SKY New Zealand launches captions

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Friday, 3 February 2012 02:29am

On 1 February, New Zealand’s main subscription TV provider, SKY Television, introduced closed captioning on 13 of its channels: Animal Planet, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, TCM, TV1, TV2, TV3, Cartoon Network, and Crime & Investigation.

“I know this new service will be very valuable to the Deaf and hearing impaired - while it is a niche audience, it's a step towards more equal access and we are delighted to offer it," said SKY’s Chief Executive, John Fellet.

Captioning on New Zealand free-to-air channels including TV1, TV2 and TV3 are funded by New Zealand on Air, which is in turn funded by the New Zealand government. SKY initially sought funding for from New Zealand on Air for its captioning service.

Captioning levels on free-to-air TV are lower in New Zealand than in Australia, and there was no captioning on SKY until now. In December last year, a Captioning Working Group was formed, composed of members from The National Federation of the Deaf (NFD) and Deaf Aotearoa, to push for compulsory captioning on New Zealand television.

Louise Carroll, NFD's Chief Executive Officer and Captioning Working Group Chairperson, said, "We are absolutely delighted with SKY's decision to provide captioned programmes on 13 channels. This is a huge step in improving access to over 700,000 hearing impaired and Deaf people in New Zealand.”


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