Investigation Report No. 3225

File No. ACMA2014/458

Licensee General Television Corporation Pty Ltd

Station GTV (Melbourne)

Type of Service Commercial Television

Name of House Husbands Programs Date of Broadcast 9 June 2014 (9pm) Relevant  subsection 130ZZA(4) of Part 9D of the Broadcasting Legislation/Code Services Act 1992 (BSA) and the Broadcasting Services (Television Captioning) Standard 2013 (the Standard)  subsection 130ZR(1) of Part 9D (captioning) of the BSA  paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA Date Finalised 11 November 2014 Decision No breach subsection 130ZZA(4) of Part 9D of the BSA and the Standard No breach subsection 130ZR(1) of Part 9D (captioning) of the BSA No breach paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA

ACMA Investigation Report 3225 – House Husbands – 9 June 2014 - GTV

1 The complaint On 9 June 2014, the ACMA received a complaint about the quality of captioning (intermittent captions) in the program House Husbands broadcast on 9 June 2014, at 9pm (the program). As the complaint related to an alleged breach of a licence condition, it was able to be made directly to the ACMA without first being referred to the licensee. The ACMA has investigated, in accordance with sections 147 and 149 of the BSA: 1

 the licensee’s compliance with the Standard and consequently subsection 130ZZA(4) of the BSA;

 the licensee’s compliance with subsection 130ZR(1) of the BSA; and  whether the licensee has breached the licence condition at paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA.

The program The program was an early 2014 episode in the television drama series (Nine Network) House Husbands. The program was pre-recorded and broadcast with pre-prepared captions. The program is externally produced and each episode is delivered to Nine Network’s captioning centre for captioning.2 The series is based on four families who are friends, whose children attend the same school and who live in an Australian community. Focussing mainly on the male parents who have sole or primary responsibility of the children, the program’s story opens with the men being chased by criminals, leaving the viewer wondering what happened. The second scene opens with open captions: ‘Three Days Prior’ following each of the men preparing and delivering their children to school. Other subplots occur during the same day. In the afternoon the men regroup at the pub where they discuss the difficulties they are having with their occupations. It is revealed the next morning, that in the process of drinking, the men had bought the pub in which they got drunk. The parents are Lewis and Gemma, Mark and Abi, Kane (parent raising his niece) and Justin who is separated from the mother of his three children and whose girlfriend is Lewis’ older daughter Lucy from Lewis’ previous marriage.

The program contains at least nine sub plots, each of which are affected by missing captioning (see Attachment A).

Assessment The ACMA has investigated the licensee’s compliance with the captioning obligations imposed under Part 9D of the BSA and the requirements relating to quality set out in the Standard. The outcome of this assessment will determine whether the licensee has breached the licence condition in paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA.

1 Subsection 147(b) and section 149 of the BSA set out the ACMA’s role in investigating complaints relating to breaches of a licence condition. 2 Nine email to ACMA 28 July 2014 2 Broadcasting Services (Television Captioning) Standard 2013 Subsection 130ZZA of the BSA confers upon the ACMA the power to determine standards relating to the quality of captioning services,3 with which commercial television licensees must comply.4

The Standard is a standard determined under these provisions, and establishes minimum requirements relating to the quality of captioning services. The Standard specifically requires captions to be readable,5 accurate6 and comprehensible,7 so that they are meaningful to deaf and hearing impaired viewers.

The Standard came into effect on 5 June 2013, meaning that from this date, broadcasters and narrowcasters must, when providing a captioning service in accordance with their captioning obligations under Part 9D of the BSA, comply with the requirements relating to quality set out in the Standard. The findings in this investigation are informed by submissions made by both the complainant and the licensee, and one DVD copy of the program (divided into three parts) with captions provided to the ACMA by the licensee. This process was undertaken by the ACMA viewing the program with captions and without audio. The ACMA then compared the captions to the sound track. Other relevant sources relied upon have been identified in the report.

Issue 1: Did the licensee provide a captioning service for the program that complied with the Standard and accordingly comply with subsection 130ZZA(4) of the BSA?

Relevant provisions Division 1 of Part 9D of the BSA – Definitions Section 130ZK: Program does not include: (a) advertising or sponsorship matter (whether or not of a commercial kind)… Division 4 of Part 9D of the BSA – Captioning standards Subsection 130ZZA(1):

The ACMA may, by legislative instrument, determine standards that relate to:

(a) the quality of captioning services provided by commercial television broadcasting licensees for television programs...

