Australia
HREOC Roundtable on DVD Access
The provision of captioning and audio description on DVDs was the subject of a HREOC Roundtable during 2007. Representatives from the Australian Visual Software Distributors Association (ASVDA), disability community organisations and government departments met in February and September 2007, and a working group of Roundtable members met separately in April and June 2007. A range of issues were considered, including DVD labelling, the business case for access features and a draft industry access framework.
As a result of the Roundtable, AVSDA developed the DVD Accessibility Framework for its member distributors. The Framework sets out a standardised approach to DVD labelling which includes the accurate labelling of DVDs with access features where they are available. It also sets out a best endeavours commitment to providing access features whenever available, as well as complaints handling arrangements for consumers. AVSDA members adopted standardised labelling of DVDs in October 2007.
Audio-visual content on the Internet
There is no legislative requirement in relation to the captioning or audio describing of audio-visual content on the internet. This includes television programs subsequently distributed via the internet after being broadcast on television. While there may be an expectation that programs that are provided with access features when broadcast on television, would also be provided with access features when made available online, this is not currently required.
The limited availability of captioning and audio description access features for online audio-visual content is understood to be due to a range of technical considerations related to online media and text formats, differences in the software for online audio-visual players, the editing of material originally distributed with access features, and a lack of clear online caption production and delivery standards and requirements.
While each of the multi-media players that are available, which include Windows Media Player, Quicktime, RealPlayer and Flash Player are understood to be capable of supporting access features, they all require access informationi.e. captions and/or audio descriptionto be in different file formats.
There have been some Internet-related developments overseas, which are outlined in Part IV of this paper.
What is the estimated cost of captioning and audio description?
According to figures from the Australian Caption Centre quoted in the Access Economics report Listen Hear! The economic impact and cost of hearing loss in Australia, the estimated total annual cost of providing captioning in accordance with the requirements of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and the relevant HREOC arrangements in 2005 was approximately $18 million.
While more recent estimates of the costs of providing captioning and audio description are not currently available, it is expected that costs will have increased since 2005 as the level of captioning provided has increased. The cost of providing captioning and audio description on various media is a key issue on which comments are sought.
| Service | Cost (Millions) |
|---|---|
| Captions for free-to-air TV | $14.0 |
| Captions for pay TV | $1.0 |
| Captions for video/DVD | $1.5 |
| Captions for television commercials | $1.0 |
| Captions for cinema | $0.5 |
| Total | $18.0 |
Source: Listen Hear! The economic impact and cost of hearing loss in Australia, Access Economics, February 2006.
