Australian Government I Australian Communications and Media Authority

communicating I facilitating I regulating

Investigation Report No 2272

File No 20092047

Broadcaster TCN Channel Nine Pty Ltd

Station TCN

Type of service Commercial television broadcasting service

Name of programs Nine News Two and a Half Men Getaway 60 Minutes RPA and Cold Case

Dates of programs Between 21 and 30 July 2009

Relevant Code Clause 38(1) of Schedule 4 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

The complaint On 11 August 2009 the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) received a complaint alleging that the licensee TCN Channel Nine Pty Ltd failed to provide adequate captioning for the following programs broadcast between 21 and 30 July 2009 Nine News Two and a Half Men Getaway 60 Minutes RPA and Cold Case

The complaint has been investigated in accordance with clause 38(1) of Schedule 4 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the Act) in accordance with section 1471 of the Act

The programs Nine News is broadcast daily at 6pm

Two and a Half Men is acomedy series and is broadcast from 700pm to 800pm on Mondays and from 700pm to 730pm from Tuesdays to Fridays

Getaway is a travel program and is broadcast at 730pm on Thursdays

60 Minutes is a current affairs program and is broadcast at 730pm on Sundays

RPA is a real life program set in a Sydney hospital and is broadcast at 830pm on Wednesdays

Cold Case is a drama series and is broadcast on Wednesdays at 930pm and 1030pm

Relevant legislation

38 Captioning

Basic rules

(1) Subject to this clause each commercial television broadcasting licensee [ ] must provide a captioning service for

(a) television programs transmitted during prime viewing hours and

(b) television news or current affairs programs transmitted outside prime viewing hours

Prime viewing hours are the hours between 600pm and 1 030pm each day

Where clause 38 applies to a commercial television broadcasting licensee then compliance with clause 38 is a licence condition for that licensee

1 Section 147 of the Act provides that a person may make a complaint to ACMA if it relates to a condition of a licence or a class licence

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

2

Licence conditions applicable to commercial television broadcasting licensees are at clause 7 of Schedule 2 to the Act

Relevantly clause 7(1)(0) states

(1) Each commercial television broadcasting licence is subject to the following conditions [ ] (0) the licensee will comply with standards applicable to the licence

under clause 38 of Schedule 4 (which deals with captioning of television programs for the deaf and hearing impaired)

Exemptions2

The following legislative exemptions apply to the requirement to provide a captioning service

bull the program concerned involves live sport coverage that is subject to unscheduled extended coverage which displaces a news program

bull the program is televised on an SDTV or HDTV multi-channel during the simulcast period unless the program has previously been transmitted on the coresimulcast service

bull the program is wholly or partly in a language other than English bull the audio component of the program consists of music that has no human

vocal content recognisable as English and bull the audio component of the program consists of incidental or background

music

Assessment The assessment is based on DVDs of the broadcasts under investigation and submissions from both the licensee and the complainant Other sources relied on have been referred to where relevant

Issue Whether the licensee failed to provide a captioning service for the broadcasts

Complainants submissions The complainant submitted that the following programs contained missing or intermittent captions

1 21 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 221 July 2009 - 700pm 2 Men 3 22 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 422 July 2009 -700pm 2 Men 5 23 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 623 July 2009 -700pm 2 Men 723 July 2009 -730pm Getaway 8 24 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 9 24 July 2009 - 700pm 2 Men

2 Paragraph 7 of Clause 38 to Schedule 4 of the Act

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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1026 July 2009 - 730pm 60 Minutes 11 29 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 1229 July 2009 - 700pm 2 h Men 1329 July 2009 - 830pm RPA 1429 July 2009 - 930pm Cold Case 1530 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News

The complainant submitted further that

In all cases captions are missing and there are in most cases hanging captions Generally it is every 3rd or 4th line of captions thatis missing In the case of item 13 RPA at least 50 of the captions were missing Programs are viewed on a HD Digital TV or using a HD Digital Set Top Box Programs from all other channels have checked at similar times and their captions are satisfactory

You may note that dates 2ih and 28th July 2009 are not included in the list On these dates captions for the 9 News and 2 h Men were satisfactory In respect of item 11 (29th July 9 News) captions were satisfactory for about the first 5 minutes There was then a break in captioning (no notice on screen that they were having problems) and then the problem of missing captions started again This continued throughoutthe rest of the evening as you can see from the specific instances in the above list

In our experience Channel 9 has a long history of failure to provide adequate captioning and a total disregard to customer complaints While the specific instances quoted start at 21 st July the problem had been going on for many weeks prior to that Given the ongoing nature of the problem it would seem that Channel 9 have a chronic technical issue with the insertion of the captions In the case of overseas programs such as 2 h Men and Cold Case they come pre-captioned and there is no doubt that the captioning is being done It is just that they dont seem to be able to transmit all of it so that the program is understandable to a hearing impaired person which after all is the purpose of captioning

Licensees submissions The licensee submitted that

Nine maintains that the Programs were captioned and that Nine provided a captioning service within the meaning of section 38 of Schedule 4 of the Act Nine accepts that in some programs a small number of words were missing from parts of the Programs however Nine maintains this generally occurs from time and time within the provision of live captioning service and that when viewed across the entire Program the quality of the captioning service was such that the Programs were comprehensible to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer Nine notes the Complainant makes particular reference to the broadcast of the program RPA of 21 July 2009 The Complainant states that at least 50 of the captions were missing Nine rejects this claim and notes again that with the

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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exception of the occasional words the program was sufficiently captioned so that it was comprehensible to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer

Findings The licensee has breached clause 38(1) of Schedule 4 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 in that it failed to provide a captioning service for the Nine News program broadcast on 21 22 29 and 20 July 2009 and the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Reasons A captioning service is not defined in the legislation nor is what is regarded as an acceptable quality for a captioning service In assessing the complaint the ACMA has developed the following approach

bull whether any of the exemptions apply to the program

bull whether the program contains text (eg exchange rates or rainfall figures) or visuals (eg finance graphs or synoptic charts) that may be comprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer even if these components were not captioned

bull whether there are uncaptioned live components as these are often unscripted and generally incidental to the main components of the program in such circumstances a missing or incomplete captioning service is not unusual

bull whether the captioning service provided when viewed across the entiremiddot program is of a quality that would result in a program being incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

This approach balances the need for a licensee to provide a captioning service with the practical difficulties that can be faced by broadcasters in doing so

whether any of the exemptions apply to the programs

The exemptions do not apply to the programs complained of

Whether the programs contains text or visuals

Several programs contain text This is indicated where relevant below

Whether there are uncaptioned live components

In this context the ACMAs understanding of live is live in the sense of the broadcast of an event in real time This type of material naturally presents more significant challenges than material that is pre-recorded

It is unclear whether the live crosses in the Nine News programs under review are broadcast in real time The only live (real time) material appears to be a statement announced by the newsreader in the Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009 regarding the FINA world championships

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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whether the captioning service provided when viewed across the entire program is of a quality that would result in a program becoming incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

In order to determine whether the captions were of a quality that were comprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer the ACMA staff reviewed nine of the programs as they went to air and six of the programs with captioning transcripts3 (Nine News broadcast on 212223 and 24 July 2009 60 Minutes on 26 July 2009 and Two and a Half Men on 21 July 2009)

Following a review of all the programs complained of it appears that the following programs were fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

bull Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21222324 and 29 July 2009

bull 60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009 and

bull Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

The following programs contained missing or incomplete captions

RPA broadcast on 29 July 2009

This program included separate stories about a man who had a melanoma on his lip a teenager who had dislocated her shoulder a woman with a hole in her eardrum a man with a heart defect and a man who had a motorcycle accident

Segment 1

1 The introduction to the program summarised the medical conditions of various patients who would be appearing in the show One of these patients was a man with a melanoma in his lip The following introductory statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

R Im in the army Ive dealt with life and death before and I dont want to dilly dally I dont want to mess around I want to get to the point and know exactly what Im dealing with

It is considered that the missing captions in the above segment do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the point that the speaker was making which was reiterated in the sentence that was captioned1 want to get to the point and know exactly what Im dealing with It is also noted that this comment was made during the introduction When the program dealt specifically with this patients story the captions missing in the introduction appeared in full

2 During a consultation with a doctor the following explanation was only partially captioned

Statement We have to basically take a margin of your lower lip (whilst drawing a section of the lip on a piece ofpaper)

3 On 1 December 2009 the licensee confirmed that the captioning transcripts provided were transcripts of the relevant broadcasts as they went to air

4 See Attachment A

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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Caption e have to basically

However it is noted that a further explanation of the proposed treatment and removal of the tumour is captioned immediately after the above statement is made

Dr Now as you can imagine if you take that amount of tumour out of your lower lip

Due to this and the fact that the doctor was also shown illustrating the proposed procedure whilst providing the explanation it is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 The following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr And so if this is the defect that were creating from your incision what well then be doing is dissecting these islands of lip and skin tissue based on their nerve and blood supply so that those islands are essentially free (whilst drawing the lip on a piece ofpaper)

Given thaUhe doctor was shown illustrating the procedure whilst providing this explanation it is considered that the missing captions would not have affected the overall comprehensibility of the story

4 During surgery the following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon But really for most invasive melanomas a 1 cm margin is probably the minimal margin that youll probably like to take and as I discussed with [R] yesterday certainly greater than one third of the lower lip which is actually a ratio that will need to be reconstructed

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient requiring the removal of a melanoma Further Nine believes the accompanying visual images assisted in the comprehension of the dialogue

It is considered that the combination of the visual images and the text was such that on balance it conveyed the salient point of the piece which was that a certain minimum percentageratio of the patients lip would have to be removed As such it did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Segment 2

In a story concerning a teenager who dislocated her shoulder whilst swimming the following statements were not captioned in the introduction to the program (in bold)

Voiceover Trouble in the pool for 15 year old [L]

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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Dr So what made you swim today

L My mum

Dr OK your mum made you swim OK

Dr And you feel me touching you just there

Dr The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small because shes just dislocated it mechanically

It is considered that on balance the information that was missing from the introduction to the program while adding to the story did not affect the overall comprehensibility The segment showed two doctors examining the patients dislocated shoulder stating (captioned) that

So the chances are that this is probably going to be an anterior dislocation The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small

The footage that followed involved the doctors advising the patient that they were going to x-ray her shoulder and explaining the procedure the doctors discussing the x-ray of the shoulder and then sedating the patient and pulling her shoulder into place

Segment 3

1 In a story concerning a woman with a hole in her eardrum the following statements were only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

H Despite being taken to many doctors and specialists nothing seemed to work shy

H Ive noticed and youve certainly noticed a reduction in my hearing in my left ear which was always my better ear in the last 12 months

Additional licensee submissions in relation to the first statement above

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

While Nine accepts that the specific statement identified may not have been comprehensible Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of patient having a hearing device implanted Further as noted in the report the remaining part of the segment made it clear the patient had difficulty hearing in her left ear thereby making the story comprehensible

The delegate accepts that viewed in the context of the overall story the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility in view of the-fact that the central information related to the patients ongoing hearing difficulties the proposed treatment and the outcome of that treatment Taking the whole story into account the (missing) captions which related to her

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TeN between 21 and -30- 8 July 2009

previous attempts to get a diagnosis from several specialists and doctors did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the piece

With regard to the second statement above while it is accepted that the missing captions initially made it difficult to understand the particular problem being experienced it subsequently became clear that the patient has difficulty hearing in her left ear through other statements made such as

Dr OK now [H] you said the left ear was the worst one

2 During that part of the story where the doctor explained the reasons for the patients condition the following statement made was not captioned

Dr so the eardrum as a conductor doesnt work very well

However this particular issue was further elaborated on immediately by the doctor

Dr We describe that type of hearing loss as conductive hearing loss meaning that the sound doesnt conduct well to the inner ear

On this basis it is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 Prior to surgery the surgeon explained the pre-operation procedure to the patient The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon When youre asleep were going to put injections around your ear which is just routine incision behind the ear and then find whats going on graft your eardrum

The missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of this part of the segment particularly as it is made clear later during the story that the surgeon made an incision behind the patients ear

Surgeon If we make an incision behind the ear

4 During surgery thefollowing statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon Were looking ~nto the middle ear and in the middle ear what we see are the bones Now the first bone of hearing is here Now as you can see the second bone is nicely attached to the third bone and we can check that they are intact now if I move the first bone you see how they move The whole apparatus move quite nicely

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall explanation regarding the mechanics of the middle ear and the effectiveness thereof in this case

5 After surgery the patient had a further consultation with the doctor The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr Because its still a bit stiff weve got some improvement in hearing but its still going to be better In the low frequencies its about two and a half times better loudness wise and thats what youre noticing the

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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bass sound coming through Male voices youre hearing better The high tones are a little bit better but they still take a little while because theyre so much more dependent on good vibration of the drum and I expect this will continue to get better as the drum thins out

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient having a hearing device implanted

The delegate does not accept the licensees argument in this regard It is considered that the missing captions here detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story in that they included the reason that the patient was not experiencing as significant an improvement in relation to higher tones This reasoning would not have been apparent to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the story was affected

Segment 4

1 In a segment concerning a man with a heart defect the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

T Dr [R] my cardiologist said that if I ever got dizzy or had dizzy spells

It is considered that the viewer would have understood the context of the statement given the next statement made by the doctor

Dr OK and that takes us back to why you got a cardiologist of course

2 After explaining the type of heart condition the patient has the doctor then described the consequences The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr The danger of that is that is that it blocks completely and you fall over lose consciousness and hit your head

It is considered that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story The explanation provided by the doctor (and captioned) makes it reasonably clear that he is talking about the dangers of the medical condition

3 During surgery the surgeon describes the pacemaker The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon This is the pacemaker lead or one of them with the electrode on the end Theres a little corkscrew in the end to screw into the heart

It is considered that the missing caption does not detract from the overall understanding of the medical description particularly in light of the footage of the surgeon holding the pacemaker whilst describing it

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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SegmentS

In a segment concerning a man who had a motorcycle accident the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr This one will have to go in plaster and Ill have to talk to the orthopaedic surgeons so only very slightly angulated Theres a possibility that theyll want to get it into a slightly better position

It is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation a explanation provided by a doctor to a patient following surgery on her ear in the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009

A news item reported on the English beating the Australian cricket team The news presenter crossed to the sports presenter in London The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Oh [P] its so hard to be an Aussie in London right now we are taking plenty at Lords and now at the House of Lords and Commons behind me The English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to because theyre celebrating taking aone nil lead in the Ashes Series Now [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at Lords he took five from 92 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Captioned [P] the English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to celebrate after taking 1-0 lead in the Ashes series [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at the home of cricket He took 592 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Reported Well hes the captain he always takes a fair bit of heat but even [AS] over here was under a bit of heat about field placements and the use of [FF] now of course hes a hero Look Australia didnt have a lot of luck in this second Test and we know what happened in the first Hes got a bit of heat on him but you cant lay all the blame on the captain he doesnt take every bat and remember those three dismissals there and that second innings for Australia that were highly questionable

Captioned He is their captain he takes the heat but even [AS] is under heat about field placements and use of [FF] Now he is a hero Australia did not have a lot of luck here and we saw what happened in the first Test You cannot lay all the blame on the captain with those questionable dismissals

It is considered that the key message of the report was conveyed via the captions and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the report was not affected

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

News break

Before the presenter concluded the program he referred to an event which had evidently just occurred

And news just in Australias [MG] has won the womens 10 km open water race at the FINA world championships in Rome

This statement appeared to be broadcast live (in real time) and was not captioned at all As noted above although live captions present more significant challenges for broadcasters there is no legislative exemption from the requirements to caption live material In this instance the entire statement was not captioned and accordingly it cannot be regarded as incidental

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in a news item reporting on the FINA world championships in the Nine News program broadcast on 21 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 22 July 2009

News item 1

Following the report on a news item concerning a fire at a marina which damaged lUxury cruisers the news reader crossed over to the reporter at the scene The reporter interviewed a Channel Nine cameraman who lived close to the fire and sought his first hand reaction to the fire There were no captions at all for this exchange which amounted to 40 seconds

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions during a 40 second interview in a segment concerning a fire at a marina in the Nine News program broadcast on 22 July 2009 The remaining parts of the program fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

Getaway broadcast on 23 July 2009

Getawayfeatured reviews of the following travel destinations New York Newcastle NSW Daylesford VIC Caracas in Venezuela and Darwin

Captions were not provided for details of

bull Virgin Blue Flights to Melbourne

bull V Australia flights to Los Angeles

bull a five day tour of Caracas conducted by Kumuka Worldwide

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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The complaint On 11 August 2009 the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) received a complaint alleging that the licensee TCN Channel Nine Pty Ltd failed to provide adequate captioning for the following programs broadcast between 21 and 30 July 2009 Nine News Two and a Half Men Getaway 60 Minutes RPA and Cold Case

The complaint has been investigated in accordance with clause 38(1) of Schedule 4 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the Act) in accordance with section 1471 of the Act

The programs Nine News is broadcast daily at 6pm

Two and a Half Men is acomedy series and is broadcast from 700pm to 800pm on Mondays and from 700pm to 730pm from Tuesdays to Fridays

Getaway is a travel program and is broadcast at 730pm on Thursdays

60 Minutes is a current affairs program and is broadcast at 730pm on Sundays

RPA is a real life program set in a Sydney hospital and is broadcast at 830pm on Wednesdays

Cold Case is a drama series and is broadcast on Wednesdays at 930pm and 1030pm

Relevant legislation

38 Captioning

Basic rules

(1) Subject to this clause each commercial television broadcasting licensee [ ] must provide a captioning service for

(a) television programs transmitted during prime viewing hours and

(b) television news or current affairs programs transmitted outside prime viewing hours

Prime viewing hours are the hours between 600pm and 1 030pm each day

Where clause 38 applies to a commercial television broadcasting licensee then compliance with clause 38 is a licence condition for that licensee

1 Section 147 of the Act provides that a person may make a complaint to ACMA if it relates to a condition of a licence or a class licence

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

2

Licence conditions applicable to commercial television broadcasting licensees are at clause 7 of Schedule 2 to the Act

Relevantly clause 7(1)(0) states

(1) Each commercial television broadcasting licence is subject to the following conditions [ ] (0) the licensee will comply with standards applicable to the licence

under clause 38 of Schedule 4 (which deals with captioning of television programs for the deaf and hearing impaired)

Exemptions2

The following legislative exemptions apply to the requirement to provide a captioning service

bull the program concerned involves live sport coverage that is subject to unscheduled extended coverage which displaces a news program

bull the program is televised on an SDTV or HDTV multi-channel during the simulcast period unless the program has previously been transmitted on the coresimulcast service

bull the program is wholly or partly in a language other than English bull the audio component of the program consists of music that has no human

vocal content recognisable as English and bull the audio component of the program consists of incidental or background

music

Assessment The assessment is based on DVDs of the broadcasts under investigation and submissions from both the licensee and the complainant Other sources relied on have been referred to where relevant

Issue Whether the licensee failed to provide a captioning service for the broadcasts

Complainants submissions The complainant submitted that the following programs contained missing or intermittent captions

1 21 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 221 July 2009 - 700pm 2 Men 3 22 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 422 July 2009 -700pm 2 Men 5 23 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 623 July 2009 -700pm 2 Men 723 July 2009 -730pm Getaway 8 24 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 9 24 July 2009 - 700pm 2 Men

2 Paragraph 7 of Clause 38 to Schedule 4 of the Act

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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1026 July 2009 - 730pm 60 Minutes 11 29 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 1229 July 2009 - 700pm 2 h Men 1329 July 2009 - 830pm RPA 1429 July 2009 - 930pm Cold Case 1530 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News

The complainant submitted further that

In all cases captions are missing and there are in most cases hanging captions Generally it is every 3rd or 4th line of captions thatis missing In the case of item 13 RPA at least 50 of the captions were missing Programs are viewed on a HD Digital TV or using a HD Digital Set Top Box Programs from all other channels have checked at similar times and their captions are satisfactory

You may note that dates 2ih and 28th July 2009 are not included in the list On these dates captions for the 9 News and 2 h Men were satisfactory In respect of item 11 (29th July 9 News) captions were satisfactory for about the first 5 minutes There was then a break in captioning (no notice on screen that they were having problems) and then the problem of missing captions started again This continued throughoutthe rest of the evening as you can see from the specific instances in the above list

In our experience Channel 9 has a long history of failure to provide adequate captioning and a total disregard to customer complaints While the specific instances quoted start at 21 st July the problem had been going on for many weeks prior to that Given the ongoing nature of the problem it would seem that Channel 9 have a chronic technical issue with the insertion of the captions In the case of overseas programs such as 2 h Men and Cold Case they come pre-captioned and there is no doubt that the captioning is being done It is just that they dont seem to be able to transmit all of it so that the program is understandable to a hearing impaired person which after all is the purpose of captioning

Licensees submissions The licensee submitted that

Nine maintains that the Programs were captioned and that Nine provided a captioning service within the meaning of section 38 of Schedule 4 of the Act Nine accepts that in some programs a small number of words were missing from parts of the Programs however Nine maintains this generally occurs from time and time within the provision of live captioning service and that when viewed across the entire Program the quality of the captioning service was such that the Programs were comprehensible to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer Nine notes the Complainant makes particular reference to the broadcast of the program RPA of 21 July 2009 The Complainant states that at least 50 of the captions were missing Nine rejects this claim and notes again that with the

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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exception of the occasional words the program was sufficiently captioned so that it was comprehensible to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer

Findings The licensee has breached clause 38(1) of Schedule 4 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 in that it failed to provide a captioning service for the Nine News program broadcast on 21 22 29 and 20 July 2009 and the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Reasons A captioning service is not defined in the legislation nor is what is regarded as an acceptable quality for a captioning service In assessing the complaint the ACMA has developed the following approach

bull whether any of the exemptions apply to the program

bull whether the program contains text (eg exchange rates or rainfall figures) or visuals (eg finance graphs or synoptic charts) that may be comprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer even if these components were not captioned

bull whether there are uncaptioned live components as these are often unscripted and generally incidental to the main components of the program in such circumstances a missing or incomplete captioning service is not unusual

bull whether the captioning service provided when viewed across the entiremiddot program is of a quality that would result in a program being incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