Subsection 130ZZA(4):

A commercial television broadcasting licensee must comply with a standard determined under subsection (1).

Broadcasting Services (Television Captioning) Standard 2013

3 ibid, s 130ZZA(1) of the BSA 4 ibid, s 130ZZA(4) 5 s 7(a) of the Standard 6 ibid, section 8(a) 7 ibid, section 9(a)

3 Section 5:

Broadcasters and narrowcasters must, when providing a captioning service in accordance with their captioning obligations, comply with the requirements relating to quality in this Standard.

Section 6: (a) Subject to paragraph (b), when determining the quality of a captioning service for a program, the captioning service must be considered in the context of the program as a whole. (b) When determining the quality of a captioning service for a program that is a distinct program segment within a television program, the captioning service must be considered in the context of that distinct program segment on its own. (c) When determining the quality of a captioning service, the cumulative effect of the following factors must be considered: (i) the readability of the captions; (ii) the accuracy of the captions; and (iii) the comprehensibility of the captions.

Section 8: Accuracy of captions (a) When providing a captioning service for a program, broadcasters and narrowcasters must use captions that accurately recreate the soundtrack of a program. (b) When determining whether captions accurately recreate the soundtrack of a program, the following factors must be considered in the context of the program as a whole: (i) whether spoken content has been captioned; … (vi) whether sound effects and/or music, material to understanding the program and not observable from the visual action, have been accurately described.

Complainant’s submission The complaint received by the ACMA on 9 June 2014 focused on intermittent captions, alleging that:

Captions were very sporadic and many were missing from the show.

The complainant further alleged that whole sentences were not captioned and therefore this made it difficult to follow the program.

Licensee’s submission The licensee’s initial submission to the ACMA, dated 3 July 2014 stated in part the following:

We have reviewed the footage of the episode of House Husband broadcast by General Television Corporation Pty Ltd (GTV) on 9/6/14 (Program) and discussed the matter with members of our technical and operational team responsible for captioning.

The Program was captioned off-line prior to broadcast. Captions on the Program encoded from our operations centre were checked by our operations team before and during transmission with no captioning appearing to be missing. However, having reviewed the footage of the Program that was actually transmitted by GTV, we acknowledge that there are captions missing. It appears that the caption lines may not have been “sticking” and occasionally getting lost in the encode / transmission process. To investigate

4 Broadcasting Services (Television Captioning) Standard 2013 this further, our engineers have performed some preliminary testing in relation to the broadcast file of the Program at our operations centre for any sign of caption problems without finding anything conclusive so far. They will be performing further tests this weekend and therefore we should know more next week. We will communicate these findings and our planned solutions to you as soon as they are available next week.

In regards to the captioning services provided with the Program, in most cases, Nine maintains that the missing captions do not affect the comprehensibility of the Program. In a few cases, we acknowledge that the comprehensibility of particular scenes on their own may be affected. However, comprehensibility of the Program as a whole is not in our view diminished by the missing captions. We are therefore satisfied that the captioning services provided in the Program as a whole are largely adequate.

The licensee’s second submission to the ACMA, dated 28 July 2014 stated:

After considerable investigation … our engineering team has located the root cause of the problem that produced sticking and missing captions during [program].

House Husbands is externally produced and post-produced. Each episode is delivered to Nine’s captioning centre on HD Cam [high definition camera] tape.

Our engineers have discovered that the supplied HD Cam tapes from the external post-production third party contained rogue data on the ancillary data track which is normally used to carry caption data. The rogue data was inadvertently added to caption data during the ingest process which resulted in caption lines sticking or intermittently being lost during transmission.

To resolve this issue, equipment at Nine’s captioning centre has been modified to block all incoming ancillary data during the ingest process and requested that the post-production team remove the rogue data from future tape deliveries.

GTV 9 off-air captions have been reviewed by our captioning team following each transmission of subsequent episodes of House Husbands. They have advised that following the above-described ingest modifications, the captions appear to be complete and not affected by the issues in episode 1.

Finding The licensee has provided a captioning service for the program in that it complied with the Standard and accordingly has complied with the requirements of section 130ZZA(4).

Reasons Missing captions Upon review of the copy of the program, the ACMA identified that certain dialogue and three songs contained missing captioning. References to all specific captioning incidents are provided at Attachment A.

