Considerations – the quality of captioning - ACMA/media/Broadcasting Investig… · Web viewthe breach is attributable to significant difficulties of a technical or engineering

Investigation Report No. 2964File No. ACMA2013/181

Licensee Channel Seven Brisbane Pty Limited

Station BTQ Seven Brisbane

Type of Service Commercial Television

Name of Programs Seven News, Today Tonight, Home and Away

Date/s of Broadcast 22 January 2013

Relevant Legislation/Code

subsection 130ZR(1) of Part 9D (captioning) of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the BSA)

paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA (captioning) subsection 130ZUB(1) of the BSA (disregard breach)

Date finalised 30 July 2013Decision Breach: subsection 130ZR(1) of Part 9D (captioning) of

the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the BSA) Breach of subsection 130ZR(1) disregarded (as

subsection 130ZUB(1) of the BSA applicable) No Breach: paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA

(captioning) (as subsection 130ZUB(1) of the BSA applicable)

ACMA Investigation Report – Seven News, Today Tonight and Home and Away broadcast by BTQ on 22 January 2013

The complaintsOn 22 January 2013, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) received six separate complaints alleging that BTQ Seven Brisbane (the licensee) failed to provide a captioning service for the programs Seven News /Today Tonight and Home and Away broadcast on 22 January 2013 between 6pm and 7:30pm.

One complaint identified only Seven News /Today Tonight as having captioning issues. The remaining five complaints identified Seven News /Today Tonight and Home and Away.

As these complaints related to an alleged breach of a licence condition, they were able to be made directly to the ACMA without written reference to the licensee. The ACMA has investigated the licensee’s compliance with subsection 130ZR(1) of the BSA, considered the application of subsection 130ZUB(1) of the BSA to determine whether any breach found should be disregarded and considered whether the licensee has breached paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA in accordance with sections 147 and 149 of the BSA. 1

The programsHome and Away, Seven News, and Today Tonight are programs broadcast on the Seven Network between 6pm and 7:30pm. A combined edition of Seven News and Today Tonight was broadcast on 22 January 2013 from 6pm until 7pm. Home and Away was then broadcast at 7pm.

Seven News and Today Tonight are both news and current affairs genres, respectively.

Home and Away is a half hour Australian-made serial drama broadcast Monday to Friday at 7pm on the licensee’s primary channel BTQ. Home and Away is set in the fictional community of Summer Bay with storylines concerning the lives of the fictional characters.

AssessmentThis investigation is based on submissions from the complainants and the licensee, and a copy of the broadcast provided to the ACMA by the licensee. Other relevant sources relied upon have been identified where relevant in the report.

Issue 1: Did the licensee provide a captioning service for the broadcast of Seven News / Today Tonight and Home and Away on 22 January 2013?

Relevant provisions

Clause 7 of Schedule 2 of the BSA

1 Sections 147(b) and 149 of the BSA set out the ACMA’s role in investigating complaints relating to breaches of a licence condition.

ACMA Investigation Report – Seven News, Today Tonight and Home and Away broadcast by BTQ on 22 January 2013 2

Conditions of commercial television broadcasting licences

1. [...]

(o) if a provision of Part 9D (which deals with captioning of television programs for the deaf and hearing impaired) applies to the licensee—the licensee will comply with that provision;

Part 9D—Captioning of the BSA

Division 1—Introduction

130ZL Designated viewing hours

Programs transmitted before 1 July 2014

(1) For the purposes of the application of this Part to programs transmitted before 1 July 2014, designated viewing hours are the hours:

(a) beginning at 6 pm each day or, if another time is prescribed, beginning at that prescribed time each day; and

(b) ending at 10.30 pm on the same day or, if another time is prescribed, ending at that prescribed time on the same day.

Division 2—Captioning obligations of commercial television broadcasting licensees and national broadcasters

Subsection 130ZR(1):

Each commercial television broadcasting licensee, and each national broadcaster, must provide a captioning service for:

(a) television programs transmitted during designated viewing hours; and

(b) television news or current affairs programs transmitted outside designated viewing hours.

Complainants’ submissions Six complaints about the programs were received at the ACMA on 22 January 2013, all alleging inadequate captioning. One complaint sufficiently sums up the complaints:

[...]

