Draft Captioning Quality Standard, Record Keeping & Annual Compliance Form

Transcription

1 [Type text] Australian Broadcasting Corporation Submission to Australian Communications and Media Authority Draft Captioning Quality Standard, Record Keeping & Annual Compliance Form January 2013

2 Submission to the ACMA on the Draft Captioning Quality Standard, Record Keeping & Annual Compliance Form January 2013 Introduction The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) appreciates opportunity to comment on the draft Captioning Quality Standard ( the Draft Standard ), proposed approach to recordkeeping and draft annual compliance forms. As the ABC has previously noted, there are several aspects to the Australian Communications and Media Authority s (ACMA) approach in implementing the Broadcasting Services Act (Improved Access to Television Services) Amendment Act 2012 (the Amendment Act ) that are cause for concern to the ABC. Under the approach the ACMA has proposed and the new Draft Standard, the ABC will likely encounter significant difficulties complying fully with the new obligations and quotas, with no correlating benefit to caption users. The ABC submits that there are adjustments the ACMA can make to the Draft Standard and its approach to measuring compliance, particularly with regard to quality measurement and the differentiation between live and pre-captioned content. However, other significant issues, such as assessing compliance across coverage areas in instances of a specific captioning outage in one part of that licence area, may require legislative amendment. It is important that the ACMA engage with industry and consumers on these issues in order to determine the most effective approach to addressing these issues. ABC s captioning service The ABC has a long-held policy of promoting access to its services and content. Universal access is a central tenet of public broadcasting and the ABC recognises the importance of seeking to provide all Australians with access to content that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. 2

3 In demonstrating this commitment, in the last calendar year, the ABC provided a captioning service on 97% of its programs broadcast in primetime (6pm to 12midnight) on ABC1 and 90% of programs broadcast across the day. On ABC2 in primetime, 99% of programs were captioned and 95% across the day. On ABC3, 92% of programs were captioned and 69% of content on ABCNews24 was captioned. Programs broadcast in prime time on ABC 1 and 2 with captions are also available with captions on the ABC s iview online catch-up service. The ABC supports the ACMA s proposition that the aim of a captioning service is to provide a meaningful service to deaf and hearing-impaired viewers. The ABC also supports the ACMA s broad approach to quality assessment through testing the cumulative impact of a number of factors. However, the ABC notes that the provision of captioning services should be assessed with regard to technical feasibility, balanced with available resources and funding. The ABC considers that there are aspects of the ACMA s Draft Standard which impose an onerous obligation on the ABC without meaningfully improving the television viewing experience for people who are deaf or have a hearing impairment. Draft Captioning Standard The ACMA s Draft Standard, as provided to the ABC on 5 December 2012, contains a number of provisions that the ABC believes warrant review as their intent is unclear they appear unduly onerous without in fact furthering a meaningful captioning experience for deaf and hearing-impaired members of the community. The ABC s concerns are compounded by the escalating amount of captions required under the Amendment Act to 100% of programs broadcast between 6am and midnight in the 2014/15 financial year. Live captioning The ABC s principle concern with the Draft Captioning Standard is the lack of distinction between pre-prepared and live captioning of television programs. There is a fundamental difference in creating pre-prepared captions and live captions and this difference should be reflected in any quality standard. In the Co-regulatory Captioning Committee process this difference was recognised and reflected in the Meta-Principles which the ACMA has agreed to apply on an interim basis to consumer complaints. The ABC submits that recognising the differences between pre-prepared and live captions is fundamental to drafting a workable and fair compliance framework. Live captions are an essential part of providing a captioning service. Not only in the case of a live broadcast but when programs are delivered late and there is no alternative other than to use live captioning. 3