5 Dialogue: There were at least 14 instances where spoken content was not captioned, occurring infrequently and throughout the program. In some cases whole sentences were missing. An example occurs early in the program in the first two minutes (Attachment A Part 1 Clock: 1.23) where two subplots unfold: the young daughter needing money for a school fundraiser and the older daughter moving in with her boyfriend. The uncaptioned part of the dialogue, underlined here, does not affect comprehension of the program overall, as much of the key information has been captioned:

Tilda: I need money for the orang-utans. It says here Year two students need a gold coin donation.

Lewis: What’s an orang-utan going to do with a gold coin?

Lucy: Ignore him he’s just grumpy because business is slow.

Lewis: My business is doing just fine.

Lucy: Bye Dad.

Lewis: I still reckon you’re rushing into this. Moving in is a big step. You want to be sure.

Lucy: Twelve months, long enough to be sure isn’t it?

The incident of most missing captions occurred at Part 1 (Clock: 12.46 (see Attachment A for the full script).

Justin: XXXXXXXX

Lucy: XXXXXXXX.

Justin: Yeah but this time XXXXXXXX

Lucy: XXXXXXXX. Do you know how lucky you are to have such an understanding and supportive girlfriend?

Justin: XXXXXXXX

Songs: A total of three songs were interspersed throughout the program. The songs included in the program enhanced the program, giving sentiment, however they were not essential to accurately understanding the scenes they overlaid nor to the storyline development. The first song missed two lines of captioning whilst the second song missed one line. The final song was completely uncaptioned. However, the ACMA does not consider this lack of captioning affected the overall comprehensibility of any of the storylines. Please see Attachment A for detail on lyrics and final song which were not captioned.

Conclusions

6 Broadcasting Services (Television Captioning) Standard 2013 Subsection 8(a) of the Standard requires broadcasters to use captions that are accurate. Under subsection 8(b)(i) of the Standard, whether spoken content has been captioned is one of the factors that must be considered in determining the accuracy of captions. Section 6 of the Standard requires that the quality of a captioning service must be determined in the context of the program as a whole.8

In relation to the segments of dialogue that were missing captions, the missing captioning did not prevent an understanding of the subplots and therefore the program overall. The ACMA has had regard to these omissions in the context of the program as a whole and has concluded that, given their immateriality to the storyline, the omissions did not impact on the overall accuracy of the captioning service provided. Overall, the ACMA considers that the infrequent instances of missing captions were minor and would not have impeded meaningful comprehension of the program for a person who is reliant on captioning. The information provided in the captioning is considered to be adequate to enable a good understanding of the two daughters’ individual stories. The ACMA has also considered the songs which were either completely or partially uncaptioned throughout both programs with reference to subsection 8(vi) of the Standard, which requires that ‘sound effects and/or music, material to understanding the program, not observable from the visual action, have been accurately described’. In the case of the program in question, the ACMA has formed the view that the songs were not material to understanding the program. As a result, the ACMA has concluded that the lack of captioning in this instance did not impact on the overall accuracy of the captioning service provided. Having had regard to the above considerations, the ACMA has formed the view that the licensee has complied with the requirements of the Standard, and has therefore complied with subsection 130ZZA(4) of the BSA.

Issue 2: Did the licensee comply with the requirements of subsection 130ZR(1) of the BSA, by providing a captioning service for the program, in accordance with the basic rule?

Relevant provisions Subsection 130ZR(1) of Part 9D of the BSA

Each commercial television broadcasting licensee, and each national broadcaster, must provide a captioning service for:

(a) television programs transmitted during designated viewing hours; and

(b) television news or current affairs programs transmitted outside designated viewing hours. Subsection 130ZL(1) of Part 9D of the BSA For the purposes of the application of this Part to programs transmitted before 1 July 2014, designated viewing hours are the hours:

(a) beginning at 6 pm each day or, if another time is prescribed, beginning at that prescribed time each day; and

8 ibid, s 6(a)

7 (b) ending at 10:30 pm on the same day or, if another time is prescribed, ending at that prescribed time on the same day.

Finding

The licensee complied with the requirements of subsection 130ZR(1) of the BSA, by providing a captioning service for the program on 9 June 2014, in accordance with the basic rule.