Tonight I experienced very disappointing service with captions on channel seven from 6.30pm to 7.30pm. Today Tonight and Home [and] Away was showing captions from the 6pm news. It was just repeating itself over and over again throughout both programs. This was frustrating having to endure this for at least an hour. I gave up after that and stopped watching.

This is poor for the deaf community who miss out on so much in their lives already and this is not good enough.

Several complaints have been made on Facebook by members of the deaf community expression their anger and frustration with the captions experienced tonight on channel 7.


Could you please rectify this immediately so the deaf community and those that are hard of hearing do not miss out. [sic]

[...]

Licensee’s submissionThe licensee’s response to the ACMA dated 25 February 2013 included the following:

[...]

...Seven accepts that a captioning error occurred during the relevant programs which in this instance caused the captions transmitted by BTQ to “loop” the same text on screen continuously from approximately 18:15 to 19:34, after which time the captioning service was restored. However, Seven submits that the error that occurred was attributable to significant difficulties of an engineering nature that could not reasonably have been foreseen by the licensee and therefore the breach is to be disregarded in accordance with section 130ZR [sic] of the [BSA]...

...Seven was alerted to the captioning error by a telephone complaint that was received at approximately 18:15 on 22 January 2013. Seven's Master Control was immediately notified of the complaint and proceeded to further investigate the possible cause of the error...

...Once the cause of the error had been identified, immediate steps were taken to rectify the problem promptly. At approximately 19:30, Seven located the precise source of the error and switched a redundant (spare) MPEG encoder to line. Captioning was restored soon after at 19:34.

... Seven appreciates the importance of the captioning service that we provide to deaf and hearing impaired viewers and takes its captioning obligations very seriously. In this instance, the fault that occurred is difficult to replicate and at this time no reason for the equipment failure has been identified. However, Seven is continuing to investigate this matter.

[...]

In response to the ACMA’s request for further details, the licensee wrote on 25 July 2013:

[...]

Following the problem with the Brisbane MPEG encoder much effort was exerted to reproduce the error to no avail. Testing was done both on-air and off-air. Notwithstanding that we did not find the cause. As set out in our previous response, the manufacturer had not previously seen this problem and was not able to assist...

Finding The licensee breached subsection 130ZR(1) of Part 9D of the BSA.

ReasonsUnder subsection 130ZR(1) of the BSA, the licensee was required to provide a captioning service for the program, as it was broadcast on the licensee’s core/primary commercial television service, during the designated viewing hours of 6pm and 10.30pm. That is, as Seven News / Today Tonight and Home and Away were broadcast on BTQ Seven between 6pm and 7.30pm, during the designated viewing hours, a captioning service should have


been provided for the programs. As defined in the BSA, the ‘designated viewing hours’ are the hours beginning at 6pm each day, and ending at 10.30pm the same day2.

The combined Seven News / Today Tonight program is news or current affairs genre and as such is required to be captioned regardless of the time of broadcast. Home and Away (drama genre, broadcast at 7pm) was broadcast within the designated viewing hours and as such was required to be captioned.

The term ‘captioning service’ is not defined in the BSA, although implicit in the obligation to provide a captioning service, is the requirement that the captioning service satisfies certain standards relating to quality.

The ACMA reviewed the copy of the broadcast provided by the licensee. The ACMA also considered the licensee’s admission that a captioning error (looping captions) occurred during all programs.

Looping captions

The ACMA found that, in line with the licensee’s submission, from about 18:15 on 22 January 2013 the captions from the news stories continued to be replayed throughout the Seven News /Today Tonight and Home and Away broadcasts, with some stopping and starting of the looped captioning throughout. The ACMA also found that the captioning service was not restored at any point during the programs (after 18:16).

For example, at 18:16:05, during a commercial break from Seven News /Today Tonight, the captions for the news story about flooding issues on the Cape commenced playing for a second time. At 18:19:02 captions for the news story about a class action regarding the Brisbane Floods played over the top of the vision of an interview with Prince Harry. At 18:21:01 the captions for the story about the convicted sex offender commenced playing whilst the vision of Prince Harry was showing. Captioning for the President Obama story played during the advertisement break and during the following Brisbane Public Transport Study story. The looped captioning continued through the remaining news and weather stories, whereby captions for previous news stories continued to be played.