This approach balances the need for a licensee to provide a captioning service with the practical difficulties that can be faced by broadcasters in doing so

whether any of the exemptions apply to the programs

The exemptions do not apply to the programs complained of

Whether the programs contains text or visuals

Several programs contain text This is indicated where relevant below

Whether there are uncaptioned live components

In this context the ACMAs understanding of live is live in the sense of the broadcast of an event in real time This type of material naturally presents more significant challenges than material that is pre-recorded

It is unclear whether the live crosses in the Nine News programs under review are broadcast in real time The only live (real time) material appears to be a statement announced by the newsreader in the Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009 regarding the FINA world championships

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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whether the captioning service provided when viewed across the entire program is of a quality that would result in a program becoming incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

In order to determine whether the captions were of a quality that were comprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer the ACMA staff reviewed nine of the programs as they went to air and six of the programs with captioning transcripts3 (Nine News broadcast on 212223 and 24 July 2009 60 Minutes on 26 July 2009 and Two and a Half Men on 21 July 2009)

Following a review of all the programs complained of it appears that the following programs were fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

bull Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21222324 and 29 July 2009

bull 60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009 and

bull Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

The following programs contained missing or incomplete captions

RPA broadcast on 29 July 2009

This program included separate stories about a man who had a melanoma on his lip a teenager who had dislocated her shoulder a woman with a hole in her eardrum a man with a heart defect and a man who had a motorcycle accident

Segment 1

1 The introduction to the program summarised the medical conditions of various patients who would be appearing in the show One of these patients was a man with a melanoma in his lip The following introductory statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

R Im in the army Ive dealt with life and death before and I dont want to dilly dally I dont want to mess around I want to get to the point and know exactly what Im dealing with

It is considered that the missing captions in the above segment do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the point that the speaker was making which was reiterated in the sentence that was captioned1 want to get to the point and know exactly what Im dealing with It is also noted that this comment was made during the introduction When the program dealt specifically with this patients story the captions missing in the introduction appeared in full

2 During a consultation with a doctor the following explanation was only partially captioned

Statement We have to basically take a margin of your lower lip (whilst drawing a section of the lip on a piece ofpaper)

3 On 1 December 2009 the licensee confirmed that the captioning transcripts provided were transcripts of the relevant broadcasts as they went to air

4 See Attachment A

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Caption e have to basically

However it is noted that a further explanation of the proposed treatment and removal of the tumour is captioned immediately after the above statement is made

Dr Now as you can imagine if you take that amount of tumour out of your lower lip

Due to this and the fact that the doctor was also shown illustrating the proposed procedure whilst providing the explanation it is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 The following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr And so if this is the defect that were creating from your incision what well then be doing is dissecting these islands of lip and skin tissue based on their nerve and blood supply so that those islands are essentially free (whilst drawing the lip on a piece ofpaper)

Given thaUhe doctor was shown illustrating the procedure whilst providing this explanation it is considered that the missing captions would not have affected the overall comprehensibility of the story

4 During surgery the following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon But really for most invasive melanomas a 1 cm margin is probably the minimal margin that youll probably like to take and as I discussed with [R] yesterday certainly greater than one third of the lower lip which is actually a ratio that will need to be reconstructed

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient requiring the removal of a melanoma Further Nine believes the accompanying visual images assisted in the comprehension of the dialogue

It is considered that the combination of the visual images and the text was such that on balance it conveyed the salient point of the piece which was that a certain minimum percentageratio of the patients lip would have to be removed As such it did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Segment 2

In a story concerning a teenager who dislocated her shoulder whilst swimming the following statements were not captioned in the introduction to the program (in bold)

Voiceover Trouble in the pool for 15 year old [L]

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Dr So what made you swim today

L My mum

Dr OK your mum made you swim OK

Dr And you feel me touching you just there

Dr The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small because shes just dislocated it mechanically

It is considered that on balance the information that was missing from the introduction to the program while adding to the story did not affect the overall comprehensibility The segment showed two doctors examining the patients dislocated shoulder stating (captioned) that

So the chances are that this is probably going to be an anterior dislocation The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small

The footage that followed involved the doctors advising the patient that they were going to x-ray her shoulder and explaining the procedure the doctors discussing the x-ray of the shoulder and then sedating the patient and pulling her shoulder into place

Segment 3

1 In a story concerning a woman with a hole in her eardrum the following statements were only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

H Despite being taken to many doctors and specialists nothing seemed to work shy

H Ive noticed and youve certainly noticed a reduction in my hearing in my left ear which was always my better ear in the last 12 months

Additional licensee submissions in relation to the first statement above

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

While Nine accepts that the specific statement identified may not have been comprehensible Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of patient having a hearing device implanted Further as noted in the report the remaining part of the segment made it clear the patient had difficulty hearing in her left ear thereby making the story comprehensible

The delegate accepts that viewed in the context of the overall story the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility in view of the-fact that the central information related to the patients ongoing hearing difficulties the proposed treatment and the outcome of that treatment Taking the whole story into account the (missing) captions which related to her

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TeN between 21 and -30- 8 July 2009

previous attempts to get a diagnosis from several specialists and doctors did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the piece

With regard to the second statement above while it is accepted that the missing captions initially made it difficult to understand the particular problem being experienced it subsequently became clear that the patient has difficulty hearing in her left ear through other statements made such as

Dr OK now [H] you said the left ear was the worst one

2 During that part of the story where the doctor explained the reasons for the patients condition the following statement made was not captioned

Dr so the eardrum as a conductor doesnt work very well

However this particular issue was further elaborated on immediately by the doctor

Dr We describe that type of hearing loss as conductive hearing loss meaning that the sound doesnt conduct well to the inner ear

On this basis it is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 Prior to surgery the surgeon explained the pre-operation procedure to the patient The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon When youre asleep were going to put injections around your ear which is just routine incision behind the ear and then find whats going on graft your eardrum

The missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of this part of the segment particularly as it is made clear later during the story that the surgeon made an incision behind the patients ear

Surgeon If we make an incision behind the ear

4 During surgery thefollowing statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon Were looking ~nto the middle ear and in the middle ear what we see are the bones Now the first bone of hearing is here Now as you can see the second bone is nicely attached to the third bone and we can check that they are intact now if I move the first bone you see how they move The whole apparatus move quite nicely

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall explanation regarding the mechanics of the middle ear and the effectiveness thereof in this case

5 After surgery the patient had a further consultation with the doctor The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr Because its still a bit stiff weve got some improvement in hearing but its still going to be better In the low frequencies its about two and a half times better loudness wise and thats what youre noticing the

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bass sound coming through Male voices youre hearing better The high tones are a little bit better but they still take a little while because theyre so much more dependent on good vibration of the drum and I expect this will continue to get better as the drum thins out

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient having a hearing device implanted

The delegate does not accept the licensees argument in this regard It is considered that the missing captions here detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story in that they included the reason that the patient was not experiencing as significant an improvement in relation to higher tones This reasoning would not have been apparent to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the story was affected

Segment 4

1 In a segment concerning a man with a heart defect the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

T Dr [R] my cardiologist said that if I ever got dizzy or had dizzy spells

It is considered that the viewer would have understood the context of the statement given the next statement made by the doctor

Dr OK and that takes us back to why you got a cardiologist of course

2 After explaining the type of heart condition the patient has the doctor then described the consequences The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr The danger of that is that is that it blocks completely and you fall over lose consciousness and hit your head

It is considered that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story The explanation provided by the doctor (and captioned) makes it reasonably clear that he is talking about the dangers of the medical condition

3 During surgery the surgeon describes the pacemaker The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon This is the pacemaker lead or one of them with the electrode on the end Theres a little corkscrew in the end to screw into the heart

It is considered that the missing caption does not detract from the overall understanding of the medical description particularly in light of the footage of the surgeon holding the pacemaker whilst describing it

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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SegmentS

In a segment concerning a man who had a motorcycle accident the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr This one will have to go in plaster and Ill have to talk to the orthopaedic surgeons so only very slightly angulated Theres a possibility that theyll want to get it into a slightly better position

It is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation a explanation provided by a doctor to a patient following surgery on her ear in the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009

A news item reported on the English beating the Australian cricket team The news presenter crossed to the sports presenter in London The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Oh [P] its so hard to be an Aussie in London right now we are taking plenty at Lords and now at the House of Lords and Commons behind me The English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to because theyre celebrating taking aone nil lead in the Ashes Series Now [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at Lords he took five from 92 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Captioned [P] the English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to celebrate after taking 1-0 lead in the Ashes series [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at the home of cricket He took 592 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Reported Well hes the captain he always takes a fair bit of heat but even [AS] over here was under a bit of heat about field placements and the use of [FF] now of course hes a hero Look Australia didnt have a lot of luck in this second Test and we know what happened in the first Hes got a bit of heat on him but you cant lay all the blame on the captain he doesnt take every bat and remember those three dismissals there and that second innings for Australia that were highly questionable

Captioned He is their captain he takes the heat but even [AS] is under heat about field placements and use of [FF] Now he is a hero Australia did not have a lot of luck here and we saw what happened in the first Test You cannot lay all the blame on the captain with those questionable dismissals

It is considered that the key message of the report was conveyed via the captions and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the report was not affected

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

News break

Before the presenter concluded the program he referred to an event which had evidently just occurred

And news just in Australias [MG] has won the womens 10 km open water race at the FINA world championships in Rome

This statement appeared to be broadcast live (in real time) and was not captioned at all As noted above although live captions present more significant challenges for broadcasters there is no legislative exemption from the requirements to caption live material In this instance the entire statement was not captioned and accordingly it cannot be regarded as incidental

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in a news item reporting on the FINA world championships in the Nine News program broadcast on 21 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 22 July 2009

News item 1

Following the report on a news item concerning a fire at a marina which damaged lUxury cruisers the news reader crossed over to the reporter at the scene The reporter interviewed a Channel Nine cameraman who lived close to the fire and sought his first hand reaction to the fire There were no captions at all for this exchange which amounted to 40 seconds

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions during a 40 second interview in a segment concerning a fire at a marina in the Nine News program broadcast on 22 July 2009 The remaining parts of the program fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

Getaway broadcast on 23 July 2009

Getawayfeatured reviews of the following travel destinations New York Newcastle NSW Daylesford VIC Caracas in Venezuela and Darwin

Captions were not provided for details of

bull Virgin Blue Flights to Melbourne

bull V Australia flights to Los Angeles

bull a five day tour of Caracas conducted by Kumuka Worldwide

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bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

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Licence conditions applicable to commercial television broadcasting licensees are at clause 7 of Schedule 2 to the Act

Relevantly clause 7(1)(0) states

(1) Each commercial television broadcasting licence is subject to the following conditions [ ] (0) the licensee will comply with standards applicable to the licence

under clause 38 of Schedule 4 (which deals with captioning of television programs for the deaf and hearing impaired)

Exemptions2

The following legislative exemptions apply to the requirement to provide a captioning service

bull the program concerned involves live sport coverage that is subject to unscheduled extended coverage which displaces a news program

bull the program is televised on an SDTV or HDTV multi-channel during the simulcast period unless the program has previously been transmitted on the coresimulcast service

bull the program is wholly or partly in a language other than English bull the audio component of the program consists of music that has no human

vocal content recognisable as English and bull the audio component of the program consists of incidental or background

music

Assessment The assessment is based on DVDs of the broadcasts under investigation and submissions from both the licensee and the complainant Other sources relied on have been referred to where relevant

Issue Whether the licensee failed to provide a captioning service for the broadcasts

Complainants submissions The complainant submitted that the following programs contained missing or intermittent captions

1 21 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 221 July 2009 - 700pm 2 Men 3 22 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 422 July 2009 -700pm 2 Men 5 23 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 623 July 2009 -700pm 2 Men 723 July 2009 -730pm Getaway 8 24 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 9 24 July 2009 - 700pm 2 Men

2 Paragraph 7 of Clause 38 to Schedule 4 of the Act

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1026 July 2009 - 730pm 60 Minutes 11 29 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 1229 July 2009 - 700pm 2 h Men 1329 July 2009 - 830pm RPA 1429 July 2009 - 930pm Cold Case 1530 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News

The complainant submitted further that

In all cases captions are missing and there are in most cases hanging captions Generally it is every 3rd or 4th line of captions thatis missing In the case of item 13 RPA at least 50 of the captions were missing Programs are viewed on a HD Digital TV or using a HD Digital Set Top Box Programs from all other channels have checked at similar times and their captions are satisfactory

You may note that dates 2ih and 28th July 2009 are not included in the list On these dates captions for the 9 News and 2 h Men were satisfactory In respect of item 11 (29th July 9 News) captions were satisfactory for about the first 5 minutes There was then a break in captioning (no notice on screen that they were having problems) and then the problem of missing captions started again This continued throughoutthe rest of the evening as you can see from the specific instances in the above list

In our experience Channel 9 has a long history of failure to provide adequate captioning and a total disregard to customer complaints While the specific instances quoted start at 21 st July the problem had been going on for many weeks prior to that Given the ongoing nature of the problem it would seem that Channel 9 have a chronic technical issue with the insertion of the captions In the case of overseas programs such as 2 h Men and Cold Case they come pre-captioned and there is no doubt that the captioning is being done It is just that they dont seem to be able to transmit all of it so that the program is understandable to a hearing impaired person which after all is the purpose of captioning

Licensees submissions The licensee submitted that

Nine maintains that the Programs were captioned and that Nine provided a captioning service within the meaning of section 38 of Schedule 4 of the Act Nine accepts that in some programs a small number of words were missing from parts of the Programs however Nine maintains this generally occurs from time and time within the provision of live captioning service and that when viewed across the entire Program the quality of the captioning service was such that the Programs were comprehensible to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer Nine notes the Complainant makes particular reference to the broadcast of the program RPA of 21 July 2009 The Complainant states that at least 50 of the captions were missing Nine rejects this claim and notes again that with the

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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exception of the occasional words the program was sufficiently captioned so that it was comprehensible to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer

Findings The licensee has breached clause 38(1) of Schedule 4 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 in that it failed to provide a captioning service for the Nine News program broadcast on 21 22 29 and 20 July 2009 and the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Reasons A captioning service is not defined in the legislation nor is what is regarded as an acceptable quality for a captioning service In assessing the complaint the ACMA has developed the following approach

bull whether any of the exemptions apply to the program

bull whether the program contains text (eg exchange rates or rainfall figures) or visuals (eg finance graphs or synoptic charts) that may be comprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer even if these components were not captioned

bull whether there are uncaptioned live components as these are often unscripted and generally incidental to the main components of the program in such circumstances a missing or incomplete captioning service is not unusual

bull whether the captioning service provided when viewed across the entiremiddot program is of a quality that would result in a program being incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

This approach balances the need for a licensee to provide a captioning service with the practical difficulties that can be faced by broadcasters in doing so

whether any of the exemptions apply to the programs

The exemptions do not apply to the programs complained of

Whether the programs contains text or visuals

Several programs contain text This is indicated where relevant below

Whether there are uncaptioned live components

In this context the ACMAs understanding of live is live in the sense of the broadcast of an event in real time This type of material naturally presents more significant challenges than material that is pre-recorded

It is unclear whether the live crosses in the Nine News programs under review are broadcast in real time The only live (real time) material appears to be a statement announced by the newsreader in the Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009 regarding the FINA world championships

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whether the captioning service provided when viewed across the entire program is of a quality that would result in a program becoming incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

In order to determine whether the captions were of a quality that were comprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer the ACMA staff reviewed nine of the programs as they went to air and six of the programs with captioning transcripts3 (Nine News broadcast on 212223 and 24 July 2009 60 Minutes on 26 July 2009 and Two and a Half Men on 21 July 2009)

Following a review of all the programs complained of it appears that the following programs were fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

bull Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21222324 and 29 July 2009

bull 60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009 and

bull Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

The following programs contained missing or incomplete captions

RPA broadcast on 29 July 2009

This program included separate stories about a man who had a melanoma on his lip a teenager who had dislocated her shoulder a woman with a hole in her eardrum a man with a heart defect and a man who had a motorcycle accident

Segment 1

1 The introduction to the program summarised the medical conditions of various patients who would be appearing in the show One of these patients was a man with a melanoma in his lip The following introductory statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

R Im in the army Ive dealt with life and death before and I dont want to dilly dally I dont want to mess around I want to get to the point and know exactly what Im dealing with

It is considered that the missing captions in the above segment do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the point that the speaker was making which was reiterated in the sentence that was captioned1 want to get to the point and know exactly what Im dealing with It is also noted that this comment was made during the introduction When the program dealt specifically with this patients story the captions missing in the introduction appeared in full

2 During a consultation with a doctor the following explanation was only partially captioned

Statement We have to basically take a margin of your lower lip (whilst drawing a section of the lip on a piece ofpaper)

3 On 1 December 2009 the licensee confirmed that the captioning transcripts provided were transcripts of the relevant broadcasts as they went to air

4 See Attachment A

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Caption e have to basically

However it is noted that a further explanation of the proposed treatment and removal of the tumour is captioned immediately after the above statement is made

Dr Now as you can imagine if you take that amount of tumour out of your lower lip

Due to this and the fact that the doctor was also shown illustrating the proposed procedure whilst providing the explanation it is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 The following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr And so if this is the defect that were creating from your incision what well then be doing is dissecting these islands of lip and skin tissue based on their nerve and blood supply so that those islands are essentially free (whilst drawing the lip on a piece ofpaper)

Given thaUhe doctor was shown illustrating the procedure whilst providing this explanation it is considered that the missing captions would not have affected the overall comprehensibility of the story

4 During surgery the following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon But really for most invasive melanomas a 1 cm margin is probably the minimal margin that youll probably like to take and as I discussed with [R] yesterday certainly greater than one third of the lower lip which is actually a ratio that will need to be reconstructed

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient requiring the removal of a melanoma Further Nine believes the accompanying visual images assisted in the comprehension of the dialogue

It is considered that the combination of the visual images and the text was such that on balance it conveyed the salient point of the piece which was that a certain minimum percentageratio of the patients lip would have to be removed As such it did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Segment 2

In a story concerning a teenager who dislocated her shoulder whilst swimming the following statements were not captioned in the introduction to the program (in bold)

Voiceover Trouble in the pool for 15 year old [L]

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Dr So what made you swim today

L My mum

Dr OK your mum made you swim OK

Dr And you feel me touching you just there

Dr The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small because shes just dislocated it mechanically

It is considered that on balance the information that was missing from the introduction to the program while adding to the story did not affect the overall comprehensibility The segment showed two doctors examining the patients dislocated shoulder stating (captioned) that

So the chances are that this is probably going to be an anterior dislocation The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small

The footage that followed involved the doctors advising the patient that they were going to x-ray her shoulder and explaining the procedure the doctors discussing the x-ray of the shoulder and then sedating the patient and pulling her shoulder into place

Segment 3

1 In a story concerning a woman with a hole in her eardrum the following statements were only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

H Despite being taken to many doctors and specialists nothing seemed to work shy

H Ive noticed and youve certainly noticed a reduction in my hearing in my left ear which was always my better ear in the last 12 months

Additional licensee submissions in relation to the first statement above

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

While Nine accepts that the specific statement identified may not have been comprehensible Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of patient having a hearing device implanted Further as noted in the report the remaining part of the segment made it clear the patient had difficulty hearing in her left ear thereby making the story comprehensible

The delegate accepts that viewed in the context of the overall story the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility in view of the-fact that the central information related to the patients ongoing hearing difficulties the proposed treatment and the outcome of that treatment Taking the whole story into account the (missing) captions which related to her

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TeN between 21 and -30- 8 July 2009

previous attempts to get a diagnosis from several specialists and doctors did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the piece

With regard to the second statement above while it is accepted that the missing captions initially made it difficult to understand the particular problem being experienced it subsequently became clear that the patient has difficulty hearing in her left ear through other statements made such as

Dr OK now [H] you said the left ear was the worst one

2 During that part of the story where the doctor explained the reasons for the patients condition the following statement made was not captioned

Dr so the eardrum as a conductor doesnt work very well

However this particular issue was further elaborated on immediately by the doctor

Dr We describe that type of hearing loss as conductive hearing loss meaning that the sound doesnt conduct well to the inner ear

On this basis it is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 Prior to surgery the surgeon explained the pre-operation procedure to the patient The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon When youre asleep were going to put injections around your ear which is just routine incision behind the ear and then find whats going on graft your eardrum

The missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of this part of the segment particularly as it is made clear later during the story that the surgeon made an incision behind the patients ear

Surgeon If we make an incision behind the ear

4 During surgery thefollowing statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon Were looking ~nto the middle ear and in the middle ear what we see are the bones Now the first bone of hearing is here Now as you can see the second bone is nicely attached to the third bone and we can check that they are intact now if I move the first bone you see how they move The whole apparatus move quite nicely

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall explanation regarding the mechanics of the middle ear and the effectiveness thereof in this case

5 After surgery the patient had a further consultation with the doctor The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr Because its still a bit stiff weve got some improvement in hearing but its still going to be better In the low frequencies its about two and a half times better loudness wise and thats what youre noticing the

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

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bass sound coming through Male voices youre hearing better The high tones are a little bit better but they still take a little while because theyre so much more dependent on good vibration of the drum and I expect this will continue to get better as the drum thins out

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient having a hearing device implanted

The delegate does not accept the licensees argument in this regard It is considered that the missing captions here detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story in that they included the reason that the patient was not experiencing as significant an improvement in relation to higher tones This reasoning would not have been apparent to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the story was affected

Segment 4

1 In a segment concerning a man with a heart defect the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

T Dr [R] my cardiologist said that if I ever got dizzy or had dizzy spells

It is considered that the viewer would have understood the context of the statement given the next statement made by the doctor

Dr OK and that takes us back to why you got a cardiologist of course

2 After explaining the type of heart condition the patient has the doctor then described the consequences The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr The danger of that is that is that it blocks completely and you fall over lose consciousness and hit your head

It is considered that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story The explanation provided by the doctor (and captioned) makes it reasonably clear that he is talking about the dangers of the medical condition

3 During surgery the surgeon describes the pacemaker The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon This is the pacemaker lead or one of them with the electrode on the end Theres a little corkscrew in the end to screw into the heart

It is considered that the missing caption does not detract from the overall understanding of the medical description particularly in light of the footage of the surgeon holding the pacemaker whilst describing it

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SegmentS

In a segment concerning a man who had a motorcycle accident the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr This one will have to go in plaster and Ill have to talk to the orthopaedic surgeons so only very slightly angulated Theres a possibility that theyll want to get it into a slightly better position

It is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation a explanation provided by a doctor to a patient following surgery on her ear in the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009

