Digital TV

Complaints

Before lodging a complaint

Make sure that the problem you are experiencing is not caused by poor reception (scrambled captions on more than one channel are a typical example of this). For more information, go to the captioning problems section of this website.

How to lodge complaints

When making a complaint about captions, make sure you give enough information for the network to investigate it properly. You should

Taxonomy:

TV & video

ACMA, Australian Communications and Media Authority

Blind or vision impaired

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BBC iPlayer trialling subtitles for live channels in world-first

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In a welcome development from the UK, the BBC has begun trialling subtitles for live channels on their iPlayer platform. This is a first for any major video on-demand service in the world, as up till now, subtitles have only been available for on-demand programs.

Image of BBC iPlayer logo

Taxonomy:

News

Television

Digital TV

Deaf or hearing impaired

Captions

News alert taxonomy:

Deaf/hearing impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news

Deaf/hearing impaired TV, DVD, Cinema & the Arts news

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Channel 4 seeks viewer feedback about its accessibility services

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Channel 4 has created a survey to capture as much feedback as possible from people who view their programming with captions (subtitles in the UK), audio description, signing on TV, or on the station’s on-demand service.

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Apple announces minor software accessibility improvements at WWDC 2016 conference

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Apple has announced a number of new features in its range of products at its annual World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), with a focus on incremental updates and greater Siri integration.

The conference, which focuses on supporting developers to create new products in the Apple software ecosystem, highlighted a number of improvements across its desktop, mobile, watch and TV set-top-box operating systems, some of which are likely to benefit people with disabilities.

Taxonomy:

Blind or vision impaired

Deaf or hearing impaired

Digital media and technology:

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New Zealand holds an inquiry into captioning

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New Zealand’s Government Administration Committee has announced an inquiry into captioning, and is seeking submissions from the public.

Remote control being pointed at a TV with captions at the bottom of the screen

The inquiry’s terms of reference include:

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Audio description trial on iview ending soon

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The trial of audio description on the ABC’s online iview service, which commenced in April 2015, will soon be drawing to a close.

ABC iView logo

Taxonomy:

Blind or vision impaired

News

Audio description

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ACMA publishes preliminary captioning exemption orders for Telstra Pay TV

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The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has published preliminary exemption orders for 34 channels provided on Telstra Pay TV for mobile phones. These include both free-to-air channels such as ABC1, and channels available on Foxtel.

Silhouette of a man standing in front of a curved wall of lots of different TV screens. Image Credit: Telstra Pay TV

Taxonomy:

Deaf or hearing impaired

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More than 2,300 people have signed to legislate closed captioning in NZ

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On Global Accessibility Awareness Day, 19 May 2016, the New Zealand Captioning Working Group submitted a petition to Mojo Mathers, Green MP, with more than 2,300 signatures in a bid for the House of Representatives to legislate closed captioning across all relevant media.

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Taxonomy:

International policy and legislation

Deaf or hearing impaired

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BBC publishes research on improving live caption timing

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The BBC has released details of experiments it has undertaken which prove that it’s practical to reduce the delay in live captions appearing on the screen.

Young woman watches the TV with captions

Live captions, which are created as a program goes to air, are often frustrating for viewers because there is a delay (on average around 5 seconds, but sometimes much longer) between the audio and the captions appearing.

Taxonomy:

Deaf or hearing impaired

Captions

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Netflix improves accessibility for the blind

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In a court settlement with the American Council of the Blind (ACB), Netflix has agreed to include more audio description on its streamed content and DVD rental services, as well as making its website and mobile applications accessible for blind people who use screen readers.

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