Having regard to Quality Indicator 2(i) (Attachment A) the captions broadcast during Seven News/Today Tonight (after 18:15) and Home and Away on 22 January 2013 did not coincide with the relevant soundtrack. As such, the looping captions had a significant impact on the comprehensibility of the programs. Accordingly, the ACMA has formed the view that the licensee failed to provide a captioning service for the programs as required by subsection 130ZR(1) of the BSA.

Issue 2: Does section 130ZUB of the BSA apply?Relevant provision

Division 2—Captioning obligations of commercial television broadcasting licensees and national broadcasters

2 For programs transmitted before 1 July 2014.


130ZUB Certain breaches to be disregarded

(1) If:

a) apart from this subsection, a commercial television broadcasting licensee has breached a provision of this Division; and

b) the breach is attributable to significant difficulties of a technical or engineering nature for the licensee; and

c) those difficulties could not reasonably have been foreseen by the licensee;

then the breach is to be disregarded in determining whether the licensee has complied with the provision.

Licensee’s submissionThe licensee’s response to the ACMA dated 25 February 2013 included the following concerning the relevance of section 130ZUB of the BSA in terms of ‘significant difficulties of an engineering nature’ in this instance:

[...]

The error was ultimately identified as being caused by a fault in the MPEG Encoder. The MPEG Encoder is the very last piece of equipment through which all Seven's broadcast feeds pass prior to leaving the broadcast control centre in Melbourne for their transmitters. Each state and service has an individual MPEG encoder and in this instance, the Encoder through which the signal passed for BTQ's transmission malfunctioned.

The equipment Seven uses is of high "broadcast quality" and the MPEG encoder has been in use for a number of years by Seven and by other Australian broadcasters. An error of this nature which affects the proper functionality of the system is considered to be a significant fault and entirely unexpected. A fault of this nature, with this piece of equipment, has never before been experienced by Seven and therefore it took some time to identify. In fact, after discussing the matter with the manufacturer of the equipment, Seven discovered that the fault had, to their knowledge, never occurred prior to this instance.

[...]

The licensee’s response also included the following concerning the relevance of section 130ZUB of the BSA relevance in terms of ‘unforeseen’ in this instance:

The engineering fault in the MPEG encoder was unprecedented and could not reasonably have been foreseen by the licensee. The particular piece of equipment which caused the error on this occasion had never before experienced a fault. As noted above, the MPEG encoder and all associated equipment is specifically designed for broadcast, is of premium quality and is continuously in use.


Finding In accordance with subsection 130ZUB(1) of the BSA, the breach of subsection 130ZR(1) of the BSA conceded by the licensee, should be disregarded in determining whether the licensee has complied with its captioning obligations under that provision.

The licensee has accordingly not breached the licence condition in paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA.

Reasons Under subsection 130ZUB(1) of the BSA a breach of a provision of Division 2 (captioning obligations of commercial television broadcasting licensees and national broadcasters) can be disregarded in determining whether the licensee has complied with its captioning obligations if the breach was both attributable to significant difficulties of a technical or engineering nature; and those difficulties could not reasonably have been foreseen by the licensee.

The licensee conceded that it failed to provide captioning for the programs.

The cause of the failure: The licensee advised that an individual piece of equipment (MPEG encoder), through which captions are transmitted to the BTQ licence area, failed in its operation in this instance. The ACMA accepts that, as:

other Seven Network licence areas transmitted the program with captions and

BTQ was the only service which was affected;

the captioning failure can be attributed to the MPEG encoder for the BTQ licence area.

The licensee claims that the error was both unforeseen and of a significant engineering nature. The licensee explained that each ‘state and service has an individual MPEG encoder’ and it advised that the equipment in question was BTQ’s MPEG encoder which sits in the Melbourne control centre. No other station’s encoder was affected by this problem, thus it was only the BTQ service which was affected.

The licensee admitted it could not find the precise cause for the failure of BTQ’s MPEG encoder to transmit the captions in this instance. The licensee explained that after the error occurred, much effort was exerted to reproduce the error to no avail and testing was done both on-air and off-air but the exact cause of the fault could not be identified.

Significant difficulties of a technical or engineering nature: Given the captioning issue arose from a failure of an essential piece of equipment (the MPEG encoder) of the captioning transmission , the nature of the failure can be described as a breach that was attributable to significant difficulties of an engineering or technical nature.