A news item reported on the English beating the Australian cricket team The news presenter crossed to the sports presenter in London The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Oh [P] its so hard to be an Aussie in London right now we are taking plenty at Lords and now at the House of Lords and Commons behind me The English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to because theyre celebrating taking aone nil lead in the Ashes Series Now [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at Lords he took five from 92 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Captioned [P] the English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to celebrate after taking 1-0 lead in the Ashes series [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at the home of cricket He took 592 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Reported Well hes the captain he always takes a fair bit of heat but even [AS] over here was under a bit of heat about field placements and the use of [FF] now of course hes a hero Look Australia didnt have a lot of luck in this second Test and we know what happened in the first Hes got a bit of heat on him but you cant lay all the blame on the captain he doesnt take every bat and remember those three dismissals there and that second innings for Australia that were highly questionable

Captioned He is their captain he takes the heat but even [AS] is under heat about field placements and use of [FF] Now he is a hero Australia did not have a lot of luck here and we saw what happened in the first Test You cannot lay all the blame on the captain with those questionable dismissals

It is considered that the key message of the report was conveyed via the captions and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the report was not affected

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

11

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

News break

Before the presenter concluded the program he referred to an event which had evidently just occurred

And news just in Australias [MG] has won the womens 10 km open water race at the FINA world championships in Rome

This statement appeared to be broadcast live (in real time) and was not captioned at all As noted above although live captions present more significant challenges for broadcasters there is no legislative exemption from the requirements to caption live material In this instance the entire statement was not captioned and accordingly it cannot be regarded as incidental

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in a news item reporting on the FINA world championships in the Nine News program broadcast on 21 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 22 July 2009

News item 1

Following the report on a news item concerning a fire at a marina which damaged lUxury cruisers the news reader crossed over to the reporter at the scene The reporter interviewed a Channel Nine cameraman who lived close to the fire and sought his first hand reaction to the fire There were no captions at all for this exchange which amounted to 40 seconds

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions during a 40 second interview in a segment concerning a fire at a marina in the Nine News program broadcast on 22 July 2009 The remaining parts of the program fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

Getaway broadcast on 23 July 2009

Getawayfeatured reviews of the following travel destinations New York Newcastle NSW Daylesford VIC Caracas in Venezuela and Darwin

Captions were not provided for details of

bull Virgin Blue Flights to Melbourne

bull V Australia flights to Los Angeles

bull a five day tour of Caracas conducted by Kumuka Worldwide

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

12

bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

13

1026 July 2009 - 730pm 60 Minutes 11 29 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News 1229 July 2009 - 700pm 2 h Men 1329 July 2009 - 830pm RPA 1429 July 2009 - 930pm Cold Case 1530 July 2009 - 600pm 9 News

The complainant submitted further that

In all cases captions are missing and there are in most cases hanging captions Generally it is every 3rd or 4th line of captions thatis missing In the case of item 13 RPA at least 50 of the captions were missing Programs are viewed on a HD Digital TV or using a HD Digital Set Top Box Programs from all other channels have checked at similar times and their captions are satisfactory

You may note that dates 2ih and 28th July 2009 are not included in the list On these dates captions for the 9 News and 2 h Men were satisfactory In respect of item 11 (29th July 9 News) captions were satisfactory for about the first 5 minutes There was then a break in captioning (no notice on screen that they were having problems) and then the problem of missing captions started again This continued throughoutthe rest of the evening as you can see from the specific instances in the above list

In our experience Channel 9 has a long history of failure to provide adequate captioning and a total disregard to customer complaints While the specific instances quoted start at 21 st July the problem had been going on for many weeks prior to that Given the ongoing nature of the problem it would seem that Channel 9 have a chronic technical issue with the insertion of the captions In the case of overseas programs such as 2 h Men and Cold Case they come pre-captioned and there is no doubt that the captioning is being done It is just that they dont seem to be able to transmit all of it so that the program is understandable to a hearing impaired person which after all is the purpose of captioning

Licensees submissions The licensee submitted that

Nine maintains that the Programs were captioned and that Nine provided a captioning service within the meaning of section 38 of Schedule 4 of the Act Nine accepts that in some programs a small number of words were missing from parts of the Programs however Nine maintains this generally occurs from time and time within the provision of live captioning service and that when viewed across the entire Program the quality of the captioning service was such that the Programs were comprehensible to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer Nine notes the Complainant makes particular reference to the broadcast of the program RPA of 21 July 2009 The Complainant states that at least 50 of the captions were missing Nine rejects this claim and notes again that with the

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

4

exception of the occasional words the program was sufficiently captioned so that it was comprehensible to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer

Findings The licensee has breached clause 38(1) of Schedule 4 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 in that it failed to provide a captioning service for the Nine News program broadcast on 21 22 29 and 20 July 2009 and the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Reasons A captioning service is not defined in the legislation nor is what is regarded as an acceptable quality for a captioning service In assessing the complaint the ACMA has developed the following approach

bull whether any of the exemptions apply to the program

bull whether the program contains text (eg exchange rates or rainfall figures) or visuals (eg finance graphs or synoptic charts) that may be comprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer even if these components were not captioned

bull whether there are uncaptioned live components as these are often unscripted and generally incidental to the main components of the program in such circumstances a missing or incomplete captioning service is not unusual

bull whether the captioning service provided when viewed across the entiremiddot program is of a quality that would result in a program being incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

This approach balances the need for a licensee to provide a captioning service with the practical difficulties that can be faced by broadcasters in doing so

whether any of the exemptions apply to the programs

The exemptions do not apply to the programs complained of

Whether the programs contains text or visuals

Several programs contain text This is indicated where relevant below

Whether there are uncaptioned live components

In this context the ACMAs understanding of live is live in the sense of the broadcast of an event in real time This type of material naturally presents more significant challenges than material that is pre-recorded

It is unclear whether the live crosses in the Nine News programs under review are broadcast in real time The only live (real time) material appears to be a statement announced by the newsreader in the Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009 regarding the FINA world championships

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

5

whether the captioning service provided when viewed across the entire program is of a quality that would result in a program becoming incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

In order to determine whether the captions were of a quality that were comprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer the ACMA staff reviewed nine of the programs as they went to air and six of the programs with captioning transcripts3 (Nine News broadcast on 212223 and 24 July 2009 60 Minutes on 26 July 2009 and Two and a Half Men on 21 July 2009)

Following a review of all the programs complained of it appears that the following programs were fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

bull Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21222324 and 29 July 2009

bull 60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009 and

bull Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

The following programs contained missing or incomplete captions

RPA broadcast on 29 July 2009

This program included separate stories about a man who had a melanoma on his lip a teenager who had dislocated her shoulder a woman with a hole in her eardrum a man with a heart defect and a man who had a motorcycle accident

Segment 1

1 The introduction to the program summarised the medical conditions of various patients who would be appearing in the show One of these patients was a man with a melanoma in his lip The following introductory statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

R Im in the army Ive dealt with life and death before and I dont want to dilly dally I dont want to mess around I want to get to the point and know exactly what Im dealing with

It is considered that the missing captions in the above segment do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the point that the speaker was making which was reiterated in the sentence that was captioned1 want to get to the point and know exactly what Im dealing with It is also noted that this comment was made during the introduction When the program dealt specifically with this patients story the captions missing in the introduction appeared in full

2 During a consultation with a doctor the following explanation was only partially captioned

Statement We have to basically take a margin of your lower lip (whilst drawing a section of the lip on a piece ofpaper)

3 On 1 December 2009 the licensee confirmed that the captioning transcripts provided were transcripts of the relevant broadcasts as they went to air

4 See Attachment A

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

6

Caption e have to basically

However it is noted that a further explanation of the proposed treatment and removal of the tumour is captioned immediately after the above statement is made

Dr Now as you can imagine if you take that amount of tumour out of your lower lip

Due to this and the fact that the doctor was also shown illustrating the proposed procedure whilst providing the explanation it is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 The following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr And so if this is the defect that were creating from your incision what well then be doing is dissecting these islands of lip and skin tissue based on their nerve and blood supply so that those islands are essentially free (whilst drawing the lip on a piece ofpaper)

Given thaUhe doctor was shown illustrating the procedure whilst providing this explanation it is considered that the missing captions would not have affected the overall comprehensibility of the story

4 During surgery the following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon But really for most invasive melanomas a 1 cm margin is probably the minimal margin that youll probably like to take and as I discussed with [R] yesterday certainly greater than one third of the lower lip which is actually a ratio that will need to be reconstructed

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient requiring the removal of a melanoma Further Nine believes the accompanying visual images assisted in the comprehension of the dialogue

It is considered that the combination of the visual images and the text was such that on balance it conveyed the salient point of the piece which was that a certain minimum percentageratio of the patients lip would have to be removed As such it did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Segment 2

In a story concerning a teenager who dislocated her shoulder whilst swimming the following statements were not captioned in the introduction to the program (in bold)

Voiceover Trouble in the pool for 15 year old [L]

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

7

Dr So what made you swim today

L My mum

Dr OK your mum made you swim OK

Dr And you feel me touching you just there

Dr The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small because shes just dislocated it mechanically

It is considered that on balance the information that was missing from the introduction to the program while adding to the story did not affect the overall comprehensibility The segment showed two doctors examining the patients dislocated shoulder stating (captioned) that

So the chances are that this is probably going to be an anterior dislocation The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small

The footage that followed involved the doctors advising the patient that they were going to x-ray her shoulder and explaining the procedure the doctors discussing the x-ray of the shoulder and then sedating the patient and pulling her shoulder into place

Segment 3

1 In a story concerning a woman with a hole in her eardrum the following statements were only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

H Despite being taken to many doctors and specialists nothing seemed to work shy

H Ive noticed and youve certainly noticed a reduction in my hearing in my left ear which was always my better ear in the last 12 months

Additional licensee submissions in relation to the first statement above

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

While Nine accepts that the specific statement identified may not have been comprehensible Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of patient having a hearing device implanted Further as noted in the report the remaining part of the segment made it clear the patient had difficulty hearing in her left ear thereby making the story comprehensible

The delegate accepts that viewed in the context of the overall story the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility in view of the-fact that the central information related to the patients ongoing hearing difficulties the proposed treatment and the outcome of that treatment Taking the whole story into account the (missing) captions which related to her

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TeN between 21 and -30- 8 July 2009

previous attempts to get a diagnosis from several specialists and doctors did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the piece

With regard to the second statement above while it is accepted that the missing captions initially made it difficult to understand the particular problem being experienced it subsequently became clear that the patient has difficulty hearing in her left ear through other statements made such as

Dr OK now [H] you said the left ear was the worst one

2 During that part of the story where the doctor explained the reasons for the patients condition the following statement made was not captioned

Dr so the eardrum as a conductor doesnt work very well

However this particular issue was further elaborated on immediately by the doctor

Dr We describe that type of hearing loss as conductive hearing loss meaning that the sound doesnt conduct well to the inner ear

On this basis it is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 Prior to surgery the surgeon explained the pre-operation procedure to the patient The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon When youre asleep were going to put injections around your ear which is just routine incision behind the ear and then find whats going on graft your eardrum

The missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of this part of the segment particularly as it is made clear later during the story that the surgeon made an incision behind the patients ear

Surgeon If we make an incision behind the ear

4 During surgery thefollowing statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon Were looking ~nto the middle ear and in the middle ear what we see are the bones Now the first bone of hearing is here Now as you can see the second bone is nicely attached to the third bone and we can check that they are intact now if I move the first bone you see how they move The whole apparatus move quite nicely

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall explanation regarding the mechanics of the middle ear and the effectiveness thereof in this case

5 After surgery the patient had a further consultation with the doctor The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr Because its still a bit stiff weve got some improvement in hearing but its still going to be better In the low frequencies its about two and a half times better loudness wise and thats what youre noticing the

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

9

bass sound coming through Male voices youre hearing better The high tones are a little bit better but they still take a little while because theyre so much more dependent on good vibration of the drum and I expect this will continue to get better as the drum thins out

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient having a hearing device implanted

The delegate does not accept the licensees argument in this regard It is considered that the missing captions here detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story in that they included the reason that the patient was not experiencing as significant an improvement in relation to higher tones This reasoning would not have been apparent to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the story was affected

Segment 4

1 In a segment concerning a man with a heart defect the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

T Dr [R] my cardiologist said that if I ever got dizzy or had dizzy spells

It is considered that the viewer would have understood the context of the statement given the next statement made by the doctor

Dr OK and that takes us back to why you got a cardiologist of course

2 After explaining the type of heart condition the patient has the doctor then described the consequences The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr The danger of that is that is that it blocks completely and you fall over lose consciousness and hit your head

It is considered that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story The explanation provided by the doctor (and captioned) makes it reasonably clear that he is talking about the dangers of the medical condition

3 During surgery the surgeon describes the pacemaker The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon This is the pacemaker lead or one of them with the electrode on the end Theres a little corkscrew in the end to screw into the heart

It is considered that the missing caption does not detract from the overall understanding of the medical description particularly in light of the footage of the surgeon holding the pacemaker whilst describing it

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

10

SegmentS

In a segment concerning a man who had a motorcycle accident the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr This one will have to go in plaster and Ill have to talk to the orthopaedic surgeons so only very slightly angulated Theres a possibility that theyll want to get it into a slightly better position

It is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation a explanation provided by a doctor to a patient following surgery on her ear in the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009

A news item reported on the English beating the Australian cricket team The news presenter crossed to the sports presenter in London The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Oh [P] its so hard to be an Aussie in London right now we are taking plenty at Lords and now at the House of Lords and Commons behind me The English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to because theyre celebrating taking aone nil lead in the Ashes Series Now [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at Lords he took five from 92 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Captioned [P] the English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to celebrate after taking 1-0 lead in the Ashes series [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at the home of cricket He took 592 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Reported Well hes the captain he always takes a fair bit of heat but even [AS] over here was under a bit of heat about field placements and the use of [FF] now of course hes a hero Look Australia didnt have a lot of luck in this second Test and we know what happened in the first Hes got a bit of heat on him but you cant lay all the blame on the captain he doesnt take every bat and remember those three dismissals there and that second innings for Australia that were highly questionable

Captioned He is their captain he takes the heat but even [AS] is under heat about field placements and use of [FF] Now he is a hero Australia did not have a lot of luck here and we saw what happened in the first Test You cannot lay all the blame on the captain with those questionable dismissals

It is considered that the key message of the report was conveyed via the captions and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the report was not affected

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

11

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

News break

Before the presenter concluded the program he referred to an event which had evidently just occurred

And news just in Australias [MG] has won the womens 10 km open water race at the FINA world championships in Rome

This statement appeared to be broadcast live (in real time) and was not captioned at all As noted above although live captions present more significant challenges for broadcasters there is no legislative exemption from the requirements to caption live material In this instance the entire statement was not captioned and accordingly it cannot be regarded as incidental

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in a news item reporting on the FINA world championships in the Nine News program broadcast on 21 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 22 July 2009

News item 1

Following the report on a news item concerning a fire at a marina which damaged lUxury cruisers the news reader crossed over to the reporter at the scene The reporter interviewed a Channel Nine cameraman who lived close to the fire and sought his first hand reaction to the fire There were no captions at all for this exchange which amounted to 40 seconds

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions during a 40 second interview in a segment concerning a fire at a marina in the Nine News program broadcast on 22 July 2009 The remaining parts of the program fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

Getaway broadcast on 23 July 2009

Getawayfeatured reviews of the following travel destinations New York Newcastle NSW Daylesford VIC Caracas in Venezuela and Darwin

Captions were not provided for details of

bull Virgin Blue Flights to Melbourne

bull V Australia flights to Los Angeles

bull a five day tour of Caracas conducted by Kumuka Worldwide

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

12

bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

13

exception of the occasional words the program was sufficiently captioned so that it was comprehensible to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer

Findings The licensee has breached clause 38(1) of Schedule 4 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 in that it failed to provide a captioning service for the Nine News program broadcast on 21 22 29 and 20 July 2009 and the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Reasons A captioning service is not defined in the legislation nor is what is regarded as an acceptable quality for a captioning service In assessing the complaint the ACMA has developed the following approach

bull whether any of the exemptions apply to the program

bull whether the program contains text (eg exchange rates or rainfall figures) or visuals (eg finance graphs or synoptic charts) that may be comprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer even if these components were not captioned

bull whether there are uncaptioned live components as these are often unscripted and generally incidental to the main components of the program in such circumstances a missing or incomplete captioning service is not unusual

bull whether the captioning service provided when viewed across the entiremiddot program is of a quality that would result in a program being incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

This approach balances the need for a licensee to provide a captioning service with the practical difficulties that can be faced by broadcasters in doing so

whether any of the exemptions apply to the programs

The exemptions do not apply to the programs complained of

Whether the programs contains text or visuals

Several programs contain text This is indicated where relevant below

Whether there are uncaptioned live components

In this context the ACMAs understanding of live is live in the sense of the broadcast of an event in real time This type of material naturally presents more significant challenges than material that is pre-recorded

It is unclear whether the live crosses in the Nine News programs under review are broadcast in real time The only live (real time) material appears to be a statement announced by the newsreader in the Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009 regarding the FINA world championships

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

5

whether the captioning service provided when viewed across the entire program is of a quality that would result in a program becoming incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

In order to determine whether the captions were of a quality that were comprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer the ACMA staff reviewed nine of the programs as they went to air and six of the programs with captioning transcripts3 (Nine News broadcast on 212223 and 24 July 2009 60 Minutes on 26 July 2009 and Two and a Half Men on 21 July 2009)

Following a review of all the programs complained of it appears that the following programs were fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

bull Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21222324 and 29 July 2009

bull 60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009 and

bull Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

The following programs contained missing or incomplete captions

RPA broadcast on 29 July 2009

This program included separate stories about a man who had a melanoma on his lip a teenager who had dislocated her shoulder a woman with a hole in her eardrum a man with a heart defect and a man who had a motorcycle accident

Segment 1

1 The introduction to the program summarised the medical conditions of various patients who would be appearing in the show One of these patients was a man with a melanoma in his lip The following introductory statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

R Im in the army Ive dealt with life and death before and I dont want to dilly dally I dont want to mess around I want to get to the point and know exactly what Im dealing with

It is considered that the missing captions in the above segment do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the point that the speaker was making which was reiterated in the sentence that was captioned1 want to get to the point and know exactly what Im dealing with It is also noted that this comment was made during the introduction When the program dealt specifically with this patients story the captions missing in the introduction appeared in full

2 During a consultation with a doctor the following explanation was only partially captioned

Statement We have to basically take a margin of your lower lip (whilst drawing a section of the lip on a piece ofpaper)

3 On 1 December 2009 the licensee confirmed that the captioning transcripts provided were transcripts of the relevant broadcasts as they went to air

4 See Attachment A

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

6

Caption e have to basically

However it is noted that a further explanation of the proposed treatment and removal of the tumour is captioned immediately after the above statement is made

Dr Now as you can imagine if you take that amount of tumour out of your lower lip

Due to this and the fact that the doctor was also shown illustrating the proposed procedure whilst providing the explanation it is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 The following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr And so if this is the defect that were creating from your incision what well then be doing is dissecting these islands of lip and skin tissue based on their nerve and blood supply so that those islands are essentially free (whilst drawing the lip on a piece ofpaper)

Given thaUhe doctor was shown illustrating the procedure whilst providing this explanation it is considered that the missing captions would not have affected the overall comprehensibility of the story

4 During surgery the following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon But really for most invasive melanomas a 1 cm margin is probably the minimal margin that youll probably like to take and as I discussed with [R] yesterday certainly greater than one third of the lower lip which is actually a ratio that will need to be reconstructed

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient requiring the removal of a melanoma Further Nine believes the accompanying visual images assisted in the comprehension of the dialogue

It is considered that the combination of the visual images and the text was such that on balance it conveyed the salient point of the piece which was that a certain minimum percentageratio of the patients lip would have to be removed As such it did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Segment 2

In a story concerning a teenager who dislocated her shoulder whilst swimming the following statements were not captioned in the introduction to the program (in bold)

Voiceover Trouble in the pool for 15 year old [L]

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

7

Dr So what made you swim today

L My mum

Dr OK your mum made you swim OK

Dr And you feel me touching you just there

Dr The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small because shes just dislocated it mechanically

It is considered that on balance the information that was missing from the introduction to the program while adding to the story did not affect the overall comprehensibility The segment showed two doctors examining the patients dislocated shoulder stating (captioned) that

So the chances are that this is probably going to be an anterior dislocation The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small

The footage that followed involved the doctors advising the patient that they were going to x-ray her shoulder and explaining the procedure the doctors discussing the x-ray of the shoulder and then sedating the patient and pulling her shoulder into place

Segment 3

1 In a story concerning a woman with a hole in her eardrum the following statements were only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

H Despite being taken to many doctors and specialists nothing seemed to work shy

H Ive noticed and youve certainly noticed a reduction in my hearing in my left ear which was always my better ear in the last 12 months

Additional licensee submissions in relation to the first statement above

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

While Nine accepts that the specific statement identified may not have been comprehensible Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of patient having a hearing device implanted Further as noted in the report the remaining part of the segment made it clear the patient had difficulty hearing in her left ear thereby making the story comprehensible

The delegate accepts that viewed in the context of the overall story the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility in view of the-fact that the central information related to the patients ongoing hearing difficulties the proposed treatment and the outcome of that treatment Taking the whole story into account the (missing) captions which related to her

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TeN between 21 and -30- 8 July 2009

previous attempts to get a diagnosis from several specialists and doctors did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the piece

With regard to the second statement above while it is accepted that the missing captions initially made it difficult to understand the particular problem being experienced it subsequently became clear that the patient has difficulty hearing in her left ear through other statements made such as

Dr OK now [H] you said the left ear was the worst one

2 During that part of the story where the doctor explained the reasons for the patients condition the following statement made was not captioned

Dr so the eardrum as a conductor doesnt work very well

However this particular issue was further elaborated on immediately by the doctor

Dr We describe that type of hearing loss as conductive hearing loss meaning that the sound doesnt conduct well to the inner ear

On this basis it is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 Prior to surgery the surgeon explained the pre-operation procedure to the patient The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon When youre asleep were going to put injections around your ear which is just routine incision behind the ear and then find whats going on graft your eardrum

The missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of this part of the segment particularly as it is made clear later during the story that the surgeon made an incision behind the patients ear