4 To this end, it would be useful to include the words contained in the current Meta- Principles used by the ACMA that make provision for live captioning under Timing and Editing: vii. during live closed captioning: a) captions coincide as closely as possible with the relevant soundtrack, so that the relationship between the visuals and the sound is preserved for the viewer; b) the priority is always to transcribe as much of the spoken content of the program as possible is transcribed. Furthermore, in order to redress this concern, the ABC requests that the following changes be made to the Draft Standard in order to recognise this difference: The requirements in clause 7(b)(ii) that caption lines should end at natural linguistic breaks and reflect the natural flow and punctuation of a sentence is unrealistic for live captioning. This is because a stenographer is used in providing live captions and the way in which the words are translated into the stenographic machine does not allow the person operating the machine to moderate the timing or the placement of those words. A strict reading of this clause would indicate that most live captions, as they are currently provided, are not readable. This is not the case. Under clause 9(b)(i) where the requirement for the captions to clearly identify and distinguish individual speakers, clearly should be deleted as it is sufficient to identify the speakers and does not affect the overall assessment of comprehensibility. Under clause 9(b)(ii) where the requirement that captions are displayed for a sufficient length of time to allow the viewer to simultaneously read them and follow the action of the program, the word simultaneously should be removed as it is a subjective determination as to whether a person is able to simultaneously read and follow the action of television program. The above clause 9(b)(ii) also conflicts with the requirements set out in clause 9(b)(vii) which indicates the ACMA has in mind a measurement for how long a caption over-runs a shot or scene change. The ABC recommends removing clause 9(b)(vii) from the Draft Standard. For similar reasons, the ABC suggests removing clause 9(b)(vii) which again indicates that the ACMA will measure the timing of how long a caption appears or disappears with the shot or scene change. Where the dialogue is moving at swift pace (for instance, in a live news bulletin or a dialogue heavy drama such as The Hour) this factor has the potential to unnecessarily limit the information contained in the captions for deaf and people with a hearing impairment. 4

5 Quality of Captioning services The ABC supports the ACMA s cumulative approach in assessing the quality of captions as outlined in the Draft Standard. However, the ABC notes that some requirements outlined in the Draft Standard are mutually exclusive and incompatible. For example, clause 7(b)(v) which requires captions be no more than three lines in length and clause 9(b)(ii) which assesses whether the captions have been displayed for a sufficient amount of time, could at times be in conflict. To avoid regulatory uncertainty, the ABC submits the ACMA should make plain that not all factors listed in the final Captioning Quality Standard be present in the captions provided in a program. Readability The ABC agrees that when providing a captioning service, broadcasters must use captions that are readable. The ABC seeks clarification on the interpretation of the word legible in clause 7(b)(i), in particular clarification of the standard the ACMA intends to use for determining legibility and ensuring that the test for legibility should reflect reasonable viewer expectations. Accuracy The ABC submits that the test for determining the accuracy of captions provided in the Draft Standard is unrealistic and codifies captioning practice that is not currently in place. Specifically, the requirements contained in clauses 8(b)(v) and 8(b)(vi) require the captions to reflect the manner and tone of voice of the speakers in the television program and require that sound effects and music are captioned in a way that accurately describes the name, mood, tone, atmosphere and action of the sound effect or music, are not currently applied in captioning service in Australia. This requirement, combined with the obligations contained in the readability and comprehensibility provisions of the Draft Standard, creates an unrealistic and onerous obligation on the ABC in providing its captioning service. This is for no apparent reason as it does not necessarily enhance the viewing experience for the deaf or hearing-impaired person. The ABC recommends these two clauses be removed from the Draft Standard. Additionally, the ABC considers that clause 8(b)(iv) relating to the readability of captions in relation to children s programming, could be clarified by revising it to read: the extent to which the captions are in the context of the intended audience. The ABC requests the ACMA make this change to the Draft Standard. Comprehensibility The ABC submits that the terms of clearly and simultaneously be removed from Clause 9(b)(i) and (ii) respectively, as it considers these subjective descriptors do not further the objective of a meaningful experience to a viewer watching closed captions. 5

6 The ABC seeks clarification as to whether homophones are included in the ACMA s assessment of comprehensibility in clause 9(a). The ABC considers that homophones do not usually have an impact on comprehensibility. This is relevant in a captioning context as the use of a stenographic machine for live captioning relies on phonetics. Coverage areas The ABC appreciates the ACMA s consideration to date of its concerns in relation to measuring compliance with the captioning requirements to national coverage areas and for allowing the ABC to report on its captioning compliance on a state and territory basis. The ABC regards the way that the Amendment Act measures compliance means that one outage of captions on one transmitter may mean that, in terms of compliance reporting, the entire coverage area will not be compliant with the captioning requirements. It would appear unfair and a disincentive to the ABC to be found in breach for a coverage area due to a captioning outage at one of the ABC s 367 different sites 1, when a captioning service has been delivered to most of that coverage area. If this interpretation is correct, it is the ABC s view that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for it to meet the captioning target of 95% and then 100% in the next two consecutive financial years. As an alternative, the ABC suggests that the calculation for compliance with the captioning target under section 130AZ of the Amendment Act needs to take into account circumstances where there is an outage on one transmitter causing non-delivery of captions or a failure to meet the final Quality Standard, so that this is not counted against the national broadcaster s overall captioning target quota for the entire coverage in that State. The ABC submits this should be the interpretation of the Amendment Act. Record-keeping The ABC requests clarification on two issues related to the ACMA s approach to record keeping, as set out below. Copies of programs The ABC is able to provide the ACMA with copies of programs with captions that are transmitted from its Sydney headquarters and through its distributor, MediaHub. However, the ABC is not in a position to provide footage of programs transmitted with captions from other transmitters. 1 Which will be expanded to over 400 sites by the end of 2013 to facilitate the full switch over to digital broadcasting. 6