Reasons

Under subsection130ZR(1) of the BSA, the licensee was required to provide a captioning service for the program as they were broadcast on the licensee’s primary commercial television service9 during the designated viewing hours, which include the times the program were broadcast. Paragraph 5 of the Standard requires broadcasters to comply with the requirements relating to quality in the Standard when providing a captioning service in accordance with their captioning obligations under Part 9D. The term ‘captioning service’ is not defined in the BSA, although implicit in the obligation to provide a captioning service is that the captioning service satisfies requirements relating to quality. This interpretation is consistent with the power granted to the ACMA under subsection 130ZZA(1) of the BSA, to determine standards that relate to the quality of captioning services. Recognising the implicit obligation to provide a captioning service that satisfies requirements relating to quality, in determining the licensee’s compliance with its obligations under subsection 130ZR(1), the ACMA assessed the quality of the captioning services provided for this programs by reference to the Standard. As the ACMA has made the finding that the licensee has complied with the requirements of the Standard with respect to the program (refer to Issue 1, above), it follows that the program would fulfil the licensee’s captioning obligations under subsection 130ZR(1) of the BSA. Accordingly, the ACMA has formed the view that the licensee has complied with subsection 130ZR(1) of the BSA by providing a captioning service for the program, in accordance with the basic rule.

Issue 3: Did the licensee comply with the licence condition set out in clause 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA?

Relevant provisions

Clause 7 of Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the BSA

9 The obligation to provide a captioning service for programs broadcast on the licensee’s primary commercial television service arises by virtue of the exceptions provided for in subsections 130ZR(2) – 130ZR(5) of the BSA. 8 Broadcasting Services (Television Captioning) Standard 2013 (1) Each commercial television broadcasting licence is subject to the following conditions: ...

(o) If a provision of Part 9D (which deals with captioning of television programs for the deaf and hearing impaired) applies to the licensee – the licensee will comply with that provision.

Finding The licensee has complied with the licence condition set out in sub-clause 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA.

Reasons The ACMA’s finding is that the licensee complied with subsection 130ZZA(4) of the BSA, by providing a captioning service that was sufficiently accurate in accordance with the Standard for the program in question. Further, the ACMA’s finding is that the licensee complied with subsection 130ZR(1) of the BSA by providing a captioning service for the program, in accordance with that subsection.

It follows that the licensee has complied with the licence condition in paragraph 7(1)(o) of Schedule 2 to the BSA.

9 Attachment A Subplots 1. Preparing the children for first day of school. 2. The men’s purchase of a pub. 3. Lewis’ first contact with his biological son who is involved with criminals. 4. Gemma learning of Lewis’ jail time done before they met. 5. Naming ceremony of Abi and Mark’s youngest daughter ‘Mildred’. 6. Abi’s high expectations of herself as she returns to work as a doctor. 7. Mark starting up his business from home. 8. Justin having Lucy (Lewis’ oldest daughter) move in with him. 9. Justin’s financial situation. Part One

Cloc Context Subplot Missing captions are underlined and any other captioning issue is in k brackets ie [issue identified]

1.23 Lewis and 1, 8 Tilda: I need money for the orang-utans. It says here Year two Gemma’s family students need a gold coin donation. getting ready for Lewis: What’s an orang-utan going to do with a gold coin? the first day of school. Lucy is Lucy: Ignore him he’s just grumpy because business is slow.

Lewis’ older Lewis: My business is doing just fine. daughter. Tilda is Lewis’ younger Lucy: Bye Dad. daughter. Lewis: I still reckon you’re rushing into this. Moving in is a big step. You want to be sure.

Lucy: Twelve months, long enough to be sure, isn’t it?

1.46 Song overlays 1 [Two lyric lines not captioned] the families I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations. getting ready for first day at …

school. You’re the magician’s assistant in a dream

2.28 The men 1,5,7 Unknown: Have a good day. dropping off their Justin: Grade 2 children to school. Kane: They’re growing up.

Mark: Hey check out the new parents. Remember that? Day 1.

Lewis: Amateurs

10 Broadcasting Services (Television Captioning) Standard 2013 Mark: Big day. Abi’s gone back to work.

Lewis: have you told her yet?

Mark: Not yet.

Lewis: Mate you can’t call that child Mildred.

Mark: Alright Ok No I get it. I’m just trying to figure out how to tell her.

Kane: Yeah I mean you’ve only had six months.

Lewis: How about ‘I hate our child’s name’?

Mark: Subtle.

Lewis: The naming ceremony’s in two days. It’s a bit late for subtle.

Mark: Alright I will do it tonight. I’m just….. launching my company today. Very high risk venture going out on your own.