Surgeon If we make an incision behind the ear

4 During surgery thefollowing statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon Were looking ~nto the middle ear and in the middle ear what we see are the bones Now the first bone of hearing is here Now as you can see the second bone is nicely attached to the third bone and we can check that they are intact now if I move the first bone you see how they move The whole apparatus move quite nicely

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall explanation regarding the mechanics of the middle ear and the effectiveness thereof in this case

5 After surgery the patient had a further consultation with the doctor The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr Because its still a bit stiff weve got some improvement in hearing but its still going to be better In the low frequencies its about two and a half times better loudness wise and thats what youre noticing the

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

9

bass sound coming through Male voices youre hearing better The high tones are a little bit better but they still take a little while because theyre so much more dependent on good vibration of the drum and I expect this will continue to get better as the drum thins out

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient having a hearing device implanted

The delegate does not accept the licensees argument in this regard It is considered that the missing captions here detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story in that they included the reason that the patient was not experiencing as significant an improvement in relation to higher tones This reasoning would not have been apparent to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the story was affected

Segment 4

1 In a segment concerning a man with a heart defect the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

T Dr [R] my cardiologist said that if I ever got dizzy or had dizzy spells

It is considered that the viewer would have understood the context of the statement given the next statement made by the doctor

Dr OK and that takes us back to why you got a cardiologist of course

2 After explaining the type of heart condition the patient has the doctor then described the consequences The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr The danger of that is that is that it blocks completely and you fall over lose consciousness and hit your head

It is considered that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story The explanation provided by the doctor (and captioned) makes it reasonably clear that he is talking about the dangers of the medical condition

3 During surgery the surgeon describes the pacemaker The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon This is the pacemaker lead or one of them with the electrode on the end Theres a little corkscrew in the end to screw into the heart

It is considered that the missing caption does not detract from the overall understanding of the medical description particularly in light of the footage of the surgeon holding the pacemaker whilst describing it

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

10

SegmentS

In a segment concerning a man who had a motorcycle accident the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr This one will have to go in plaster and Ill have to talk to the orthopaedic surgeons so only very slightly angulated Theres a possibility that theyll want to get it into a slightly better position

It is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation a explanation provided by a doctor to a patient following surgery on her ear in the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009

A news item reported on the English beating the Australian cricket team The news presenter crossed to the sports presenter in London The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Oh [P] its so hard to be an Aussie in London right now we are taking plenty at Lords and now at the House of Lords and Commons behind me The English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to because theyre celebrating taking aone nil lead in the Ashes Series Now [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at Lords he took five from 92 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Captioned [P] the English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to celebrate after taking 1-0 lead in the Ashes series [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at the home of cricket He took 592 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Reported Well hes the captain he always takes a fair bit of heat but even [AS] over here was under a bit of heat about field placements and the use of [FF] now of course hes a hero Look Australia didnt have a lot of luck in this second Test and we know what happened in the first Hes got a bit of heat on him but you cant lay all the blame on the captain he doesnt take every bat and remember those three dismissals there and that second innings for Australia that were highly questionable

Captioned He is their captain he takes the heat but even [AS] is under heat about field placements and use of [FF] Now he is a hero Australia did not have a lot of luck here and we saw what happened in the first Test You cannot lay all the blame on the captain with those questionable dismissals

It is considered that the key message of the report was conveyed via the captions and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the report was not affected

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

11

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

News break

Before the presenter concluded the program he referred to an event which had evidently just occurred

And news just in Australias [MG] has won the womens 10 km open water race at the FINA world championships in Rome

This statement appeared to be broadcast live (in real time) and was not captioned at all As noted above although live captions present more significant challenges for broadcasters there is no legislative exemption from the requirements to caption live material In this instance the entire statement was not captioned and accordingly it cannot be regarded as incidental

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in a news item reporting on the FINA world championships in the Nine News program broadcast on 21 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 22 July 2009

News item 1

Following the report on a news item concerning a fire at a marina which damaged lUxury cruisers the news reader crossed over to the reporter at the scene The reporter interviewed a Channel Nine cameraman who lived close to the fire and sought his first hand reaction to the fire There were no captions at all for this exchange which amounted to 40 seconds

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions during a 40 second interview in a segment concerning a fire at a marina in the Nine News program broadcast on 22 July 2009 The remaining parts of the program fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

Getaway broadcast on 23 July 2009

Getawayfeatured reviews of the following travel destinations New York Newcastle NSW Daylesford VIC Caracas in Venezuela and Darwin

Captions were not provided for details of

bull Virgin Blue Flights to Melbourne

bull V Australia flights to Los Angeles

bull a five day tour of Caracas conducted by Kumuka Worldwide

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

12

bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

13

whether the captioning service provided when viewed across the entire program is of a quality that would result in a program becoming incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

In order to determine whether the captions were of a quality that were comprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer the ACMA staff reviewed nine of the programs as they went to air and six of the programs with captioning transcripts3 (Nine News broadcast on 212223 and 24 July 2009 60 Minutes on 26 July 2009 and Two and a Half Men on 21 July 2009)

Following a review of all the programs complained of it appears that the following programs were fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

bull Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21222324 and 29 July 2009

bull 60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009 and

bull Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

The following programs contained missing or incomplete captions

RPA broadcast on 29 July 2009

This program included separate stories about a man who had a melanoma on his lip a teenager who had dislocated her shoulder a woman with a hole in her eardrum a man with a heart defect and a man who had a motorcycle accident

Segment 1

1 The introduction to the program summarised the medical conditions of various patients who would be appearing in the show One of these patients was a man with a melanoma in his lip The following introductory statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

R Im in the army Ive dealt with life and death before and I dont want to dilly dally I dont want to mess around I want to get to the point and know exactly what Im dealing with

It is considered that the missing captions in the above segment do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the point that the speaker was making which was reiterated in the sentence that was captioned1 want to get to the point and know exactly what Im dealing with It is also noted that this comment was made during the introduction When the program dealt specifically with this patients story the captions missing in the introduction appeared in full

2 During a consultation with a doctor the following explanation was only partially captioned

Statement We have to basically take a margin of your lower lip (whilst drawing a section of the lip on a piece ofpaper)

3 On 1 December 2009 the licensee confirmed that the captioning transcripts provided were transcripts of the relevant broadcasts as they went to air

4 See Attachment A

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

6

Caption e have to basically

However it is noted that a further explanation of the proposed treatment and removal of the tumour is captioned immediately after the above statement is made

Dr Now as you can imagine if you take that amount of tumour out of your lower lip

Due to this and the fact that the doctor was also shown illustrating the proposed procedure whilst providing the explanation it is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 The following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr And so if this is the defect that were creating from your incision what well then be doing is dissecting these islands of lip and skin tissue based on their nerve and blood supply so that those islands are essentially free (whilst drawing the lip on a piece ofpaper)

Given thaUhe doctor was shown illustrating the procedure whilst providing this explanation it is considered that the missing captions would not have affected the overall comprehensibility of the story

4 During surgery the following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon But really for most invasive melanomas a 1 cm margin is probably the minimal margin that youll probably like to take and as I discussed with [R] yesterday certainly greater than one third of the lower lip which is actually a ratio that will need to be reconstructed

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient requiring the removal of a melanoma Further Nine believes the accompanying visual images assisted in the comprehension of the dialogue

It is considered that the combination of the visual images and the text was such that on balance it conveyed the salient point of the piece which was that a certain minimum percentageratio of the patients lip would have to be removed As such it did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Segment 2

In a story concerning a teenager who dislocated her shoulder whilst swimming the following statements were not captioned in the introduction to the program (in bold)

Voiceover Trouble in the pool for 15 year old [L]

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

7

Dr So what made you swim today

L My mum

Dr OK your mum made you swim OK

Dr And you feel me touching you just there

Dr The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small because shes just dislocated it mechanically

It is considered that on balance the information that was missing from the introduction to the program while adding to the story did not affect the overall comprehensibility The segment showed two doctors examining the patients dislocated shoulder stating (captioned) that

So the chances are that this is probably going to be an anterior dislocation The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small

The footage that followed involved the doctors advising the patient that they were going to x-ray her shoulder and explaining the procedure the doctors discussing the x-ray of the shoulder and then sedating the patient and pulling her shoulder into place

Segment 3

1 In a story concerning a woman with a hole in her eardrum the following statements were only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

H Despite being taken to many doctors and specialists nothing seemed to work shy

H Ive noticed and youve certainly noticed a reduction in my hearing in my left ear which was always my better ear in the last 12 months

Additional licensee submissions in relation to the first statement above

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

While Nine accepts that the specific statement identified may not have been comprehensible Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of patient having a hearing device implanted Further as noted in the report the remaining part of the segment made it clear the patient had difficulty hearing in her left ear thereby making the story comprehensible

The delegate accepts that viewed in the context of the overall story the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility in view of the-fact that the central information related to the patients ongoing hearing difficulties the proposed treatment and the outcome of that treatment Taking the whole story into account the (missing) captions which related to her

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TeN between 21 and -30- 8 July 2009

previous attempts to get a diagnosis from several specialists and doctors did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the piece

With regard to the second statement above while it is accepted that the missing captions initially made it difficult to understand the particular problem being experienced it subsequently became clear that the patient has difficulty hearing in her left ear through other statements made such as

Dr OK now [H] you said the left ear was the worst one

2 During that part of the story where the doctor explained the reasons for the patients condition the following statement made was not captioned

Dr so the eardrum as a conductor doesnt work very well

However this particular issue was further elaborated on immediately by the doctor

Dr We describe that type of hearing loss as conductive hearing loss meaning that the sound doesnt conduct well to the inner ear

On this basis it is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 Prior to surgery the surgeon explained the pre-operation procedure to the patient The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon When youre asleep were going to put injections around your ear which is just routine incision behind the ear and then find whats going on graft your eardrum

The missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of this part of the segment particularly as it is made clear later during the story that the surgeon made an incision behind the patients ear

Surgeon If we make an incision behind the ear

4 During surgery thefollowing statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon Were looking ~nto the middle ear and in the middle ear what we see are the bones Now the first bone of hearing is here Now as you can see the second bone is nicely attached to the third bone and we can check that they are intact now if I move the first bone you see how they move The whole apparatus move quite nicely

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall explanation regarding the mechanics of the middle ear and the effectiveness thereof in this case

5 After surgery the patient had a further consultation with the doctor The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr Because its still a bit stiff weve got some improvement in hearing but its still going to be better In the low frequencies its about two and a half times better loudness wise and thats what youre noticing the

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

9

bass sound coming through Male voices youre hearing better The high tones are a little bit better but they still take a little while because theyre so much more dependent on good vibration of the drum and I expect this will continue to get better as the drum thins out

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient having a hearing device implanted

The delegate does not accept the licensees argument in this regard It is considered that the missing captions here detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story in that they included the reason that the patient was not experiencing as significant an improvement in relation to higher tones This reasoning would not have been apparent to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the story was affected

Segment 4

1 In a segment concerning a man with a heart defect the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

T Dr [R] my cardiologist said that if I ever got dizzy or had dizzy spells

It is considered that the viewer would have understood the context of the statement given the next statement made by the doctor

Dr OK and that takes us back to why you got a cardiologist of course

2 After explaining the type of heart condition the patient has the doctor then described the consequences The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr The danger of that is that is that it blocks completely and you fall over lose consciousness and hit your head

It is considered that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story The explanation provided by the doctor (and captioned) makes it reasonably clear that he is talking about the dangers of the medical condition

3 During surgery the surgeon describes the pacemaker The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon This is the pacemaker lead or one of them with the electrode on the end Theres a little corkscrew in the end to screw into the heart

It is considered that the missing caption does not detract from the overall understanding of the medical description particularly in light of the footage of the surgeon holding the pacemaker whilst describing it

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

10

SegmentS

In a segment concerning a man who had a motorcycle accident the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr This one will have to go in plaster and Ill have to talk to the orthopaedic surgeons so only very slightly angulated Theres a possibility that theyll want to get it into a slightly better position

It is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation a explanation provided by a doctor to a patient following surgery on her ear in the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009

A news item reported on the English beating the Australian cricket team The news presenter crossed to the sports presenter in London The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Oh [P] its so hard to be an Aussie in London right now we are taking plenty at Lords and now at the House of Lords and Commons behind me The English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to because theyre celebrating taking aone nil lead in the Ashes Series Now [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at Lords he took five from 92 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Captioned [P] the English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to celebrate after taking 1-0 lead in the Ashes series [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at the home of cricket He took 592 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Reported Well hes the captain he always takes a fair bit of heat but even [AS] over here was under a bit of heat about field placements and the use of [FF] now of course hes a hero Look Australia didnt have a lot of luck in this second Test and we know what happened in the first Hes got a bit of heat on him but you cant lay all the blame on the captain he doesnt take every bat and remember those three dismissals there and that second innings for Australia that were highly questionable

Captioned He is their captain he takes the heat but even [AS] is under heat about field placements and use of [FF] Now he is a hero Australia did not have a lot of luck here and we saw what happened in the first Test You cannot lay all the blame on the captain with those questionable dismissals

It is considered that the key message of the report was conveyed via the captions and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the report was not affected

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

11

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

News break

Before the presenter concluded the program he referred to an event which had evidently just occurred

And news just in Australias [MG] has won the womens 10 km open water race at the FINA world championships in Rome

This statement appeared to be broadcast live (in real time) and was not captioned at all As noted above although live captions present more significant challenges for broadcasters there is no legislative exemption from the requirements to caption live material In this instance the entire statement was not captioned and accordingly it cannot be regarded as incidental

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in a news item reporting on the FINA world championships in the Nine News program broadcast on 21 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 22 July 2009

News item 1

Following the report on a news item concerning a fire at a marina which damaged lUxury cruisers the news reader crossed over to the reporter at the scene The reporter interviewed a Channel Nine cameraman who lived close to the fire and sought his first hand reaction to the fire There were no captions at all for this exchange which amounted to 40 seconds

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions during a 40 second interview in a segment concerning a fire at a marina in the Nine News program broadcast on 22 July 2009 The remaining parts of the program fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

Getaway broadcast on 23 July 2009

Getawayfeatured reviews of the following travel destinations New York Newcastle NSW Daylesford VIC Caracas in Venezuela and Darwin

Captions were not provided for details of

bull Virgin Blue Flights to Melbourne

bull V Australia flights to Los Angeles

bull a five day tour of Caracas conducted by Kumuka Worldwide

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

12

bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

13

Caption e have to basically

However it is noted that a further explanation of the proposed treatment and removal of the tumour is captioned immediately after the above statement is made

Dr Now as you can imagine if you take that amount of tumour out of your lower lip

Due to this and the fact that the doctor was also shown illustrating the proposed procedure whilst providing the explanation it is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 The following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr And so if this is the defect that were creating from your incision what well then be doing is dissecting these islands of lip and skin tissue based on their nerve and blood supply so that those islands are essentially free (whilst drawing the lip on a piece ofpaper)

Given thaUhe doctor was shown illustrating the procedure whilst providing this explanation it is considered that the missing captions would not have affected the overall comprehensibility of the story

4 During surgery the following statement was partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon But really for most invasive melanomas a 1 cm margin is probably the minimal margin that youll probably like to take and as I discussed with [R] yesterday certainly greater than one third of the lower lip which is actually a ratio that will need to be reconstructed

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient requiring the removal of a melanoma Further Nine believes the accompanying visual images assisted in the comprehension of the dialogue

It is considered that the combination of the visual images and the text was such that on balance it conveyed the salient point of the piece which was that a certain minimum percentageratio of the patients lip would have to be removed As such it did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Segment 2

In a story concerning a teenager who dislocated her shoulder whilst swimming the following statements were not captioned in the introduction to the program (in bold)

Voiceover Trouble in the pool for 15 year old [L]

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

7

Dr So what made you swim today

L My mum

Dr OK your mum made you swim OK

Dr And you feel me touching you just there

Dr The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small because shes just dislocated it mechanically

It is considered that on balance the information that was missing from the introduction to the program while adding to the story did not affect the overall comprehensibility The segment showed two doctors examining the patients dislocated shoulder stating (captioned) that

So the chances are that this is probably going to be an anterior dislocation The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small

The footage that followed involved the doctors advising the patient that they were going to x-ray her shoulder and explaining the procedure the doctors discussing the x-ray of the shoulder and then sedating the patient and pulling her shoulder into place

Segment 3

1 In a story concerning a woman with a hole in her eardrum the following statements were only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

H Despite being taken to many doctors and specialists nothing seemed to work shy

H Ive noticed and youve certainly noticed a reduction in my hearing in my left ear which was always my better ear in the last 12 months

Additional licensee submissions in relation to the first statement above

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

While Nine accepts that the specific statement identified may not have been comprehensible Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of patient having a hearing device implanted Further as noted in the report the remaining part of the segment made it clear the patient had difficulty hearing in her left ear thereby making the story comprehensible

The delegate accepts that viewed in the context of the overall story the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility in view of the-fact that the central information related to the patients ongoing hearing difficulties the proposed treatment and the outcome of that treatment Taking the whole story into account the (missing) captions which related to her

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TeN between 21 and -30- 8 July 2009

previous attempts to get a diagnosis from several specialists and doctors did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the piece

With regard to the second statement above while it is accepted that the missing captions initially made it difficult to understand the particular problem being experienced it subsequently became clear that the patient has difficulty hearing in her left ear through other statements made such as

Dr OK now [H] you said the left ear was the worst one

2 During that part of the story where the doctor explained the reasons for the patients condition the following statement made was not captioned

Dr so the eardrum as a conductor doesnt work very well

However this particular issue was further elaborated on immediately by the doctor

Dr We describe that type of hearing loss as conductive hearing loss meaning that the sound doesnt conduct well to the inner ear

On this basis it is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 Prior to surgery the surgeon explained the pre-operation procedure to the patient The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon When youre asleep were going to put injections around your ear which is just routine incision behind the ear and then find whats going on graft your eardrum

The missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of this part of the segment particularly as it is made clear later during the story that the surgeon made an incision behind the patients ear

Surgeon If we make an incision behind the ear

4 During surgery thefollowing statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon Were looking ~nto the middle ear and in the middle ear what we see are the bones Now the first bone of hearing is here Now as you can see the second bone is nicely attached to the third bone and we can check that they are intact now if I move the first bone you see how they move The whole apparatus move quite nicely

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall explanation regarding the mechanics of the middle ear and the effectiveness thereof in this case

5 After surgery the patient had a further consultation with the doctor The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr Because its still a bit stiff weve got some improvement in hearing but its still going to be better In the low frequencies its about two and a half times better loudness wise and thats what youre noticing the

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

9

bass sound coming through Male voices youre hearing better The high tones are a little bit better but they still take a little while because theyre so much more dependent on good vibration of the drum and I expect this will continue to get better as the drum thins out

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient having a hearing device implanted

The delegate does not accept the licensees argument in this regard It is considered that the missing captions here detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story in that they included the reason that the patient was not experiencing as significant an improvement in relation to higher tones This reasoning would not have been apparent to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the story was affected

Segment 4

1 In a segment concerning a man with a heart defect the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

T Dr [R] my cardiologist said that if I ever got dizzy or had dizzy spells

It is considered that the viewer would have understood the context of the statement given the next statement made by the doctor

Dr OK and that takes us back to why you got a cardiologist of course

2 After explaining the type of heart condition the patient has the doctor then described the consequences The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr The danger of that is that is that it blocks completely and you fall over lose consciousness and hit your head

It is considered that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story The explanation provided by the doctor (and captioned) makes it reasonably clear that he is talking about the dangers of the medical condition

3 During surgery the surgeon describes the pacemaker The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon This is the pacemaker lead or one of them with the electrode on the end Theres a little corkscrew in the end to screw into the heart

It is considered that the missing caption does not detract from the overall understanding of the medical description particularly in light of the footage of the surgeon holding the pacemaker whilst describing it

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

10

SegmentS

In a segment concerning a man who had a motorcycle accident the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr This one will have to go in plaster and Ill have to talk to the orthopaedic surgeons so only very slightly angulated Theres a possibility that theyll want to get it into a slightly better position

It is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation a explanation provided by a doctor to a patient following surgery on her ear in the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009

A news item reported on the English beating the Australian cricket team The news presenter crossed to the sports presenter in London The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Oh [P] its so hard to be an Aussie in London right now we are taking plenty at Lords and now at the House of Lords and Commons behind me The English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to because theyre celebrating taking aone nil lead in the Ashes Series Now [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at Lords he took five from 92 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Captioned [P] the English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to celebrate after taking 1-0 lead in the Ashes series [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at the home of cricket He took 592 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Reported Well hes the captain he always takes a fair bit of heat but even [AS] over here was under a bit of heat about field placements and the use of [FF] now of course hes a hero Look Australia didnt have a lot of luck in this second Test and we know what happened in the first Hes got a bit of heat on him but you cant lay all the blame on the captain he doesnt take every bat and remember those three dismissals there and that second innings for Australia that were highly questionable

Captioned He is their captain he takes the heat but even [AS] is under heat about field placements and use of [FF] Now he is a hero Australia did not have a lot of luck here and we saw what happened in the first Test You cannot lay all the blame on the captain with those questionable dismissals

It is considered that the key message of the report was conveyed via the captions and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the report was not affected

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

11

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

News break

Before the presenter concluded the program he referred to an event which had evidently just occurred

And news just in Australias [MG] has won the womens 10 km open water race at the FINA world championships in Rome

This statement appeared to be broadcast live (in real time) and was not captioned at all As noted above although live captions present more significant challenges for broadcasters there is no legislative exemption from the requirements to caption live material In this instance the entire statement was not captioned and accordingly it cannot be regarded as incidental

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in a news item reporting on the FINA world championships in the Nine News program broadcast on 21 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 22 July 2009

News item 1

Following the report on a news item concerning a fire at a marina which damaged lUxury cruisers the news reader crossed over to the reporter at the scene The reporter interviewed a Channel Nine cameraman who lived close to the fire and sought his first hand reaction to the fire There were no captions at all for this exchange which amounted to 40 seconds

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions during a 40 second interview in a segment concerning a fire at a marina in the Nine News program broadcast on 22 July 2009 The remaining parts of the program fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

Getaway broadcast on 23 July 2009

Getawayfeatured reviews of the following travel destinations New York Newcastle NSW Daylesford VIC Caracas in Venezuela and Darwin

