Ofcom’s ‘Code on Television Access Services’ sets targets for captioning (called subtitling in the UK), signing and audio description, based on the length of time a channel has been broadcasting. ESPN’s audio description target was 5% for 2012, but only delivered it on 2.3% of its programs.
ESPN argued that it has a significant amount of live content that is not suited to being audio described. Ofcom rejected this argument, and noted that ESPN had also been in breach of the code in 2011, when it failed to deliver any audio description. In its report on the sanction, Ofcom states that the under-provision of audio description is “potentially a serious matter as those with sensory impairments are excluded from programming they have an expectation, based on the regulatory framework, that they will be able to access”.
“Ofcom is a very proactive regulator,” said Chris Mikul, Media Access Australia’s project manager for television. “It requires rigorous reporting of access levels by the channels, and as this decision demonstrates, it’s not afraid to penalise those that don’t do the right thing.”
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