7 The ABC retains copies of the programs in the broadcast mix as it is transmitted. It does not keep copies of what is transmitted from each of its 367 transmission sites. Capturing output from every site would impose an unreasonable and overly onerous compliance burden, in terms of resources and substantial costs. Retention of copies of programs The ABC is currently able to retain online copies of programs broadcast with captions for a maximum of 90 days after the original broadcast of the program. Should the ABC need to retain copies for longer periods, copies will be made on other media. The ABC seeks confirmation of the circumstances in which the ACMA will request a copy of its programs in relation to a captioning complaint. In its presentation to industry on 4 December 2012, the ACMA outlined that copies of broadcasts that are subject to a captioning complaint are required to be retained for 90 days after the annual report to the ACMA. This would seem to indicate that, in some circumstances, copies must be retained for a maximum of 18 months. In discussions during industry consultation, ACMA indicated it would provide industry with more information regarding program retention periods. It would appear unnecessary for broadcasters to retain copies of programs already provided to ACMA, where a broadcaster has accepted there has been a breach or where the matter has been closed. Timing of audits The Amendment Act gives the ACMA the authority to conduct audits of the ABC s captioning service. The ABC requests the ACMA consider conducting audits on rolling basis and not yearly or after the yearly returns are submitted. Annual audits will require the ABC to retain copies of its broadcasts for lengthy periods. As discussed in the information session conducted by the ACMA in December 2012, the purpose of the audits is to determine whether there is a systemic problem with a caption service. The ABC submits that conducting audits throughout the financial year or at a time of the ACMA s choosing will deliver the same results and in a more timely fashion. Annual Compliance Form The ABC understands the ACMA intends for the draft Annual Compliance Report Form ( CAP05 ) to apply retrospectively for this 2012/13 financial year. The ABC understands the ACMA intends to monitor the broadcaster obligations under the Amendment Act. However, as a result of retroactively applying CAP05, the ABC may not have access to all of the required information for 2012/13, in particular the full list of unforseen technical problems. 7

8 The ABC is able to supply the ACMA with a list of programs and times that the ABC experienced difficulties in delivering a captioning service. This can be presented to the ACMA in the current format the ABC uses to collect this data. Replicating this data through completing the ACMA form would need to be conducted manually and would be difficult and resource intensive when the effect of providing these details is the same. The ABC submits the request for information requested in CAP05 under (a)(ii) is not necessary to demonstrate the ABC s compliance with the Amendment Act. According to section 130ZR(1) of the Amendment Act, the ABC is required to provide the ACMA with a total percentage of programs broadcast with captions within the designated viewing hours. The proposed captioning form requires an unnecessary calculation that lists the total number of hours of programs broadcast then deducts the total number of programs broadcast with captions to then arrive at a percentage figure. The ABC recommends that, rather than performing an unnecessary calculation, the ABC annually submit to the ACMA the percentage of programs it broadcast with captions in the designated viewing hours, as the Amendment Act requires. Conclusion The ABC is committed to increasing the levels of captions on its television service and to maintaining the high quality of the captions. The ABC supports ACMA s broad approach to captioning compliance; however the ABC has concerns with the approach taken to quality, principally the lack of distinction between pre-prepared and live captions, and the implications for compliance given the proposed approach. The ABC is also concerned about the implementation of the compliance regime with regard to isolated captioning outages within a coverage area and how that will be represented in total compliance results. The ABC submits that certain amendments can be made to the assessment and reporting framework which would ameliorate some significant compliance burdens, with no consequent detriment to caption users. The ABC would appreciate the opportunity to work with the ACMA, industry and consumer groups to address these issues to Government and policy makers if necessary. 8