Captions were not provided for details of

bull Virgin Blue Flights to Melbourne

bull V Australia flights to Los Angeles

bull a five day tour of Caracas conducted by Kumuka Worldwide

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

12

bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

13

Dr So what made you swim today

L My mum

Dr OK your mum made you swim OK

Dr And you feel me touching you just there

Dr The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small because shes just dislocated it mechanically

It is considered that on balance the information that was missing from the introduction to the program while adding to the story did not affect the overall comprehensibility The segment showed two doctors examining the patients dislocated shoulder stating (captioned) that

So the chances are that this is probably going to be an anterior dislocation The chances of a fracture here are going to be very very small

The footage that followed involved the doctors advising the patient that they were going to x-ray her shoulder and explaining the procedure the doctors discussing the x-ray of the shoulder and then sedating the patient and pulling her shoulder into place

Segment 3

1 In a story concerning a woman with a hole in her eardrum the following statements were only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

H Despite being taken to many doctors and specialists nothing seemed to work shy

H Ive noticed and youve certainly noticed a reduction in my hearing in my left ear which was always my better ear in the last 12 months

Additional licensee submissions in relation to the first statement above

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

While Nine accepts that the specific statement identified may not have been comprehensible Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of patient having a hearing device implanted Further as noted in the report the remaining part of the segment made it clear the patient had difficulty hearing in her left ear thereby making the story comprehensible

The delegate accepts that viewed in the context of the overall story the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility in view of the-fact that the central information related to the patients ongoing hearing difficulties the proposed treatment and the outcome of that treatment Taking the whole story into account the (missing) captions which related to her

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TeN between 21 and -30- 8 July 2009

previous attempts to get a diagnosis from several specialists and doctors did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the piece

With regard to the second statement above while it is accepted that the missing captions initially made it difficult to understand the particular problem being experienced it subsequently became clear that the patient has difficulty hearing in her left ear through other statements made such as

Dr OK now [H] you said the left ear was the worst one

2 During that part of the story where the doctor explained the reasons for the patients condition the following statement made was not captioned

Dr so the eardrum as a conductor doesnt work very well

However this particular issue was further elaborated on immediately by the doctor

Dr We describe that type of hearing loss as conductive hearing loss meaning that the sound doesnt conduct well to the inner ear

On this basis it is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 Prior to surgery the surgeon explained the pre-operation procedure to the patient The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon When youre asleep were going to put injections around your ear which is just routine incision behind the ear and then find whats going on graft your eardrum

The missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of this part of the segment particularly as it is made clear later during the story that the surgeon made an incision behind the patients ear

Surgeon If we make an incision behind the ear

4 During surgery thefollowing statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon Were looking ~nto the middle ear and in the middle ear what we see are the bones Now the first bone of hearing is here Now as you can see the second bone is nicely attached to the third bone and we can check that they are intact now if I move the first bone you see how they move The whole apparatus move quite nicely

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall explanation regarding the mechanics of the middle ear and the effectiveness thereof in this case

5 After surgery the patient had a further consultation with the doctor The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr Because its still a bit stiff weve got some improvement in hearing but its still going to be better In the low frequencies its about two and a half times better loudness wise and thats what youre noticing the

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

9

bass sound coming through Male voices youre hearing better The high tones are a little bit better but they still take a little while because theyre so much more dependent on good vibration of the drum and I expect this will continue to get better as the drum thins out

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient having a hearing device implanted

The delegate does not accept the licensees argument in this regard It is considered that the missing captions here detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story in that they included the reason that the patient was not experiencing as significant an improvement in relation to higher tones This reasoning would not have been apparent to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the story was affected

Segment 4

1 In a segment concerning a man with a heart defect the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

T Dr [R] my cardiologist said that if I ever got dizzy or had dizzy spells

It is considered that the viewer would have understood the context of the statement given the next statement made by the doctor

Dr OK and that takes us back to why you got a cardiologist of course

2 After explaining the type of heart condition the patient has the doctor then described the consequences The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr The danger of that is that is that it blocks completely and you fall over lose consciousness and hit your head

It is considered that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story The explanation provided by the doctor (and captioned) makes it reasonably clear that he is talking about the dangers of the medical condition

3 During surgery the surgeon describes the pacemaker The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon This is the pacemaker lead or one of them with the electrode on the end Theres a little corkscrew in the end to screw into the heart

It is considered that the missing caption does not detract from the overall understanding of the medical description particularly in light of the footage of the surgeon holding the pacemaker whilst describing it

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

10

SegmentS

In a segment concerning a man who had a motorcycle accident the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr This one will have to go in plaster and Ill have to talk to the orthopaedic surgeons so only very slightly angulated Theres a possibility that theyll want to get it into a slightly better position

It is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation a explanation provided by a doctor to a patient following surgery on her ear in the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009

A news item reported on the English beating the Australian cricket team The news presenter crossed to the sports presenter in London The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Oh [P] its so hard to be an Aussie in London right now we are taking plenty at Lords and now at the House of Lords and Commons behind me The English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to because theyre celebrating taking aone nil lead in the Ashes Series Now [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at Lords he took five from 92 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Captioned [P] the English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to celebrate after taking 1-0 lead in the Ashes series [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at the home of cricket He took 592 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Reported Well hes the captain he always takes a fair bit of heat but even [AS] over here was under a bit of heat about field placements and the use of [FF] now of course hes a hero Look Australia didnt have a lot of luck in this second Test and we know what happened in the first Hes got a bit of heat on him but you cant lay all the blame on the captain he doesnt take every bat and remember those three dismissals there and that second innings for Australia that were highly questionable

Captioned He is their captain he takes the heat but even [AS] is under heat about field placements and use of [FF] Now he is a hero Australia did not have a lot of luck here and we saw what happened in the first Test You cannot lay all the blame on the captain with those questionable dismissals

It is considered that the key message of the report was conveyed via the captions and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the report was not affected

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

11

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

News break

Before the presenter concluded the program he referred to an event which had evidently just occurred

And news just in Australias [MG] has won the womens 10 km open water race at the FINA world championships in Rome

This statement appeared to be broadcast live (in real time) and was not captioned at all As noted above although live captions present more significant challenges for broadcasters there is no legislative exemption from the requirements to caption live material In this instance the entire statement was not captioned and accordingly it cannot be regarded as incidental

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in a news item reporting on the FINA world championships in the Nine News program broadcast on 21 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 22 July 2009

News item 1

Following the report on a news item concerning a fire at a marina which damaged lUxury cruisers the news reader crossed over to the reporter at the scene The reporter interviewed a Channel Nine cameraman who lived close to the fire and sought his first hand reaction to the fire There were no captions at all for this exchange which amounted to 40 seconds

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions during a 40 second interview in a segment concerning a fire at a marina in the Nine News program broadcast on 22 July 2009 The remaining parts of the program fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

Getaway broadcast on 23 July 2009

Getawayfeatured reviews of the following travel destinations New York Newcastle NSW Daylesford VIC Caracas in Venezuela and Darwin

Captions were not provided for details of

bull Virgin Blue Flights to Melbourne

bull V Australia flights to Los Angeles

bull a five day tour of Caracas conducted by Kumuka Worldwide

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

12

bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

13

previous attempts to get a diagnosis from several specialists and doctors did not affect the overall comprehensibility of the piece

With regard to the second statement above while it is accepted that the missing captions initially made it difficult to understand the particular problem being experienced it subsequently became clear that the patient has difficulty hearing in her left ear through other statements made such as

Dr OK now [H] you said the left ear was the worst one

2 During that part of the story where the doctor explained the reasons for the patients condition the following statement made was not captioned

Dr so the eardrum as a conductor doesnt work very well

However this particular issue was further elaborated on immediately by the doctor

Dr We describe that type of hearing loss as conductive hearing loss meaning that the sound doesnt conduct well to the inner ear

On this basis it is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the story

3 Prior to surgery the surgeon explained the pre-operation procedure to the patient The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon When youre asleep were going to put injections around your ear which is just routine incision behind the ear and then find whats going on graft your eardrum

The missing captions do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of this part of the segment particularly as it is made clear later during the story that the surgeon made an incision behind the patients ear

Surgeon If we make an incision behind the ear

4 During surgery thefollowing statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon Were looking ~nto the middle ear and in the middle ear what we see are the bones Now the first bone of hearing is here Now as you can see the second bone is nicely attached to the third bone and we can check that they are intact now if I move the first bone you see how they move The whole apparatus move quite nicely

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the overall explanation regarding the mechanics of the middle ear and the effectiveness thereof in this case

5 After surgery the patient had a further consultation with the doctor The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr Because its still a bit stiff weve got some improvement in hearing but its still going to be better In the low frequencies its about two and a half times better loudness wise and thats what youre noticing the

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

9

bass sound coming through Male voices youre hearing better The high tones are a little bit better but they still take a little while because theyre so much more dependent on good vibration of the drum and I expect this will continue to get better as the drum thins out

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient having a hearing device implanted

The delegate does not accept the licensees argument in this regard It is considered that the missing captions here detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story in that they included the reason that the patient was not experiencing as significant an improvement in relation to higher tones This reasoning would not have been apparent to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the story was affected

Segment 4

1 In a segment concerning a man with a heart defect the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

T Dr [R] my cardiologist said that if I ever got dizzy or had dizzy spells

It is considered that the viewer would have understood the context of the statement given the next statement made by the doctor

Dr OK and that takes us back to why you got a cardiologist of course

2 After explaining the type of heart condition the patient has the doctor then described the consequences The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr The danger of that is that is that it blocks completely and you fall over lose consciousness and hit your head

It is considered that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story The explanation provided by the doctor (and captioned) makes it reasonably clear that he is talking about the dangers of the medical condition

3 During surgery the surgeon describes the pacemaker The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon This is the pacemaker lead or one of them with the electrode on the end Theres a little corkscrew in the end to screw into the heart

It is considered that the missing caption does not detract from the overall understanding of the medical description particularly in light of the footage of the surgeon holding the pacemaker whilst describing it

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

10

SegmentS

In a segment concerning a man who had a motorcycle accident the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr This one will have to go in plaster and Ill have to talk to the orthopaedic surgeons so only very slightly angulated Theres a possibility that theyll want to get it into a slightly better position

It is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation a explanation provided by a doctor to a patient following surgery on her ear in the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009

A news item reported on the English beating the Australian cricket team The news presenter crossed to the sports presenter in London The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Oh [P] its so hard to be an Aussie in London right now we are taking plenty at Lords and now at the House of Lords and Commons behind me The English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to because theyre celebrating taking aone nil lead in the Ashes Series Now [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at Lords he took five from 92 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Captioned [P] the English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to celebrate after taking 1-0 lead in the Ashes series [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at the home of cricket He took 592 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Reported Well hes the captain he always takes a fair bit of heat but even [AS] over here was under a bit of heat about field placements and the use of [FF] now of course hes a hero Look Australia didnt have a lot of luck in this second Test and we know what happened in the first Hes got a bit of heat on him but you cant lay all the blame on the captain he doesnt take every bat and remember those three dismissals there and that second innings for Australia that were highly questionable

Captioned He is their captain he takes the heat but even [AS] is under heat about field placements and use of [FF] Now he is a hero Australia did not have a lot of luck here and we saw what happened in the first Test You cannot lay all the blame on the captain with those questionable dismissals

It is considered that the key message of the report was conveyed via the captions and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the report was not affected

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

11

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

News break

Before the presenter concluded the program he referred to an event which had evidently just occurred

And news just in Australias [MG] has won the womens 10 km open water race at the FINA world championships in Rome

This statement appeared to be broadcast live (in real time) and was not captioned at all As noted above although live captions present more significant challenges for broadcasters there is no legislative exemption from the requirements to caption live material In this instance the entire statement was not captioned and accordingly it cannot be regarded as incidental

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in a news item reporting on the FINA world championships in the Nine News program broadcast on 21 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 22 July 2009

News item 1

Following the report on a news item concerning a fire at a marina which damaged lUxury cruisers the news reader crossed over to the reporter at the scene The reporter interviewed a Channel Nine cameraman who lived close to the fire and sought his first hand reaction to the fire There were no captions at all for this exchange which amounted to 40 seconds

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions during a 40 second interview in a segment concerning a fire at a marina in the Nine News program broadcast on 22 July 2009 The remaining parts of the program fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

Getaway broadcast on 23 July 2009

Getawayfeatured reviews of the following travel destinations New York Newcastle NSW Daylesford VIC Caracas in Venezuela and Darwin

Captions were not provided for details of

bull Virgin Blue Flights to Melbourne

bull V Australia flights to Los Angeles

bull a five day tour of Caracas conducted by Kumuka Worldwide

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

12

bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

13

bass sound coming through Male voices youre hearing better The high tones are a little bit better but they still take a little while because theyre so much more dependent on good vibration of the drum and I expect this will continue to get better as the drum thins out

Additional licensee submissions

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned that when viewed across the entire program the missing segment was not such as to result in the entire program itself being incomprehensible It merely affected a discreet segment of dialogue that formed part of a broader story of a patient having a hearing device implanted

The delegate does not accept the licensees argument in this regard It is considered that the missing captions here detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story in that they included the reason that the patient was not experiencing as significant an improvement in relation to higher tones This reasoning would not have been apparent to the deaf or hearing impaired viewer and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the story was affected

Segment 4

1 In a segment concerning a man with a heart defect the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

T Dr [R] my cardiologist said that if I ever got dizzy or had dizzy spells

It is considered that the viewer would have understood the context of the statement given the next statement made by the doctor

Dr OK and that takes us back to why you got a cardiologist of course

2 After explaining the type of heart condition the patient has the doctor then described the consequences The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr The danger of that is that is that it blocks completely and you fall over lose consciousness and hit your head

It is considered that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story The explanation provided by the doctor (and captioned) makes it reasonably clear that he is talking about the dangers of the medical condition

3 During surgery the surgeon describes the pacemaker The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Surgeon This is the pacemaker lead or one of them with the electrode on the end Theres a little corkscrew in the end to screw into the heart

It is considered that the missing caption does not detract from the overall understanding of the medical description particularly in light of the footage of the surgeon holding the pacemaker whilst describing it

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

10

SegmentS

In a segment concerning a man who had a motorcycle accident the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr This one will have to go in plaster and Ill have to talk to the orthopaedic surgeons so only very slightly angulated Theres a possibility that theyll want to get it into a slightly better position

It is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation a explanation provided by a doctor to a patient following surgery on her ear in the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009

A news item reported on the English beating the Australian cricket team The news presenter crossed to the sports presenter in London The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Oh [P] its so hard to be an Aussie in London right now we are taking plenty at Lords and now at the House of Lords and Commons behind me The English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to because theyre celebrating taking aone nil lead in the Ashes Series Now [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at Lords he took five from 92 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Captioned [P] the English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to celebrate after taking 1-0 lead in the Ashes series [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at the home of cricket He took 592 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Reported Well hes the captain he always takes a fair bit of heat but even [AS] over here was under a bit of heat about field placements and the use of [FF] now of course hes a hero Look Australia didnt have a lot of luck in this second Test and we know what happened in the first Hes got a bit of heat on him but you cant lay all the blame on the captain he doesnt take every bat and remember those three dismissals there and that second innings for Australia that were highly questionable

Captioned He is their captain he takes the heat but even [AS] is under heat about field placements and use of [FF] Now he is a hero Australia did not have a lot of luck here and we saw what happened in the first Test You cannot lay all the blame on the captain with those questionable dismissals

It is considered that the key message of the report was conveyed via the captions and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the report was not affected

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

11

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

News break

Before the presenter concluded the program he referred to an event which had evidently just occurred

And news just in Australias [MG] has won the womens 10 km open water race at the FINA world championships in Rome

This statement appeared to be broadcast live (in real time) and was not captioned at all As noted above although live captions present more significant challenges for broadcasters there is no legislative exemption from the requirements to caption live material In this instance the entire statement was not captioned and accordingly it cannot be regarded as incidental

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in a news item reporting on the FINA world championships in the Nine News program broadcast on 21 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 22 July 2009

News item 1

Following the report on a news item concerning a fire at a marina which damaged lUxury cruisers the news reader crossed over to the reporter at the scene The reporter interviewed a Channel Nine cameraman who lived close to the fire and sought his first hand reaction to the fire There were no captions at all for this exchange which amounted to 40 seconds

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions during a 40 second interview in a segment concerning a fire at a marina in the Nine News program broadcast on 22 July 2009 The remaining parts of the program fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

Getaway broadcast on 23 July 2009

Getawayfeatured reviews of the following travel destinations New York Newcastle NSW Daylesford VIC Caracas in Venezuela and Darwin

Captions were not provided for details of

bull Virgin Blue Flights to Melbourne

bull V Australia flights to Los Angeles

bull a five day tour of Caracas conducted by Kumuka Worldwide

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

12

bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

13

SegmentS

In a segment concerning a man who had a motorcycle accident the following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Dr This one will have to go in plaster and Ill have to talk to the orthopaedic surgeons so only very slightly angulated Theres a possibility that theyll want to get it into a slightly better position

It is considered that the missing captions do not affect the overall comprehensibility of the story

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation a explanation provided by a doctor to a patient following surgery on her ear in the RPA program broadcast on 29 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 21 July 2009

A news item reported on the English beating the Australian cricket team The news presenter crossed to the sports presenter in London The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Oh [P] its so hard to be an Aussie in London right now we are taking plenty at Lords and now at the House of Lords and Commons behind me The English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to because theyre celebrating taking aone nil lead in the Ashes Series Now [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at Lords he took five from 92 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Captioned [P] the English dont mind rubbing it in and they have every right to celebrate after taking 1-0 lead in the Ashes series [AF] can take much of the credit playing his final match at the home of cricket He took 592 bowling England to a 115 run victory

Reported Well hes the captain he always takes a fair bit of heat but even [AS] over here was under a bit of heat about field placements and the use of [FF] now of course hes a hero Look Australia didnt have a lot of luck in this second Test and we know what happened in the first Hes got a bit of heat on him but you cant lay all the blame on the captain he doesnt take every bat and remember those three dismissals there and that second innings for Australia that were highly questionable

Captioned He is their captain he takes the heat but even [AS] is under heat about field placements and use of [FF] Now he is a hero Australia did not have a lot of luck here and we saw what happened in the first Test You cannot lay all the blame on the captain with those questionable dismissals

It is considered that the key message of the report was conveyed via the captions and accordingly the overall comprehensibility of the report was not affected

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

11

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

News break

Before the presenter concluded the program he referred to an event which had evidently just occurred

And news just in Australias [MG] has won the womens 10 km open water race at the FINA world championships in Rome

This statement appeared to be broadcast live (in real time) and was not captioned at all As noted above although live captions present more significant challenges for broadcasters there is no legislative exemption from the requirements to caption live material In this instance the entire statement was not captioned and accordingly it cannot be regarded as incidental

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in a news item reporting on the FINA world championships in the Nine News program broadcast on 21 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 22 July 2009

News item 1

Following the report on a news item concerning a fire at a marina which damaged lUxury cruisers the news reader crossed over to the reporter at the scene The reporter interviewed a Channel Nine cameraman who lived close to the fire and sought his first hand reaction to the fire There were no captions at all for this exchange which amounted to 40 seconds

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions during a 40 second interview in a segment concerning a fire at a marina in the Nine News program broadcast on 22 July 2009 The remaining parts of the program fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

Getaway broadcast on 23 July 2009

Getawayfeatured reviews of the following travel destinations New York Newcastle NSW Daylesford VIC Caracas in Venezuela and Darwin

Captions were not provided for details of

bull Virgin Blue Flights to Melbourne

bull V Australia flights to Los Angeles

bull a five day tour of Caracas conducted by Kumuka Worldwide

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

12

bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

13

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

News break

Before the presenter concluded the program he referred to an event which had evidently just occurred

And news just in Australias [MG] has won the womens 10 km open water race at the FINA world championships in Rome

This statement appeared to be broadcast live (in real time) and was not captioned at all As noted above although live captions present more significant challenges for broadcasters there is no legislative exemption from the requirements to caption live material In this instance the entire statement was not captioned and accordingly it cannot be regarded as incidental

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in a news item reporting on the FINA world championships in the Nine News program broadcast on 21 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 22 July 2009

News item 1

Following the report on a news item concerning a fire at a marina which damaged lUxury cruisers the news reader crossed over to the reporter at the scene The reporter interviewed a Channel Nine cameraman who lived close to the fire and sought his first hand reaction to the fire There were no captions at all for this exchange which amounted to 40 seconds

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions during a 40 second interview in a segment concerning a fire at a marina in the Nine News program broadcast on 22 July 2009 The remaining parts of the program fully captioned and reflected the dialogue

Getaway broadcast on 23 July 2009

Getawayfeatured reviews of the following travel destinations New York Newcastle NSW Daylesford VIC Caracas in Venezuela and Darwin

Captions were not provided for details of

bull Virgin Blue Flights to Melbourne

bull V Australia flights to Los Angeles

bull a five day tour of Caracas conducted by Kumuka Worldwide

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

12

bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

13

bull the phone number to text or call to enter a competition to win a trip to Chicago and

bull the phone number and website address for half price deals at hotels in Brampton Island Sydney Port Douglas and Terrigal

However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story

The text included the following information

Virgin Blue To Melbourne

Adelaide $69 Sydney $89 Darwin $169 Brisbane $139 Perth $209

V Australia To Los Angeles

Sydney $1041 Melbourne $1049 Adelaide $1333 Brisbane $1 052 Perth $1650

Connections to Neyv York are available

Caracas Capital of Venezuela

Kumuka Worldwide wwwkumukacom

5 day package including one night in Caracas accommodation most meals transfers a flight over Angel Falls and guide costs $1655 per person twin share

SMS full name 191 999

Call 1902555999

1300134044 or Holidaysforsaletvgetaway

13 15 17 or Holidaysforsale tvgetaway

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

13

02 4385 7979 or wwwstaroftheseaterrigalcom

Nine News broadcast on 23 July 2009

News item

During a news item reporting on swine flu patients and pregnant women in Bankstown hospital the news presenter crossed to the reporter outside the hospital The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported The hospital says that a partition separates the pregnant patients from the other people who attend the flu clinic in the afternoon and of course thorough cleaning is done afterwards But its a less than ideal situation and the Health Department wont say how many other hospitals have a similar imperfect arrangement

Captioned The hospital says that there is a partition that separates pregnant women from any flu patients who are also at the out patients clinic here In an ideal world another part of the hospital would be used What other hospitals have imperfect arrangements isnt yet clear

It is considered that the overall message of the report was conveyed in the captions