5.05 Mark explaining 5 Mark: But then when Abi had the baby and the doctor put the baby their idea to on her, tears of joy and Abi said ‘To my mother’… name the baby ‘Mildred’

5.45 Justin trying to 9 Justin: If it was a day’s work I would have happily done it for free understand why but we spent a week here. he and Lewis did … pro bono work for the school. Justin: Well what was the payment for?

Lewis: I knew you’d have a problem with pro-bono work.

6.07 The men having 1,2,9 Kane: Just wanted to start the year like a normal parent. Now we’re a drink at the the family that tried to kill Ms Luby. pub. Lewis: Not necessarily a negative.

Kane: Not funny. I can’t keep running a business from home. There’s no room. No wonder gold coins end up in pies.

Justin: At least you have a business.

Lewis: We have a business. It’s still growing that’s all.

Mark: I’m shrinking. Two of my big clients from Datadraft said they’d come over if I went out on my own. They reneged today. I’ve got to rebrand.

Bartender: More drinks guys?

Justin: No thanks. We gotta get going.

Kane: We don’t normally drink during the day.

11 Mark: Never.

Bartender: Suit yourselves. Drinks are half-price that’s all.

Lewis: All of them?

Bartender: Yeah I’m getting rid of stock I’m selling so

Justin: Why

Bartender: Can’t get the clientele. Used to be packed every night. Now it’s just new families moving in. Everyone’s got two kids a dog and a mortgage. Everyone goes to bed by 7.30.

Lewis: Four whiskeys straight.

7.07 The morning [Sticking caption from previous scene. This caption remains on after the pub. screen well into the next scene for six seconds which shows a Mark wakes up couple waking up.] in Lewis’ younger “You’ve got an earring in your eyebrow.” daughter’s bed.

Gemma learning 4 Lewis: You never asked. that Lewis spent Gemma: Why would I ask? time in prison. ….

Lewis: You’re making it a much bigger deal than it really is.

12.2 Mark and Abi 2 Abi: You said you were going to use your redundancy money to 2 discussing the launch your new business. Now it’s going towards a pub Mr purchase of the Licensee. pub.

12.4 Justin and his 2,8 Justin: All this time I’ve been slogging behind a bar. 6 girlfriend going to Lucy: You’ll still be slogging behind a bar. bed. Justin: Yeah but this time I’ll own the bar.

Lucy: A quarter. Do you know how lucky you are to have such an understanding and supportive girlfriend?

Justin: Lucky I’ve got you every day to remind me.

13.1 Song Montage of All [One song lyric not captioned] 2 scenes from And I have given less each household. All that you deserve.

Part Two

Cloc Context Subplot Missing captions are underlined and any other captioning

12 Broadcasting Services (Television Captioning) Standard 2013 k issue is in brackets ie [issue identified]

3.02 Abi and Mark 2 Abi: Thought you had to go over the pub contract. discussing Mark: Afterwards Mark’s jobs. Abi: Busy. Two businesses.

7.43 Gemma to Abi 6 Gemma: Come on. You know what you’re like. You won’t commenting on delegate because you’re a control freak. her work performance.

8.47 Lewis meets 3 Lewis: What sort of work do you do? his biological Ned: Import. Export. son Ned for the first time, under Lewis: TVs the guise of Ned: Yeah that sort of thing. Uh look, I’ve got a few places being a I need to be. So if you don’t mind handyman. Lewis: Are you married Ned?

Ned: How did you know my name? Shaun send you?

Lewis: Who?

Ned: Yeah see I knew you were dodgy doing all this shit for free. I knew you were fake.

Lewis: Listen mate.

Ned: Get out Get out

Lewis: No No listen. It’s not what you think. I’m your Dad!

14.4 Abi on mobile 6 Abi: Where have you been? She must be starving. 2 to Mark talking about their baby who has to be breastfed.

17.1 The men are 3 Justin: Can you just tell us what’s happening here? 3 outside Ned’s Lewis: I’m going in. You blokes backing me up or what? house. Ned (running out of house): Run Run Run

Lewis: Get in the car.

21.5 Lewis dropping 3 Lewis: Mark Are you right to pick up Tilda? 0 off the men Mark: yeah of course. after being chased.

13 Part Three

Cloc Context Subplot Missing captions are underlined and any other captioning k issue is in brackets ie [issue identified]

2.03 Song overlays 5 [All song lyrics not captioned] Naming party for Abi and Mark’s baby

14 Broadcasting Services (Television Captioning) Standard 2013