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23|03|06

Ofcom publishes Television Access Services Code consultation

Ofcom today publishes a consultation reviewing its Code on Television Access Services and related guidance.

Television access services (subtitling, signing and audio description) help people who cannot hear or see, or have difficulty with hearing or seeing, to enjoy television.

Research

As part of the review, Ofcom commissioned independent research to assess the numbers of people who could potentially benefit from different access services and the extent to which these were used.

The research indicated that:

• Nearly 4 million adults have hearing impairments, and 2.7 million adults have visual impairments that could affect television viewing.
• More than 1.4 million adults with hearing impairments watch programmes with subtitles. ·Just under a quarter of a million people use audio description services, where a separate narrative audio track describes images on screen for the benefit of people with visual impairments.
• The potential audience for sign language services (predominantly British Sign Language) is around 66,000; however, the research indicated that many people prefer subtitling to sign language for watching television.

Proposals

The Code sets out interim targets, rising progressively towards the ten-year targets set out in the Communications Act 2003, for the proportion of programme hours that must be subtitled, signed and audio described. In 2007, the subtitling target for many cable and satellite broadcasters will rise from 10% to 35% of programme hours.

The review proposes that the current obligations should continue broadly unchanged, with quotas rising progressively towards the statutory ten-year target of 80% for subtitling, 10% for audio-description and 5% for signing.

The review also looked at the costs to broadcasters of providing access services, against the background of significant increases in subtitling requirements due in 2007. At present, 74 channels are required to provide access services. Using data supplied by broadcasters, it appears that between late 2003 and late 2005 average direct costs per hour had fallen by about 27% for pre-recorded subtitling, about 11% for audio description, and about 10% for signing. On this basis, the review estimates that broadly the same number of channels should be able to meet the increase in access service obligations.

Over the coming months, Ofcom will be discussing with disability organisations and broadcasters whether there are better ways of meeting the needs of sign language users than the current arrangements.

In relation to audio description, Ofcom proposes to defer a review of the current statutory target of 10% of programme hours until the scale of take-up is clearer.

The closing date for responses to the consultation is 8 June 2006 and the full document is available on the Ofcom website - see Related Items.

Ends.

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