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee provided a captioning service for the Nine News program broadcast on 23 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 24 July 2009

A follow up story was broadcast on the news item broadcast the previous day concerning swine flu patients in Bankstown hospital During this segment the news presenter crossed to the reporter outside the hospital The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Health officials arent saying very much in fact the Health Minister [JOB] wouldnt say what other hospitals are using this method with dealing with the problem If it was justa one off at Bankstown they could have made it perfectly clear and on the use of barricades that separate pregnant women from swine flu patients theyre not saying if that can be improved But a better way surely would be separate rooms in different parts of the hospital

Captioned Not that health officials are saying much The Minister [JOB] wouldnt even tell us whether its happening at other hospitals But if Bankstown was a one-off he could have cleared that up this afternoon The Government also wont say if the use of barricades to divide the area could be improved A better option would be separate rooms in different parts of the hospital

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

14

It is considered that the overall message of the reporter was conveyed in the captions

Conclusion

The licensee provided a captioning service for the Nine News program broadcast on 24 July 2009

Nine News broadcast on 29 July 2009

Introduction to the News

The following statements introducing the news items presented in the program were only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Voiceover One of leagues biggest stars in a shock code switch to Aussie rules

Reporter Relatives of the North Epping murder plead for help to solve the crime

Although these news items were not captioned in the introductions they were captioned later in the program when the stories were reported

News item 1

A news item reported on a rugby league player KH signing on with a Gold Coast AFL team The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Reporter The boss of AFL [AD] was heavily involved in negotiations He did background checks on Hunt talked to Hunts girlfriend Emma and even had [H] as a guest in his home

It is considered that the missing captions did not detract from the overall understanding of the report in view of the interview footage shown of AD following the reporters statements ADs name and title U[AD] AFL Chief Executive was shown on the screen while he was captioned saying that he had spoken to KH in his home and addressed all the issues and was very comfortable with the responses

The following statement was also only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Reporter My information is that [KHs] contract is worth more than $3 million in over three years The NRL cant get near that kind of money but they might be able to have a crack at a player whos at a loose end like former Swan [BH]

It is considered that the missing captions detracted from the overall understanding of the news item reported Information regarding the fact that the NRL could not afford the money paid out in KHs rugby league contract was a key part of the news item

The news presenter then interviewed KH and asked what his reaction was to comments made by a former rugby league player WL that KH was simply in it for the money The following statement was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

15

Presenter to KH K your reaction to WL there saying you are simply in it for the money

KH Its pretty interesting to hear what people are saying but so be it

It is considered that the missing captions detracted from the understanding of KHs reaction to WLs comment on his move to AFL and therefore the overall comprehensibility of the statement made

A statement made by KH was also captioned incorrectly (in bold) I

Statement [WLs] entitled to his comments Hes an idol of mine a God of the game someone I looked up to over the years

Caption [WLs] entitled to his comments Hes no idol of mine a God of the game someone I looked up to over the years

Additional licensee submissions in relation to the first statement above

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned about the finding While Nine accepts that the error would have created an initial misunderstanding Nine believes the following dialogue which was correctly captioned provided an immediate correct context Nine believes that hearing impaired viewers understand that during live captioning mistakes can be made and that while there may have been an initial misunderstanding it was immediately clear that there was an incorrect translation

The delegate accepts that while the incorrect caption may have initially resulted in the incorrect understanding for a deaf or hearing impaired viewer of WLs response to the question his views were made clear immediately after by stating that WL was a God of the game and that he looked up to him Accordingly it is considered that this part of the news item did not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the item

New item 2

A news item reported on the relatives of a family murdered in Sydney who appealed to the public for information about the murder The following statements made by the reporter were only partially captioned

Statement finding all five of their relatives bludgeoned to death

Caption Who made the horrifying discovery their relatives were dead

Statement Clutching one other for support [MLs] sister and brother-inshylaw were at a complete loss to answer why the [L] family was killed

Caption [MLs] sister and brother-in-law were at a complete loss to answer the one burning question

The captions were not a word for word capture of the statements made It is noted however that these statements were immediately followed by a captioned interview with MLs brother-in-law in which it is made clear that he did not know why his family was murdered

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

16

I cant imagine any reason [why] this happened to his family

On this basis it is considered that the missing captions did not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the item

News item 3

A news item reported on critics calling for radio presenter KS to be sacked over his reaction to a teenage girl who revealed on air that she had been raped (captioned) The segment broadcast the on air exchange between the teenager her mother and KS The first statement made by the mother was captioned

Mother OK have you had sex

The following statements were not captioned

Child OK I got raped when I was 12 years old

KS Right and is that the only experience youve had

Reporter The stunt was shut down by [JO] The Department of Community Services wants to speak to the mother who said she knew about the rape

It is considered that the missing captions in this instance were crucial to the understanding of the news item Given that KSs response was not captioned at all the item would have been incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

News item 4

A news item reported on the drowning of a father and his two children The following statements were only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Presenter Crashing waves a dark night we can only imagine the desperation of young father [SO] as he tried in vain to save his two sons and was also drowned

Reporter he knocked the pram holding his little brother Travis and both fell into the churning water

It is considered that it became apparent in the remaining captioned statements made by the reporter that the father and his two children drowned when the children fell in the water and the father tried to save them such that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the piece

Reporter Dad jumped in to try and save them but all three died

The news item then reported on the inquest and interviewed the reactions of a fisherman at the wharf The following statements were not captioned or only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Reporter Widow SL wiped away tears as the inquest recommended a posthumous bravery award for Shane a move welcomed by the fish owners at the Tathra wharf

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

17

Man on wharf Doesnt help but you know what else do you give a bloke whos given up his life for his kids

Reporter The other recommendations a bravery award for a man who jumped into the water to try to save the Os and safety upgrades at the jetty This rescue buoy is new

Reporter Ss mum and dad wrote to the court requesting more safety improvements here at the wharf including a fence all the way around and a ladder down to the water 8ega Council says it will talk to the o family about how it can make the wharf safer

In regard to the missing captions concerning the posthumous bravery award it is considered that they do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of

the news item particularly given that the statement was captured earlier by the news presenter

Presenter Today a coroner recommended that [S] be given a posthumous bravery award

However in regard to the remaining statements it is considered that the missing captions detracted from a full understanding of the news itemmiddotwhich included comments from a local fisherman other recommendations made by the coroner and the nature of the letter written to the Court by the parents of the deceased father

News items 5 and 6 and swimming news

Three news items did not contain any captioning at all a report on a missing 12 year old girl a report on a fire caused by a clothes dryer and the swimming news A caption from the previous story remained on screen for all three items - [8s] mum and dad wrote to the court

News item 8

A news item reported on the history and development of Hickson Road in The Rocks The following statement made by the reporter was captioned as follows

Statement a multi billion dollar redevelopment of luxury apartments and glittering office blocks

Caption A vast new commercial and residential project

While the captions were not a word for word capture of the statement made it is considered that they reflected the reporters comments and did not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the news item

Sport

The following statement made by the sports presenter was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Presenter For the first time since injuring his knee in round 6 Manlys BS has begun training again or running again

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the understanding of the statement made by the presenter

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 18 July 2009

However after the sports report was completed the following comments made by the sports and news presenters were not captioned

Sports Presenter By the way BB is quitting Queenslands rugby and coming to the NSW Waratahs

News Presenter Hes seen the light

Sports Presenter Hes coming south

It is considered that the missing captions prevented a hearing impaired or deaf person from gleaning the relevant information that the particular rugby league player had changed teams and accordingly affected the overall comprehensibility of the item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in the following news items in the Nine News program broadcast on 29 July 2009

bull statements made that the NRL cannot afford the money paid out in a rugby league contract

bull a statement made by a rugby league player in response to comments made by a former rugby league player about his move to the AFL

bull an excerpt from a radio program in a news item reporting on the criticism of a radio presenters response to a teenagers comment that she was raped

bull statements made in a news item reporting on the drowning of a father and his two children

bull two news items reporting on a missing 12 year old girl and a fire caused by a clothes dryer and the swimming news and

bull a sports item that a rugby league player had changed teams

The remaining parts of the program were adequately captioned

Nine News broadcast on 30 July 2009

News item 1

A news item reported on the abduction of a man The following captions appeared for so brief a period that they would not have been legible

Reporter Kidnapped at knifepoint in the driveway of his Cabramatta home

Reporter His would-be killers took off

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

19

However it was made clear via other captions during the remainder of the story that the man was kidnapped and his abductors escaped

Presenter A Sydney man has narrowly survived a horrifying ordeal in which he was abducted tied up and threatened with a knife He was then left to drown in the Georges River but somehow managed to get free

Accordingly the overall comprehensibility would not have been substantially affected

The following caption in the news item was missing

Reporter and forensic police are now examining his vehicle

It is considered that this missing caption detracted from the overall understanding of the new item This information was a key element of the news item

News item 3

A news item reported on the Labor Partys National Conference The following captions appeared for so brief a period that they would not have been legible (in bold)

Presenter Hes announced the creation of more jobs and apprenticeships for more people saying the Federal government was determined not to allow a wasted generation of unemployed in Australia

The following statement was not captioned at all

Reporter The plan including 30000 apprenticeships

It is considered that the brief captions and the missing caption did not detract from the general comprehensibility of the news item because the key information contained in the missing captions was captioned later during the story

PM We do not want to see a wasted generation

Reporter That produced the one significant announcement that $94 million to create 50000 new jobs and training opportunities in Green industries

News item 6

A news item reported on the finding of the remains of the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War The following caption appeared for so brief a period that it would not have been legible

Presenter the wreckage was discovered in April near the border with Laos

It is considered that this missing caption detracted from the overall understanding of the new item This information was a substantial part of the news item

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

20

News item 7

During a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other the news presenter interviewed the reporter in the studio The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Presenter In any business wed expect the two sides to be brought together and sort it out Has the Premier done that

Reporter No he hasnt and the simple reason is that hes trying to gain more Green votes Hes trying to protect the political careers of the deputy Premier CT and the Education Minister VF

Captioned Presenter In any business the boss would get the two sides together and work things out Why hasnt the premier done that

Reporter Because hes happy to spend money Trying to gain the support of green voters He wants them onside to save the seats of the Deputy Premier CT and Education Minister VF

It is considered that the overall message of the reporter was conveyed in the captions

Further the following statement was not captioned

Reporter Its tough for them its tough for the Premier It doesnt look good for him

It is considered that this missing caption altered the understanding of the analysis of the news item As such the missing captions detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story

News item 8

In a news item reporting on the government raising $7 million from speed cameras an explanation of the streets which are the top money earners for speed cameras was not captioned However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story The text included the following information

Cleveland St Moore Park $705M Great Western Hwy Parramatta $201M Eastern Distributor Darlinghurst $140M Cabramatta Rd Bonnyrigg $128M Victoria Rd Ryde $119M

News item 9

During a news item reporting on the Powerball jackpot the following caption appeared for a split second too brief to be read

Presenter Theres around $80 million on offer in tonights Powerball

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

21

It is considered that the brief caption did not detract from the understanding of the news item It is noted that a poster stating Powerball $80 million appeared behind the representative interviewed from NSW Lotteries

In response to a question posed by the presenter And if a single ticket wins tonight it will be a record in itself wont it the response by the NSW Lotteries representative was only partially captioned

Statement JV Thats right with $80 million on offer its the second biggest prize weve ever offered If its a single winner picking up $80 million which is quite possible then theyll beat the old record which is just under $60 million which set in Victoria last year

Captioned JV Yes its the second biggest prize we have offered

It is considered in that in the context of the overall news item the captions adequately reflect the statement made in the news item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation to the following news items broadcast in the Nine News program on 30 July 2009

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the abduction of a man

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War and

bull a statement made in a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

22

Attachment A

Summary of programs which provided a captioning service

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21 July 2009

Charlie attends a number of consultations with a psychiatrist They are intermittently dispersed with segments of his brother Alans panic attacks

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 22 July 2009

Charlies ex-girlfriend turns up to his house at a time when he was becoming serious with his current girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 23 July 2009

Charlie fails in his attempt to give up smoking and alcohol He then breaks up with his girlfriend after she tries to make him eat healthy food

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 24 July 2009

A woman who lives in the apartment below Charlies has a crush on him and tries to make him jealous with her boyfriend Alan turns up to his sons birthday with his younger girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 29 July 2009

Charlie has a problem with Alans girlfriend moving in with them and Alans ex-wife has a problem with the girlfriend wearing a bikini around their son The ex-wife eventually becomes friends with the girlfriend

60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009

The program reported on three stories

1 A lovers workshop held by a sex therapist who claims to help couples bring sex back into their relationship The story featured three couples who discussed the lack of sex in their relationships It also interviewed sex counsellor BA about her views on how to resolve no sex in marriage

2 A comparison between DC a successful millionaire magician and JG an escape artist whose escapes do not always go to plan The story interviewed both magicians and broadcast footage of their magic tricks and attempted escapes Such as DC was shown making a train disappear flying and being sawn in half JG was shown escaping from a wet concrete cube and from being chained to a gate standing on his head in a container of water

3 Recreational shooting of feral animals It featured the views of CT her husband and four children and the former power broker of the One Nation Party DO and his wife L The story also showed footage of DO as a presenter on 2GB arguing in favour of shooting feral animals and interviewed Professor P an expert on feral animals who contended that recreational shooters could not solve the problem of feral pigs

The program concluded with the Mailbag segment where letters were read out regarding the program of the previous week

middotACMA ~nvestigatibn Report - various programs middotbroadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

23

Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

This episode was about solving the murder of a Cuban immigrant Gonzalo Luque who was a baseball star in Cuba He had arrived on a raft on a beach in Florida with other immigrants in 1998 and was granted asylum His friend Juan (another baseball player) was arrested and sent back to Cuba Juan returned to the United States 18 months later and was granted asylum At the end of the episode it was revealed that Juan had accidentally killed Gonzalo when he told Gonzalo that he was tortured when he was sent back to Cuba in 1998

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30middot 24 July 2009

Presenter to KH K your reaction to WL there saying you are simply in it for the money

KH Its pretty interesting to hear what people are saying but so be it

It is considered that the missing captions detracted from the understanding of KHs reaction to WLs comment on his move to AFL and therefore the overall comprehensibility of the statement made

A statement made by KH was also captioned incorrectly (in bold) I

Statement [WLs] entitled to his comments Hes an idol of mine a God of the game someone I looked up to over the years

Caption [WLs] entitled to his comments Hes no idol of mine a God of the game someone I looked up to over the years

Additional licensee submissions in relation to the first statement above

On 17 February 2009 the licensee made the following additional submissions in relation to the ACMAs preliminary investigation report

Nine is concerned about the finding While Nine accepts that the error would have created an initial misunderstanding Nine believes the following dialogue which was correctly captioned provided an immediate correct context Nine believes that hearing impaired viewers understand that during live captioning mistakes can be made and that while there may have been an initial misunderstanding it was immediately clear that there was an incorrect translation

The delegate accepts that while the incorrect caption may have initially resulted in the incorrect understanding for a deaf or hearing impaired viewer of WLs response to the question his views were made clear immediately after by stating that WL was a God of the game and that he looked up to him Accordingly it is considered that this part of the news item did not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the item

New item 2

A news item reported on the relatives of a family murdered in Sydney who appealed to the public for information about the murder The following statements made by the reporter were only partially captioned

Statement finding all five of their relatives bludgeoned to death

Caption Who made the horrifying discovery their relatives were dead

Statement Clutching one other for support [MLs] sister and brother-inshylaw were at a complete loss to answer why the [L] family was killed

Caption [MLs] sister and brother-in-law were at a complete loss to answer the one burning question

The captions were not a word for word capture of the statements made It is noted however that these statements were immediately followed by a captioned interview with MLs brother-in-law in which it is made clear that he did not know why his family was murdered

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

16

I cant imagine any reason [why] this happened to his family

On this basis it is considered that the missing captions did not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the item

News item 3

A news item reported on critics calling for radio presenter KS to be sacked over his reaction to a teenage girl who revealed on air that she had been raped (captioned) The segment broadcast the on air exchange between the teenager her mother and KS The first statement made by the mother was captioned

Mother OK have you had sex

The following statements were not captioned

Child OK I got raped when I was 12 years old

KS Right and is that the only experience youve had

Reporter The stunt was shut down by [JO] The Department of Community Services wants to speak to the mother who said she knew about the rape

It is considered that the missing captions in this instance were crucial to the understanding of the news item Given that KSs response was not captioned at all the item would have been incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

News item 4

A news item reported on the drowning of a father and his two children The following statements were only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Presenter Crashing waves a dark night we can only imagine the desperation of young father [SO] as he tried in vain to save his two sons and was also drowned

Reporter he knocked the pram holding his little brother Travis and both fell into the churning water

It is considered that it became apparent in the remaining captioned statements made by the reporter that the father and his two children drowned when the children fell in the water and the father tried to save them such that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the piece

Reporter Dad jumped in to try and save them but all three died

The news item then reported on the inquest and interviewed the reactions of a fisherman at the wharf The following statements were not captioned or only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Reporter Widow SL wiped away tears as the inquest recommended a posthumous bravery award for Shane a move welcomed by the fish owners at the Tathra wharf

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

17

Man on wharf Doesnt help but you know what else do you give a bloke whos given up his life for his kids

Reporter The other recommendations a bravery award for a man who jumped into the water to try to save the Os and safety upgrades at the jetty This rescue buoy is new

Reporter Ss mum and dad wrote to the court requesting more safety improvements here at the wharf including a fence all the way around and a ladder down to the water 8ega Council says it will talk to the o family about how it can make the wharf safer

In regard to the missing captions concerning the posthumous bravery award it is considered that they do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of

the news item particularly given that the statement was captured earlier by the news presenter

Presenter Today a coroner recommended that [S] be given a posthumous bravery award

However in regard to the remaining statements it is considered that the missing captions detracted from a full understanding of the news itemmiddotwhich included comments from a local fisherman other recommendations made by the coroner and the nature of the letter written to the Court by the parents of the deceased father

News items 5 and 6 and swimming news

Three news items did not contain any captioning at all a report on a missing 12 year old girl a report on a fire caused by a clothes dryer and the swimming news A caption from the previous story remained on screen for all three items - [8s] mum and dad wrote to the court

News item 8

A news item reported on the history and development of Hickson Road in The Rocks The following statement made by the reporter was captioned as follows

Statement a multi billion dollar redevelopment of luxury apartments and glittering office blocks

Caption A vast new commercial and residential project

While the captions were not a word for word capture of the statement made it is considered that they reflected the reporters comments and did not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the news item

Sport

The following statement made by the sports presenter was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Presenter For the first time since injuring his knee in round 6 Manlys BS has begun training again or running again

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the understanding of the statement made by the presenter

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 18 July 2009

However after the sports report was completed the following comments made by the sports and news presenters were not captioned

Sports Presenter By the way BB is quitting Queenslands rugby and coming to the NSW Waratahs

News Presenter Hes seen the light

Sports Presenter Hes coming south

It is considered that the missing captions prevented a hearing impaired or deaf person from gleaning the relevant information that the particular rugby league player had changed teams and accordingly affected the overall comprehensibility of the item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in the following news items in the Nine News program broadcast on 29 July 2009

bull statements made that the NRL cannot afford the money paid out in a rugby league contract

bull a statement made by a rugby league player in response to comments made by a former rugby league player about his move to the AFL

bull an excerpt from a radio program in a news item reporting on the criticism of a radio presenters response to a teenagers comment that she was raped

bull statements made in a news item reporting on the drowning of a father and his two children

bull two news items reporting on a missing 12 year old girl and a fire caused by a clothes dryer and the swimming news and

bull a sports item that a rugby league player had changed teams

The remaining parts of the program were adequately captioned

Nine News broadcast on 30 July 2009

News item 1

A news item reported on the abduction of a man The following captions appeared for so brief a period that they would not have been legible

Reporter Kidnapped at knifepoint in the driveway of his Cabramatta home

Reporter His would-be killers took off

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

19

However it was made clear via other captions during the remainder of the story that the man was kidnapped and his abductors escaped

Presenter A Sydney man has narrowly survived a horrifying ordeal in which he was abducted tied up and threatened with a knife He was then left to drown in the Georges River but somehow managed to get free

Accordingly the overall comprehensibility would not have been substantially affected

The following caption in the news item was missing

Reporter and forensic police are now examining his vehicle

It is considered that this missing caption detracted from the overall understanding of the new item This information was a key element of the news item

News item 3

A news item reported on the Labor Partys National Conference The following captions appeared for so brief a period that they would not have been legible (in bold)

Presenter Hes announced the creation of more jobs and apprenticeships for more people saying the Federal government was determined not to allow a wasted generation of unemployed in Australia

The following statement was not captioned at all

Reporter The plan including 30000 apprenticeships

It is considered that the brief captions and the missing caption did not detract from the general comprehensibility of the news item because the key information contained in the missing captions was captioned later during the story

PM We do not want to see a wasted generation

Reporter That produced the one significant announcement that $94 million to create 50000 new jobs and training opportunities in Green industries

News item 6

A news item reported on the finding of the remains of the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War The following caption appeared for so brief a period that it would not have been legible

Presenter the wreckage was discovered in April near the border with Laos

It is considered that this missing caption detracted from the overall understanding of the new item This information was a substantial part of the news item

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

20

News item 7

During a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other the news presenter interviewed the reporter in the studio The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Presenter In any business wed expect the two sides to be brought together and sort it out Has the Premier done that

Reporter No he hasnt and the simple reason is that hes trying to gain more Green votes Hes trying to protect the political careers of the deputy Premier CT and the Education Minister VF

Captioned Presenter In any business the boss would get the two sides together and work things out Why hasnt the premier done that

Reporter Because hes happy to spend money Trying to gain the support of green voters He wants them onside to save the seats of the Deputy Premier CT and Education Minister VF

It is considered that the overall message of the reporter was conveyed in the captions

Further the following statement was not captioned

Reporter Its tough for them its tough for the Premier It doesnt look good for him

It is considered that this missing caption altered the understanding of the analysis of the news item As such the missing captions detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story

News item 8

In a news item reporting on the government raising $7 million from speed cameras an explanation of the streets which are the top money earners for speed cameras was not captioned However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story The text included the following information

Cleveland St Moore Park $705M Great Western Hwy Parramatta $201M Eastern Distributor Darlinghurst $140M Cabramatta Rd Bonnyrigg $128M Victoria Rd Ryde $119M