The licensee explained that neither it nor the manufacturer which produced the MPEG encoder had ever experienced a malfunction like this prior to this incident. The fact that the failure had not been identified previously nor has it reoccurred, suggests it was an isolated incident.

Difficulties that could not reasonably have been foreseen: The licensee stated that the MPEG encoder and all associated equipment are of premium quality. The licensee also


submitted that it has both automated and manual processes in place to monitor its captioning services, but that in this instance, neither the automated nor manual processes detected the error. Given the unprecedented and isolated nature of the incident, the ACMA is of the view that it was a difficulty that could not reasonably have been foreseen by the licensee.

However, while the ACMA accepts the licensee’s claim that the technology has been used successfully without technical issues affecting captioning services to date, the ACMA notes with concern that neither the licensee’s manual nor automated processes detected the error on this occasion but that it was a viewer’s telephone complaint which made the licensee aware of the problem.

Conclusion: Having regard to the probative evidence available, on balance, the ACMA is of the view that the interruption to the licensee’s captioning services, was caused by a technical difficulty that could not reasonably have been foreseen by the licensee on this occasion.

Accordingly, the ACMA is of the view that Channel Seven Brisbane Pty Ltd breached subsection 130ZR(1) of the BSA by failing to provide a captioning service in accordance with that subsection, but that the breach should be disregarded in accordance with subsection 130ZUB(1) of the BSA. It follows that the licensee has not breached the licence condition in paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 of the BSA.

However, the ACMA notes that these events will inform any future ACMA decision-making involving consideration of technical difficulties that could not reasonably have been foreseen by the licensee.


ATTACHMENT A

Considerations – the quality of captioningIntroductionThe ACMA is committed to ensuring that the captioning services provided by television broadcasters give the deaf and hearing-impaired community meaningful access to television.

As part of this commitment the ACMA uses the quality indicators set out below to assess the overall readability and comprehensibility of closed captioning.

In considering whether a particular broadcaster has satisfied the captioning obligations, the ACMA has regard to all of the relevant quality indicators and, most importantly, the cumulative effect of their application rather than assessing a broadcast against each individual criteria.

Quality IndicatorsGrammar and Presentation

1. In assessing closed captions during programs, the ACMA will have regard to the extent that:

i. punctuation is used to make captions as easy as possible for viewers to read;

ii. punctuation conveys, as much as possible, the way speech is delivered;

iii. sentence case is used where practical;

iv. spelling is, as far as practicable, accurate;

v. repetition of information that is already on the screen (such as the name of a presenter or temperatures in a weather report) is avoided;

vi. as far as practicable, closed captions do not overlap or impede any text based information already on the screen.

Timing and Editing


i. closed captions coincide with the relevant soundtrack, so that the relationship between sound and visuals is preserved for the viewer;

ii. closed captions stay as close as possible to the original wording while allowing the viewer enough time to read the captions and still watch the action of the program;

iii. where time allows, and where practical, closed captions are verbatim (word for word);

iv. having regard to the intended audience, text reduction remains faithful to the script, and vocabulary and sentence structure is preserved as much as possible;


v. line breaks reflect the natural flow of a sentence and its punctuation;

vi. closed captions are not consistently more than three lines in length (the preference is for one-line or two-line captions to be used);

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.

Identification of Different Speakers

3. In assessing closed captions during programs, where there are different speakers, the ACMA will have regard to the extent that broadcasters have ensured that, as far as possible, the captions clearly identify and distinguish each speaker. This should be done through varying the colouring of the closed captioning, and as far as possible, varying the positioning of the closed captions (see 4 and 5 below).

Colour and Font


i. white closed captions are used as much as possible as they are the easiest to read;

ii. sound effects are identified using a different colour and the same colour is used for all sound effects throughout the program;

iii. if using colour to denote different speakers, as far as possible, a different colour is used for each speaker.

Positioning


i. as far as possible, positioning of closed captions avoids obscuring important information on the screen, such as action, superimposed text, graphic text descriptors or activities, or the speaker’s lips.

ii. as far as possible, positioning is varied to identify who is speaking.

Sound Effects


i. Any noise or music that enhances the visual, contributes to characterisation or adds atmosphere, is captioned;

ii. A viewer does not receive any more information than a hearing viewer would get.


Documents

Considerations – the quality of captioning - ACMA/media/Broadcasting Investig… · Web viewthe breach is attributable to significant difficulties of a technical or engineering