Subscription Television
Subscription television does not currently fall within the provisions of the Broadcasting Services Act. Regardless, a combination of an Australian Human Rights Commission exemption and an internal code of practice have lead to a rollout of captioning.
Australian Human Rights Commission Exemption
The Disability Discrimination Act is the only legislation governing subscription television in Australia. However the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA) have been granted an exemption to the Act. As part of the exemption ASTRA committed to enabling 20 channels for captioning in 2004 and a further 20 channels from October 2006. Each channel was required to caption 5% of their programming in the first year and to increase this by an additional 5% each year thereafter. By 2009 the first 20 channels will be required to caption 25% of their programming and the second 20 channels 15%.
Information on the current exemption can be accessed here.
The Commission's exemption expired in June 2009. ASTRA are currently in the process of negotiating a new exemption.
Draft Proposal
ASTRA’s draft proposal, released in August 2008, undertakes to continue the rollout plan, increasing caption quotas by 5% each year. This would mean that the first 20 stations would be required to caption 50% of their programs by 2014 and the second twenty stations would caption 40% of their program schedule. However ASTRA has also suggested that this model would not meet the needs of all its stakeholders and have proposed that channels would be able to choose to have their targets set as a percentage of potential viewing. If channels selected this option their quota would be 10% higher than the minimum standard. The reference to potential viewing would encourage channels to broadcast captions on prime time and other popular programs however it would likely reduce the hours of actual programming captioned. .The complete details of the draft proposal can be accessed here.
Code of Practice
The Subscription Broadcast Television Code of Practice states that ASTRA “take very seriously their obligations and responsibilities’ in regard to access. Regardless they pledge only to follow the requirements of the Australian Human Rights Commission's roll out plan.
The code imposes two, additional obligations. Firstly, ASTRA will ensure that captioned programs are indicated as such in program guides and secondly that when they extend their closed captioning services they will consult with relevant organisations representing deaf and hearing impaired consumers. In preparation for the new Australian Human Rights Commission exemption, ASTRA consulted with Media Access Australia, Deafness Forum and Deaf Australia.
The complete code of practice can be accessed here.
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