News item 9

During a news item reporting on the Powerball jackpot the following caption appeared for a split second too brief to be read

Presenter Theres around $80 million on offer in tonights Powerball

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

21

It is considered that the brief caption did not detract from the understanding of the news item It is noted that a poster stating Powerball $80 million appeared behind the representative interviewed from NSW Lotteries

In response to a question posed by the presenter And if a single ticket wins tonight it will be a record in itself wont it the response by the NSW Lotteries representative was only partially captioned

Statement JV Thats right with $80 million on offer its the second biggest prize weve ever offered If its a single winner picking up $80 million which is quite possible then theyll beat the old record which is just under $60 million which set in Victoria last year

Captioned JV Yes its the second biggest prize we have offered

It is considered in that in the context of the overall news item the captions adequately reflect the statement made in the news item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation to the following news items broadcast in the Nine News program on 30 July 2009

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the abduction of a man

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War and

bull a statement made in a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

22

Attachment A

Summary of programs which provided a captioning service

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21 July 2009

Charlie attends a number of consultations with a psychiatrist They are intermittently dispersed with segments of his brother Alans panic attacks

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 22 July 2009

Charlies ex-girlfriend turns up to his house at a time when he was becoming serious with his current girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 23 July 2009

Charlie fails in his attempt to give up smoking and alcohol He then breaks up with his girlfriend after she tries to make him eat healthy food

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 24 July 2009

A woman who lives in the apartment below Charlies has a crush on him and tries to make him jealous with her boyfriend Alan turns up to his sons birthday with his younger girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 29 July 2009

Charlie has a problem with Alans girlfriend moving in with them and Alans ex-wife has a problem with the girlfriend wearing a bikini around their son The ex-wife eventually becomes friends with the girlfriend

60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009

The program reported on three stories

1 A lovers workshop held by a sex therapist who claims to help couples bring sex back into their relationship The story featured three couples who discussed the lack of sex in their relationships It also interviewed sex counsellor BA about her views on how to resolve no sex in marriage

2 A comparison between DC a successful millionaire magician and JG an escape artist whose escapes do not always go to plan The story interviewed both magicians and broadcast footage of their magic tricks and attempted escapes Such as DC was shown making a train disappear flying and being sawn in half JG was shown escaping from a wet concrete cube and from being chained to a gate standing on his head in a container of water

3 Recreational shooting of feral animals It featured the views of CT her husband and four children and the former power broker of the One Nation Party DO and his wife L The story also showed footage of DO as a presenter on 2GB arguing in favour of shooting feral animals and interviewed Professor P an expert on feral animals who contended that recreational shooters could not solve the problem of feral pigs

The program concluded with the Mailbag segment where letters were read out regarding the program of the previous week

middotACMA ~nvestigatibn Report - various programs middotbroadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

23

Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

This episode was about solving the murder of a Cuban immigrant Gonzalo Luque who was a baseball star in Cuba He had arrived on a raft on a beach in Florida with other immigrants in 1998 and was granted asylum His friend Juan (another baseball player) was arrested and sent back to Cuba Juan returned to the United States 18 months later and was granted asylum At the end of the episode it was revealed that Juan had accidentally killed Gonzalo when he told Gonzalo that he was tortured when he was sent back to Cuba in 1998

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30middot 24 July 2009

I cant imagine any reason [why] this happened to his family

On this basis it is considered that the missing captions did not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the item

News item 3

A news item reported on critics calling for radio presenter KS to be sacked over his reaction to a teenage girl who revealed on air that she had been raped (captioned) The segment broadcast the on air exchange between the teenager her mother and KS The first statement made by the mother was captioned

Mother OK have you had sex

The following statements were not captioned

Child OK I got raped when I was 12 years old

KS Right and is that the only experience youve had

Reporter The stunt was shut down by [JO] The Department of Community Services wants to speak to the mother who said she knew about the rape

It is considered that the missing captions in this instance were crucial to the understanding of the news item Given that KSs response was not captioned at all the item would have been incomprehensible to a deaf or hearing impaired viewer

News item 4

A news item reported on the drowning of a father and his two children The following statements were only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Presenter Crashing waves a dark night we can only imagine the desperation of young father [SO] as he tried in vain to save his two sons and was also drowned

Reporter he knocked the pram holding his little brother Travis and both fell into the churning water

It is considered that it became apparent in the remaining captioned statements made by the reporter that the father and his two children drowned when the children fell in the water and the father tried to save them such that the missing captions would not have detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the piece

Reporter Dad jumped in to try and save them but all three died

The news item then reported on the inquest and interviewed the reactions of a fisherman at the wharf The following statements were not captioned or only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Reporter Widow SL wiped away tears as the inquest recommended a posthumous bravery award for Shane a move welcomed by the fish owners at the Tathra wharf

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

17

Man on wharf Doesnt help but you know what else do you give a bloke whos given up his life for his kids

Reporter The other recommendations a bravery award for a man who jumped into the water to try to save the Os and safety upgrades at the jetty This rescue buoy is new

Reporter Ss mum and dad wrote to the court requesting more safety improvements here at the wharf including a fence all the way around and a ladder down to the water 8ega Council says it will talk to the o family about how it can make the wharf safer

In regard to the missing captions concerning the posthumous bravery award it is considered that they do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of

the news item particularly given that the statement was captured earlier by the news presenter

Presenter Today a coroner recommended that [S] be given a posthumous bravery award

However in regard to the remaining statements it is considered that the missing captions detracted from a full understanding of the news itemmiddotwhich included comments from a local fisherman other recommendations made by the coroner and the nature of the letter written to the Court by the parents of the deceased father

News items 5 and 6 and swimming news

Three news items did not contain any captioning at all a report on a missing 12 year old girl a report on a fire caused by a clothes dryer and the swimming news A caption from the previous story remained on screen for all three items - [8s] mum and dad wrote to the court

News item 8

A news item reported on the history and development of Hickson Road in The Rocks The following statement made by the reporter was captioned as follows

Statement a multi billion dollar redevelopment of luxury apartments and glittering office blocks

Caption A vast new commercial and residential project

While the captions were not a word for word capture of the statement made it is considered that they reflected the reporters comments and did not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the news item

Sport

The following statement made by the sports presenter was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Presenter For the first time since injuring his knee in round 6 Manlys BS has begun training again or running again

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the understanding of the statement made by the presenter

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 18 July 2009

However after the sports report was completed the following comments made by the sports and news presenters were not captioned

Sports Presenter By the way BB is quitting Queenslands rugby and coming to the NSW Waratahs

News Presenter Hes seen the light

Sports Presenter Hes coming south

It is considered that the missing captions prevented a hearing impaired or deaf person from gleaning the relevant information that the particular rugby league player had changed teams and accordingly affected the overall comprehensibility of the item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in the following news items in the Nine News program broadcast on 29 July 2009

bull statements made that the NRL cannot afford the money paid out in a rugby league contract

bull a statement made by a rugby league player in response to comments made by a former rugby league player about his move to the AFL

bull an excerpt from a radio program in a news item reporting on the criticism of a radio presenters response to a teenagers comment that she was raped

bull statements made in a news item reporting on the drowning of a father and his two children

bull two news items reporting on a missing 12 year old girl and a fire caused by a clothes dryer and the swimming news and

bull a sports item that a rugby league player had changed teams

The remaining parts of the program were adequately captioned

Nine News broadcast on 30 July 2009

News item 1

A news item reported on the abduction of a man The following captions appeared for so brief a period that they would not have been legible

Reporter Kidnapped at knifepoint in the driveway of his Cabramatta home

Reporter His would-be killers took off

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

19

However it was made clear via other captions during the remainder of the story that the man was kidnapped and his abductors escaped

Presenter A Sydney man has narrowly survived a horrifying ordeal in which he was abducted tied up and threatened with a knife He was then left to drown in the Georges River but somehow managed to get free

Accordingly the overall comprehensibility would not have been substantially affected

The following caption in the news item was missing

Reporter and forensic police are now examining his vehicle

It is considered that this missing caption detracted from the overall understanding of the new item This information was a key element of the news item

News item 3

A news item reported on the Labor Partys National Conference The following captions appeared for so brief a period that they would not have been legible (in bold)

Presenter Hes announced the creation of more jobs and apprenticeships for more people saying the Federal government was determined not to allow a wasted generation of unemployed in Australia

The following statement was not captioned at all

Reporter The plan including 30000 apprenticeships

It is considered that the brief captions and the missing caption did not detract from the general comprehensibility of the news item because the key information contained in the missing captions was captioned later during the story

PM We do not want to see a wasted generation

Reporter That produced the one significant announcement that $94 million to create 50000 new jobs and training opportunities in Green industries

News item 6

A news item reported on the finding of the remains of the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War The following caption appeared for so brief a period that it would not have been legible

Presenter the wreckage was discovered in April near the border with Laos

It is considered that this missing caption detracted from the overall understanding of the new item This information was a substantial part of the news item

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

20

News item 7

During a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other the news presenter interviewed the reporter in the studio The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Presenter In any business wed expect the two sides to be brought together and sort it out Has the Premier done that

Reporter No he hasnt and the simple reason is that hes trying to gain more Green votes Hes trying to protect the political careers of the deputy Premier CT and the Education Minister VF

Captioned Presenter In any business the boss would get the two sides together and work things out Why hasnt the premier done that

Reporter Because hes happy to spend money Trying to gain the support of green voters He wants them onside to save the seats of the Deputy Premier CT and Education Minister VF

It is considered that the overall message of the reporter was conveyed in the captions

Further the following statement was not captioned

Reporter Its tough for them its tough for the Premier It doesnt look good for him

It is considered that this missing caption altered the understanding of the analysis of the news item As such the missing captions detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story

News item 8

In a news item reporting on the government raising $7 million from speed cameras an explanation of the streets which are the top money earners for speed cameras was not captioned However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story The text included the following information

Cleveland St Moore Park $705M Great Western Hwy Parramatta $201M Eastern Distributor Darlinghurst $140M Cabramatta Rd Bonnyrigg $128M Victoria Rd Ryde $119M

News item 9

During a news item reporting on the Powerball jackpot the following caption appeared for a split second too brief to be read

Presenter Theres around $80 million on offer in tonights Powerball

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

21

It is considered that the brief caption did not detract from the understanding of the news item It is noted that a poster stating Powerball $80 million appeared behind the representative interviewed from NSW Lotteries

In response to a question posed by the presenter And if a single ticket wins tonight it will be a record in itself wont it the response by the NSW Lotteries representative was only partially captioned

Statement JV Thats right with $80 million on offer its the second biggest prize weve ever offered If its a single winner picking up $80 million which is quite possible then theyll beat the old record which is just under $60 million which set in Victoria last year

Captioned JV Yes its the second biggest prize we have offered

It is considered in that in the context of the overall news item the captions adequately reflect the statement made in the news item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation to the following news items broadcast in the Nine News program on 30 July 2009

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the abduction of a man

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War and

bull a statement made in a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

22

Attachment A

Summary of programs which provided a captioning service

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21 July 2009

Charlie attends a number of consultations with a psychiatrist They are intermittently dispersed with segments of his brother Alans panic attacks

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 22 July 2009

Charlies ex-girlfriend turns up to his house at a time when he was becoming serious with his current girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 23 July 2009

Charlie fails in his attempt to give up smoking and alcohol He then breaks up with his girlfriend after she tries to make him eat healthy food

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 24 July 2009

A woman who lives in the apartment below Charlies has a crush on him and tries to make him jealous with her boyfriend Alan turns up to his sons birthday with his younger girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 29 July 2009

Charlie has a problem with Alans girlfriend moving in with them and Alans ex-wife has a problem with the girlfriend wearing a bikini around their son The ex-wife eventually becomes friends with the girlfriend

60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009

The program reported on three stories

1 A lovers workshop held by a sex therapist who claims to help couples bring sex back into their relationship The story featured three couples who discussed the lack of sex in their relationships It also interviewed sex counsellor BA about her views on how to resolve no sex in marriage

2 A comparison between DC a successful millionaire magician and JG an escape artist whose escapes do not always go to plan The story interviewed both magicians and broadcast footage of their magic tricks and attempted escapes Such as DC was shown making a train disappear flying and being sawn in half JG was shown escaping from a wet concrete cube and from being chained to a gate standing on his head in a container of water

3 Recreational shooting of feral animals It featured the views of CT her husband and four children and the former power broker of the One Nation Party DO and his wife L The story also showed footage of DO as a presenter on 2GB arguing in favour of shooting feral animals and interviewed Professor P an expert on feral animals who contended that recreational shooters could not solve the problem of feral pigs

The program concluded with the Mailbag segment where letters were read out regarding the program of the previous week

middotACMA ~nvestigatibn Report - various programs middotbroadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

23

Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

This episode was about solving the murder of a Cuban immigrant Gonzalo Luque who was a baseball star in Cuba He had arrived on a raft on a beach in Florida with other immigrants in 1998 and was granted asylum His friend Juan (another baseball player) was arrested and sent back to Cuba Juan returned to the United States 18 months later and was granted asylum At the end of the episode it was revealed that Juan had accidentally killed Gonzalo when he told Gonzalo that he was tortured when he was sent back to Cuba in 1998

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30middot 24 July 2009

Man on wharf Doesnt help but you know what else do you give a bloke whos given up his life for his kids

Reporter The other recommendations a bravery award for a man who jumped into the water to try to save the Os and safety upgrades at the jetty This rescue buoy is new

Reporter Ss mum and dad wrote to the court requesting more safety improvements here at the wharf including a fence all the way around and a ladder down to the water 8ega Council says it will talk to the o family about how it can make the wharf safer

In regard to the missing captions concerning the posthumous bravery award it is considered that they do not detract from the overall comprehensibility of

the news item particularly given that the statement was captured earlier by the news presenter

Presenter Today a coroner recommended that [S] be given a posthumous bravery award

However in regard to the remaining statements it is considered that the missing captions detracted from a full understanding of the news itemmiddotwhich included comments from a local fisherman other recommendations made by the coroner and the nature of the letter written to the Court by the parents of the deceased father

News items 5 and 6 and swimming news

Three news items did not contain any captioning at all a report on a missing 12 year old girl a report on a fire caused by a clothes dryer and the swimming news A caption from the previous story remained on screen for all three items - [8s] mum and dad wrote to the court

News item 8

A news item reported on the history and development of Hickson Road in The Rocks The following statement made by the reporter was captioned as follows

Statement a multi billion dollar redevelopment of luxury apartments and glittering office blocks

Caption A vast new commercial and residential project

While the captions were not a word for word capture of the statement made it is considered that they reflected the reporters comments and did not detract from the overall comprehensibility of the news item

Sport

The following statement made by the sports presenter was only partially captioned (missing captions in bold)

Presenter For the first time since injuring his knee in round 6 Manlys BS has begun training again or running again

It is considered that the missing captions do not detract from the understanding of the statement made by the presenter

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 18 July 2009

However after the sports report was completed the following comments made by the sports and news presenters were not captioned

Sports Presenter By the way BB is quitting Queenslands rugby and coming to the NSW Waratahs

News Presenter Hes seen the light

Sports Presenter Hes coming south

It is considered that the missing captions prevented a hearing impaired or deaf person from gleaning the relevant information that the particular rugby league player had changed teams and accordingly affected the overall comprehensibility of the item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in the following news items in the Nine News program broadcast on 29 July 2009

bull statements made that the NRL cannot afford the money paid out in a rugby league contract

bull a statement made by a rugby league player in response to comments made by a former rugby league player about his move to the AFL

bull an excerpt from a radio program in a news item reporting on the criticism of a radio presenters response to a teenagers comment that she was raped

bull statements made in a news item reporting on the drowning of a father and his two children

bull two news items reporting on a missing 12 year old girl and a fire caused by a clothes dryer and the swimming news and

bull a sports item that a rugby league player had changed teams

The remaining parts of the program were adequately captioned

Nine News broadcast on 30 July 2009

News item 1

A news item reported on the abduction of a man The following captions appeared for so brief a period that they would not have been legible

Reporter Kidnapped at knifepoint in the driveway of his Cabramatta home

Reporter His would-be killers took off

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

19

However it was made clear via other captions during the remainder of the story that the man was kidnapped and his abductors escaped

Presenter A Sydney man has narrowly survived a horrifying ordeal in which he was abducted tied up and threatened with a knife He was then left to drown in the Georges River but somehow managed to get free

Accordingly the overall comprehensibility would not have been substantially affected

The following caption in the news item was missing

Reporter and forensic police are now examining his vehicle

It is considered that this missing caption detracted from the overall understanding of the new item This information was a key element of the news item

News item 3

A news item reported on the Labor Partys National Conference The following captions appeared for so brief a period that they would not have been legible (in bold)

Presenter Hes announced the creation of more jobs and apprenticeships for more people saying the Federal government was determined not to allow a wasted generation of unemployed in Australia

The following statement was not captioned at all

Reporter The plan including 30000 apprenticeships

It is considered that the brief captions and the missing caption did not detract from the general comprehensibility of the news item because the key information contained in the missing captions was captioned later during the story

PM We do not want to see a wasted generation

Reporter That produced the one significant announcement that $94 million to create 50000 new jobs and training opportunities in Green industries

News item 6

A news item reported on the finding of the remains of the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War The following caption appeared for so brief a period that it would not have been legible

Presenter the wreckage was discovered in April near the border with Laos

It is considered that this missing caption detracted from the overall understanding of the new item This information was a substantial part of the news item

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

20

News item 7

During a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other the news presenter interviewed the reporter in the studio The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Presenter In any business wed expect the two sides to be brought together and sort it out Has the Premier done that

Reporter No he hasnt and the simple reason is that hes trying to gain more Green votes Hes trying to protect the political careers of the deputy Premier CT and the Education Minister VF

Captioned Presenter In any business the boss would get the two sides together and work things out Why hasnt the premier done that

Reporter Because hes happy to spend money Trying to gain the support of green voters He wants them onside to save the seats of the Deputy Premier CT and Education Minister VF

It is considered that the overall message of the reporter was conveyed in the captions

Further the following statement was not captioned

Reporter Its tough for them its tough for the Premier It doesnt look good for him

It is considered that this missing caption altered the understanding of the analysis of the news item As such the missing captions detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story

News item 8

In a news item reporting on the government raising $7 million from speed cameras an explanation of the streets which are the top money earners for speed cameras was not captioned However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story The text included the following information

Cleveland St Moore Park $705M Great Western Hwy Parramatta $201M Eastern Distributor Darlinghurst $140M Cabramatta Rd Bonnyrigg $128M Victoria Rd Ryde $119M

News item 9

During a news item reporting on the Powerball jackpot the following caption appeared for a split second too brief to be read

Presenter Theres around $80 million on offer in tonights Powerball

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

21

It is considered that the brief caption did not detract from the understanding of the news item It is noted that a poster stating Powerball $80 million appeared behind the representative interviewed from NSW Lotteries

In response to a question posed by the presenter And if a single ticket wins tonight it will be a record in itself wont it the response by the NSW Lotteries representative was only partially captioned

Statement JV Thats right with $80 million on offer its the second biggest prize weve ever offered If its a single winner picking up $80 million which is quite possible then theyll beat the old record which is just under $60 million which set in Victoria last year

Captioned JV Yes its the second biggest prize we have offered

It is considered in that in the context of the overall news item the captions adequately reflect the statement made in the news item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation to the following news items broadcast in the Nine News program on 30 July 2009

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the abduction of a man

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War and

bull a statement made in a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

22

Attachment A

Summary of programs which provided a captioning service

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21 July 2009

Charlie attends a number of consultations with a psychiatrist They are intermittently dispersed with segments of his brother Alans panic attacks

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 22 July 2009

Charlies ex-girlfriend turns up to his house at a time when he was becoming serious with his current girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 23 July 2009

Charlie fails in his attempt to give up smoking and alcohol He then breaks up with his girlfriend after she tries to make him eat healthy food

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 24 July 2009

A woman who lives in the apartment below Charlies has a crush on him and tries to make him jealous with her boyfriend Alan turns up to his sons birthday with his younger girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 29 July 2009

Charlie has a problem with Alans girlfriend moving in with them and Alans ex-wife has a problem with the girlfriend wearing a bikini around their son The ex-wife eventually becomes friends with the girlfriend

60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009

The program reported on three stories

1 A lovers workshop held by a sex therapist who claims to help couples bring sex back into their relationship The story featured three couples who discussed the lack of sex in their relationships It also interviewed sex counsellor BA about her views on how to resolve no sex in marriage

2 A comparison between DC a successful millionaire magician and JG an escape artist whose escapes do not always go to plan The story interviewed both magicians and broadcast footage of their magic tricks and attempted escapes Such as DC was shown making a train disappear flying and being sawn in half JG was shown escaping from a wet concrete cube and from being chained to a gate standing on his head in a container of water

3 Recreational shooting of feral animals It featured the views of CT her husband and four children and the former power broker of the One Nation Party DO and his wife L The story also showed footage of DO as a presenter on 2GB arguing in favour of shooting feral animals and interviewed Professor P an expert on feral animals who contended that recreational shooters could not solve the problem of feral pigs

The program concluded with the Mailbag segment where letters were read out regarding the program of the previous week

middotACMA ~nvestigatibn Report - various programs middotbroadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

23

Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

This episode was about solving the murder of a Cuban immigrant Gonzalo Luque who was a baseball star in Cuba He had arrived on a raft on a beach in Florida with other immigrants in 1998 and was granted asylum His friend Juan (another baseball player) was arrested and sent back to Cuba Juan returned to the United States 18 months later and was granted asylum At the end of the episode it was revealed that Juan had accidentally killed Gonzalo when he told Gonzalo that he was tortured when he was sent back to Cuba in 1998

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30middot 24 July 2009

However after the sports report was completed the following comments made by the sports and news presenters were not captioned

Sports Presenter By the way BB is quitting Queenslands rugby and coming to the NSW Waratahs

News Presenter Hes seen the light

Sports Presenter Hes coming south

It is considered that the missing captions prevented a hearing impaired or deaf person from gleaning the relevant information that the particular rugby league player had changed teams and accordingly affected the overall comprehensibility of the item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in the following news items in the Nine News program broadcast on 29 July 2009

bull statements made that the NRL cannot afford the money paid out in a rugby league contract

bull a statement made by a rugby league player in response to comments made by a former rugby league player about his move to the AFL

bull an excerpt from a radio program in a news item reporting on the criticism of a radio presenters response to a teenagers comment that she was raped

bull statements made in a news item reporting on the drowning of a father and his two children

bull two news items reporting on a missing 12 year old girl and a fire caused by a clothes dryer and the swimming news and

bull a sports item that a rugby league player had changed teams

The remaining parts of the program were adequately captioned

Nine News broadcast on 30 July 2009

News item 1

A news item reported on the abduction of a man The following captions appeared for so brief a period that they would not have been legible

