Government releases draft changes to caption legislation

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Wednesday, 2 May 2012 13:06pm

Yesterday the Federal Government released a draft bill to amend the Broadcasting Services Act to include caption quotas and caption quality requirements. These are changes that deafness organisations and advocates have long been calling for.

For the first time, subscription television caption quotas will be included, and the regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, will be equipped to introduce properly defined quality standards. Free-to-air television channels will also have additional captioning quotas.

The bill will implement some of the key recommendations from the Media Access Review final report that examined ways to improve access to electronic media for people with a hearing and or vision impairment.

These changes will be incorporated into the section of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 which deals with captioning, and will include annual compliance reporting and changes to the current license conditions for commercial and subscription television broadcasters and narrowcasters.

The bill (entitled Exposure draft - Broadcasting Services Amendment (Improve Access to Television Services) Bill 2012)will be open for public comment until Monday 7 May 2012.


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