Conroy, Sen Stephen

Senator Conroy: The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows: The information in the following responses has been provided by the ACMA. (1) Affected television broadcasters are required to report annually on compliance with their captioning obligations, including compliance with quota obligations. The ACMA also investigates all valid complaints about non-compliance with captioning obligations. (2) Affected television broadcasters are required to report to it on compliance with their obligations, including compliance with quotas. It is anticipated that licensees will report on their compliance with captioning obligations by licence or coverage area. This information will enable the ACMA to monitor compliance with the obligations across different regions of Australia. (3) Affected television broadcasters may, by application to the ACMA, seek exemption or target reductions from the quota requirements on the limited grounds specified in the legislation. The ACMA can also investigate the compliance of affected television services with their quota obligations. In the event that any such service has breached its obligations, the ACMA may take one or more of the following actions: accept agreed measures; accept enforceable undertakings; issue remedial directions; impose additional licence conditions; commence Federal Court proceedings seeking the imposition of a civil penalty; refer the matter to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions for possible criminal prosecution suspend a licence; and suspend or cancel a licence. (4) In September 2010, the ACMA established a Co-regulatory Captioning Committee (CCC) to develop indicators for assessing the quality of captioning and work cooperatively to identify ways to circumvent quality issues. CCC members include broadcasters, representatives of deaf and hearing impaired community groups, relevant government departments and captioning service providers. The CCC met five times between November 2010 and January 2012 and assisted in the development of the captioning quality indicators to which the ACMA currently has regard when assessing complaints about captioning services. Between July and September 2012, the ACMA again consulted broadcasters, captioning service providers and consumer representatives about captioning issues, including factors that may cause quality issues and strategies to address them. This consultation has included the following steps/stages: In July, the ACMA visited and met with some broadcasters and captioning service providers about captioning matters, including the captioning process and quality issues; In August and September, the ACMA held group meetings with broadcasters, captioning service provider and consumer representatives about changes to captioning regulations and canvass their views on, among other things, captioning quality issues; and The ACMA invited, and received, written submissions from attendees about these issues. The ACMA anticipates scheduling another meeting with broadcasters, captioning service providers and consumer representatives about captioning issues by the end of 2012. The ACMA also proposes to create a technical committee to quickly identify captioning issues and share knowledge and experience in circumventing potential issues. (5) The ACMA had two meetings with consumer representatives about changes to captioning regulation between August and September 2012, with a further meeting with consumer representatives anticipated by the end of 2012. In addition, the ACMA has published information about captioning on the ACMA's website, including a summary of changes to captioning regulations. (6) (a) and (b) Subscription television licensees (broadcasters and narrowcasters) are required to report to the ACMA annually about their compliance with captioning obligations, including compliance with the obligation to caption 'repeat programs' on subscription television channels, where these programs have previously been broadcast with captions on any subscription television channel provided by the licensee. (b) The ACMA will also investigate any valid complaints.