Reporter Kidnapped at knifepoint in the driveway of his Cabramatta home

Reporter His would-be killers took off

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

19

However it was made clear via other captions during the remainder of the story that the man was kidnapped and his abductors escaped

Presenter A Sydney man has narrowly survived a horrifying ordeal in which he was abducted tied up and threatened with a knife He was then left to drown in the Georges River but somehow managed to get free

Accordingly the overall comprehensibility would not have been substantially affected

The following caption in the news item was missing

Reporter and forensic police are now examining his vehicle

It is considered that this missing caption detracted from the overall understanding of the new item This information was a key element of the news item

News item 3

A news item reported on the Labor Partys National Conference The following captions appeared for so brief a period that they would not have been legible (in bold)

Presenter Hes announced the creation of more jobs and apprenticeships for more people saying the Federal government was determined not to allow a wasted generation of unemployed in Australia

The following statement was not captioned at all

Reporter The plan including 30000 apprenticeships

It is considered that the brief captions and the missing caption did not detract from the general comprehensibility of the news item because the key information contained in the missing captions was captioned later during the story

PM We do not want to see a wasted generation

Reporter That produced the one significant announcement that $94 million to create 50000 new jobs and training opportunities in Green industries

News item 6

A news item reported on the finding of the remains of the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War The following caption appeared for so brief a period that it would not have been legible

Presenter the wreckage was discovered in April near the border with Laos

It is considered that this missing caption detracted from the overall understanding of the new item This information was a substantial part of the news item

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

20

News item 7

During a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other the news presenter interviewed the reporter in the studio The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Presenter In any business wed expect the two sides to be brought together and sort it out Has the Premier done that

Reporter No he hasnt and the simple reason is that hes trying to gain more Green votes Hes trying to protect the political careers of the deputy Premier CT and the Education Minister VF

Captioned Presenter In any business the boss would get the two sides together and work things out Why hasnt the premier done that

Reporter Because hes happy to spend money Trying to gain the support of green voters He wants them onside to save the seats of the Deputy Premier CT and Education Minister VF

It is considered that the overall message of the reporter was conveyed in the captions

Further the following statement was not captioned

Reporter Its tough for them its tough for the Premier It doesnt look good for him

It is considered that this missing caption altered the understanding of the analysis of the news item As such the missing captions detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story

News item 8

In a news item reporting on the government raising $7 million from speed cameras an explanation of the streets which are the top money earners for speed cameras was not captioned However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story The text included the following information

Cleveland St Moore Park $705M Great Western Hwy Parramatta $201M Eastern Distributor Darlinghurst $140M Cabramatta Rd Bonnyrigg $128M Victoria Rd Ryde $119M

News item 9

During a news item reporting on the Powerball jackpot the following caption appeared for a split second too brief to be read

Presenter Theres around $80 million on offer in tonights Powerball

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

21

It is considered that the brief caption did not detract from the understanding of the news item It is noted that a poster stating Powerball $80 million appeared behind the representative interviewed from NSW Lotteries

In response to a question posed by the presenter And if a single ticket wins tonight it will be a record in itself wont it the response by the NSW Lotteries representative was only partially captioned

Statement JV Thats right with $80 million on offer its the second biggest prize weve ever offered If its a single winner picking up $80 million which is quite possible then theyll beat the old record which is just under $60 million which set in Victoria last year

Captioned JV Yes its the second biggest prize we have offered

It is considered in that in the context of the overall news item the captions adequately reflect the statement made in the news item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation to the following news items broadcast in the Nine News program on 30 July 2009

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the abduction of a man

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War and

bull a statement made in a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

22

Attachment A

Summary of programs which provided a captioning service

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21 July 2009

Charlie attends a number of consultations with a psychiatrist They are intermittently dispersed with segments of his brother Alans panic attacks

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 22 July 2009

Charlies ex-girlfriend turns up to his house at a time when he was becoming serious with his current girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 23 July 2009

Charlie fails in his attempt to give up smoking and alcohol He then breaks up with his girlfriend after she tries to make him eat healthy food

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 24 July 2009

A woman who lives in the apartment below Charlies has a crush on him and tries to make him jealous with her boyfriend Alan turns up to his sons birthday with his younger girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 29 July 2009

Charlie has a problem with Alans girlfriend moving in with them and Alans ex-wife has a problem with the girlfriend wearing a bikini around their son The ex-wife eventually becomes friends with the girlfriend

60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009

The program reported on three stories

1 A lovers workshop held by a sex therapist who claims to help couples bring sex back into their relationship The story featured three couples who discussed the lack of sex in their relationships It also interviewed sex counsellor BA about her views on how to resolve no sex in marriage

2 A comparison between DC a successful millionaire magician and JG an escape artist whose escapes do not always go to plan The story interviewed both magicians and broadcast footage of their magic tricks and attempted escapes Such as DC was shown making a train disappear flying and being sawn in half JG was shown escaping from a wet concrete cube and from being chained to a gate standing on his head in a container of water

3 Recreational shooting of feral animals It featured the views of CT her husband and four children and the former power broker of the One Nation Party DO and his wife L The story also showed footage of DO as a presenter on 2GB arguing in favour of shooting feral animals and interviewed Professor P an expert on feral animals who contended that recreational shooters could not solve the problem of feral pigs

The program concluded with the Mailbag segment where letters were read out regarding the program of the previous week

middotACMA ~nvestigatibn Report - various programs middotbroadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

23

Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

This episode was about solving the murder of a Cuban immigrant Gonzalo Luque who was a baseball star in Cuba He had arrived on a raft on a beach in Florida with other immigrants in 1998 and was granted asylum His friend Juan (another baseball player) was arrested and sent back to Cuba Juan returned to the United States 18 months later and was granted asylum At the end of the episode it was revealed that Juan had accidentally killed Gonzalo when he told Gonzalo that he was tortured when he was sent back to Cuba in 1998

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30middot 24 July 2009

However it was made clear via other captions during the remainder of the story that the man was kidnapped and his abductors escaped

Presenter A Sydney man has narrowly survived a horrifying ordeal in which he was abducted tied up and threatened with a knife He was then left to drown in the Georges River but somehow managed to get free

Accordingly the overall comprehensibility would not have been substantially affected

The following caption in the news item was missing

Reporter and forensic police are now examining his vehicle

It is considered that this missing caption detracted from the overall understanding of the new item This information was a key element of the news item

News item 3

A news item reported on the Labor Partys National Conference The following captions appeared for so brief a period that they would not have been legible (in bold)

Presenter Hes announced the creation of more jobs and apprenticeships for more people saying the Federal government was determined not to allow a wasted generation of unemployed in Australia

The following statement was not captioned at all

Reporter The plan including 30000 apprenticeships

It is considered that the brief captions and the missing caption did not detract from the general comprehensibility of the news item because the key information contained in the missing captions was captioned later during the story

PM We do not want to see a wasted generation

Reporter That produced the one significant announcement that $94 million to create 50000 new jobs and training opportunities in Green industries

News item 6

A news item reported on the finding of the remains of the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War The following caption appeared for so brief a period that it would not have been legible

Presenter the wreckage was discovered in April near the border with Laos

It is considered that this missing caption detracted from the overall understanding of the new item This information was a substantial part of the news item

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

20

News item 7

During a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other the news presenter interviewed the reporter in the studio The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Presenter In any business wed expect the two sides to be brought together and sort it out Has the Premier done that

Reporter No he hasnt and the simple reason is that hes trying to gain more Green votes Hes trying to protect the political careers of the deputy Premier CT and the Education Minister VF

Captioned Presenter In any business the boss would get the two sides together and work things out Why hasnt the premier done that

Reporter Because hes happy to spend money Trying to gain the support of green voters He wants them onside to save the seats of the Deputy Premier CT and Education Minister VF

It is considered that the overall message of the reporter was conveyed in the captions

Further the following statement was not captioned

Reporter Its tough for them its tough for the Premier It doesnt look good for him

It is considered that this missing caption altered the understanding of the analysis of the news item As such the missing captions detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story

News item 8

In a news item reporting on the government raising $7 million from speed cameras an explanation of the streets which are the top money earners for speed cameras was not captioned However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story The text included the following information

Cleveland St Moore Park $705M Great Western Hwy Parramatta $201M Eastern Distributor Darlinghurst $140M Cabramatta Rd Bonnyrigg $128M Victoria Rd Ryde $119M

News item 9

During a news item reporting on the Powerball jackpot the following caption appeared for a split second too brief to be read

Presenter Theres around $80 million on offer in tonights Powerball

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

21

It is considered that the brief caption did not detract from the understanding of the news item It is noted that a poster stating Powerball $80 million appeared behind the representative interviewed from NSW Lotteries

In response to a question posed by the presenter And if a single ticket wins tonight it will be a record in itself wont it the response by the NSW Lotteries representative was only partially captioned

Statement JV Thats right with $80 million on offer its the second biggest prize weve ever offered If its a single winner picking up $80 million which is quite possible then theyll beat the old record which is just under $60 million which set in Victoria last year

Captioned JV Yes its the second biggest prize we have offered

It is considered in that in the context of the overall news item the captions adequately reflect the statement made in the news item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation to the following news items broadcast in the Nine News program on 30 July 2009

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the abduction of a man

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War and

bull a statement made in a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

22

Attachment A

Summary of programs which provided a captioning service

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21 July 2009

Charlie attends a number of consultations with a psychiatrist They are intermittently dispersed with segments of his brother Alans panic attacks

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 22 July 2009

Charlies ex-girlfriend turns up to his house at a time when he was becoming serious with his current girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 23 July 2009

Charlie fails in his attempt to give up smoking and alcohol He then breaks up with his girlfriend after she tries to make him eat healthy food

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 24 July 2009

A woman who lives in the apartment below Charlies has a crush on him and tries to make him jealous with her boyfriend Alan turns up to his sons birthday with his younger girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 29 July 2009

Charlie has a problem with Alans girlfriend moving in with them and Alans ex-wife has a problem with the girlfriend wearing a bikini around their son The ex-wife eventually becomes friends with the girlfriend

60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009

The program reported on three stories

1 A lovers workshop held by a sex therapist who claims to help couples bring sex back into their relationship The story featured three couples who discussed the lack of sex in their relationships It also interviewed sex counsellor BA about her views on how to resolve no sex in marriage

2 A comparison between DC a successful millionaire magician and JG an escape artist whose escapes do not always go to plan The story interviewed both magicians and broadcast footage of their magic tricks and attempted escapes Such as DC was shown making a train disappear flying and being sawn in half JG was shown escaping from a wet concrete cube and from being chained to a gate standing on his head in a container of water

3 Recreational shooting of feral animals It featured the views of CT her husband and four children and the former power broker of the One Nation Party DO and his wife L The story also showed footage of DO as a presenter on 2GB arguing in favour of shooting feral animals and interviewed Professor P an expert on feral animals who contended that recreational shooters could not solve the problem of feral pigs

The program concluded with the Mailbag segment where letters were read out regarding the program of the previous week

middotACMA ~nvestigatibn Report - various programs middotbroadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

23

Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

This episode was about solving the murder of a Cuban immigrant Gonzalo Luque who was a baseball star in Cuba He had arrived on a raft on a beach in Florida with other immigrants in 1998 and was granted asylum His friend Juan (another baseball player) was arrested and sent back to Cuba Juan returned to the United States 18 months later and was granted asylum At the end of the episode it was revealed that Juan had accidentally killed Gonzalo when he told Gonzalo that he was tortured when he was sent back to Cuba in 1998

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30middot 24 July 2009

News item 7

During a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other the news presenter interviewed the reporter in the studio The following statements were only partially captioned

Reported Presenter In any business wed expect the two sides to be brought together and sort it out Has the Premier done that

Reporter No he hasnt and the simple reason is that hes trying to gain more Green votes Hes trying to protect the political careers of the deputy Premier CT and the Education Minister VF

Captioned Presenter In any business the boss would get the two sides together and work things out Why hasnt the premier done that

Reporter Because hes happy to spend money Trying to gain the support of green voters He wants them onside to save the seats of the Deputy Premier CT and Education Minister VF

It is considered that the overall message of the reporter was conveyed in the captions

Further the following statement was not captioned

Reporter Its tough for them its tough for the Premier It doesnt look good for him

It is considered that this missing caption altered the understanding of the analysis of the news item As such the missing captions detracted from the overall comprehensibility of the story

News item 8

In a news item reporting on the government raising $7 million from speed cameras an explanation of the streets which are the top money earners for speed cameras was not captioned However given that simultaneous text reflecting the reporting was shown onscreen it is considered that captioning was not integral to gain an understanding of the story The text included the following information

Cleveland St Moore Park $705M Great Western Hwy Parramatta $201M Eastern Distributor Darlinghurst $140M Cabramatta Rd Bonnyrigg $128M Victoria Rd Ryde $119M

News item 9

During a news item reporting on the Powerball jackpot the following caption appeared for a split second too brief to be read

Presenter Theres around $80 million on offer in tonights Powerball

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

21

It is considered that the brief caption did not detract from the understanding of the news item It is noted that a poster stating Powerball $80 million appeared behind the representative interviewed from NSW Lotteries

In response to a question posed by the presenter And if a single ticket wins tonight it will be a record in itself wont it the response by the NSW Lotteries representative was only partially captioned

Statement JV Thats right with $80 million on offer its the second biggest prize weve ever offered If its a single winner picking up $80 million which is quite possible then theyll beat the old record which is just under $60 million which set in Victoria last year

Captioned JV Yes its the second biggest prize we have offered

It is considered in that in the context of the overall news item the captions adequately reflect the statement made in the news item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation to the following news items broadcast in the Nine News program on 30 July 2009

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the abduction of a man

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War and

bull a statement made in a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

22

Attachment A

Summary of programs which provided a captioning service

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21 July 2009

Charlie attends a number of consultations with a psychiatrist They are intermittently dispersed with segments of his brother Alans panic attacks

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 22 July 2009

Charlies ex-girlfriend turns up to his house at a time when he was becoming serious with his current girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 23 July 2009

Charlie fails in his attempt to give up smoking and alcohol He then breaks up with his girlfriend after she tries to make him eat healthy food

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 24 July 2009

A woman who lives in the apartment below Charlies has a crush on him and tries to make him jealous with her boyfriend Alan turns up to his sons birthday with his younger girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 29 July 2009

Charlie has a problem with Alans girlfriend moving in with them and Alans ex-wife has a problem with the girlfriend wearing a bikini around their son The ex-wife eventually becomes friends with the girlfriend

60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009

The program reported on three stories

1 A lovers workshop held by a sex therapist who claims to help couples bring sex back into their relationship The story featured three couples who discussed the lack of sex in their relationships It also interviewed sex counsellor BA about her views on how to resolve no sex in marriage

2 A comparison between DC a successful millionaire magician and JG an escape artist whose escapes do not always go to plan The story interviewed both magicians and broadcast footage of their magic tricks and attempted escapes Such as DC was shown making a train disappear flying and being sawn in half JG was shown escaping from a wet concrete cube and from being chained to a gate standing on his head in a container of water

3 Recreational shooting of feral animals It featured the views of CT her husband and four children and the former power broker of the One Nation Party DO and his wife L The story also showed footage of DO as a presenter on 2GB arguing in favour of shooting feral animals and interviewed Professor P an expert on feral animals who contended that recreational shooters could not solve the problem of feral pigs

The program concluded with the Mailbag segment where letters were read out regarding the program of the previous week

middotACMA ~nvestigatibn Report - various programs middotbroadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

23

Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

This episode was about solving the murder of a Cuban immigrant Gonzalo Luque who was a baseball star in Cuba He had arrived on a raft on a beach in Florida with other immigrants in 1998 and was granted asylum His friend Juan (another baseball player) was arrested and sent back to Cuba Juan returned to the United States 18 months later and was granted asylum At the end of the episode it was revealed that Juan had accidentally killed Gonzalo when he told Gonzalo that he was tortured when he was sent back to Cuba in 1998

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30middot 24 July 2009

It is considered that the brief caption did not detract from the understanding of the news item It is noted that a poster stating Powerball $80 million appeared behind the representative interviewed from NSW Lotteries

In response to a question posed by the presenter And if a single ticket wins tonight it will be a record in itself wont it the response by the NSW Lotteries representative was only partially captioned

Statement JV Thats right with $80 million on offer its the second biggest prize weve ever offered If its a single winner picking up $80 million which is quite possible then theyll beat the old record which is just under $60 million which set in Victoria last year

Captioned JV Yes its the second biggest prize we have offered

It is considered in that in the context of the overall news item the captions adequately reflect the statement made in the news item

Finance

Although captions were not provided for the financial news reporting on the sharemarket top stocks and the Australian dollar graphs were simultaneously shown on screen which reflected the explanation provided by the newsreader

Conclusion

The licensee did not provide captions in relation to the following news items broadcast in the Nine News program on 30 July 2009

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the abduction of a man

bull a statement made in a news item regarding the final two Australian servicemen who went missing during the Vietnam War and

bull a statement made in a news item reporting on two NSW government departments suing each other

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

22

Attachment A

Summary of programs which provided a captioning service

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21 July 2009

Charlie attends a number of consultations with a psychiatrist They are intermittently dispersed with segments of his brother Alans panic attacks

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 22 July 2009

Charlies ex-girlfriend turns up to his house at a time when he was becoming serious with his current girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 23 July 2009

Charlie fails in his attempt to give up smoking and alcohol He then breaks up with his girlfriend after she tries to make him eat healthy food

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 24 July 2009

A woman who lives in the apartment below Charlies has a crush on him and tries to make him jealous with her boyfriend Alan turns up to his sons birthday with his younger girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 29 July 2009

Charlie has a problem with Alans girlfriend moving in with them and Alans ex-wife has a problem with the girlfriend wearing a bikini around their son The ex-wife eventually becomes friends with the girlfriend

60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009

The program reported on three stories

1 A lovers workshop held by a sex therapist who claims to help couples bring sex back into their relationship The story featured three couples who discussed the lack of sex in their relationships It also interviewed sex counsellor BA about her views on how to resolve no sex in marriage

2 A comparison between DC a successful millionaire magician and JG an escape artist whose escapes do not always go to plan The story interviewed both magicians and broadcast footage of their magic tricks and attempted escapes Such as DC was shown making a train disappear flying and being sawn in half JG was shown escaping from a wet concrete cube and from being chained to a gate standing on his head in a container of water

3 Recreational shooting of feral animals It featured the views of CT her husband and four children and the former power broker of the One Nation Party DO and his wife L The story also showed footage of DO as a presenter on 2GB arguing in favour of shooting feral animals and interviewed Professor P an expert on feral animals who contended that recreational shooters could not solve the problem of feral pigs

The program concluded with the Mailbag segment where letters were read out regarding the program of the previous week

middotACMA ~nvestigatibn Report - various programs middotbroadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

23

Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

This episode was about solving the murder of a Cuban immigrant Gonzalo Luque who was a baseball star in Cuba He had arrived on a raft on a beach in Florida with other immigrants in 1998 and was granted asylum His friend Juan (another baseball player) was arrested and sent back to Cuba Juan returned to the United States 18 months later and was granted asylum At the end of the episode it was revealed that Juan had accidentally killed Gonzalo when he told Gonzalo that he was tortured when he was sent back to Cuba in 1998

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30middot 24 July 2009

Attachment A

Summary of programs which provided a captioning service

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 21 July 2009

Charlie attends a number of consultations with a psychiatrist They are intermittently dispersed with segments of his brother Alans panic attacks

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 22 July 2009

Charlies ex-girlfriend turns up to his house at a time when he was becoming serious with his current girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 23 July 2009

Charlie fails in his attempt to give up smoking and alcohol He then breaks up with his girlfriend after she tries to make him eat healthy food

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 24 July 2009

A woman who lives in the apartment below Charlies has a crush on him and tries to make him jealous with her boyfriend Alan turns up to his sons birthday with his younger girlfriend

Two and A Half Men broadcast on 29 July 2009

Charlie has a problem with Alans girlfriend moving in with them and Alans ex-wife has a problem with the girlfriend wearing a bikini around their son The ex-wife eventually becomes friends with the girlfriend

60 Minutes broadcast on 26 July 2009

The program reported on three stories

1 A lovers workshop held by a sex therapist who claims to help couples bring sex back into their relationship The story featured three couples who discussed the lack of sex in their relationships It also interviewed sex counsellor BA about her views on how to resolve no sex in marriage

2 A comparison between DC a successful millionaire magician and JG an escape artist whose escapes do not always go to plan The story interviewed both magicians and broadcast footage of their magic tricks and attempted escapes Such as DC was shown making a train disappear flying and being sawn in half JG was shown escaping from a wet concrete cube and from being chained to a gate standing on his head in a container of water

3 Recreational shooting of feral animals It featured the views of CT her husband and four children and the former power broker of the One Nation Party DO and his wife L The story also showed footage of DO as a presenter on 2GB arguing in favour of shooting feral animals and interviewed Professor P an expert on feral animals who contended that recreational shooters could not solve the problem of feral pigs

The program concluded with the Mailbag segment where letters were read out regarding the program of the previous week

middotACMA ~nvestigatibn Report - various programs middotbroadcast by TCN between 21 and 30 July 2009

23

Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

This episode was about solving the murder of a Cuban immigrant Gonzalo Luque who was a baseball star in Cuba He had arrived on a raft on a beach in Florida with other immigrants in 1998 and was granted asylum His friend Juan (another baseball player) was arrested and sent back to Cuba Juan returned to the United States 18 months later and was granted asylum At the end of the episode it was revealed that Juan had accidentally killed Gonzalo when he told Gonzalo that he was tortured when he was sent back to Cuba in 1998

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30middot 24 July 2009

Cold Case broadcast on 29 July 2009

This episode was about solving the murder of a Cuban immigrant Gonzalo Luque who was a baseball star in Cuba He had arrived on a raft on a beach in Florida with other immigrants in 1998 and was granted asylum His friend Juan (another baseball player) was arrested and sent back to Cuba Juan returned to the United States 18 months later and was granted asylum At the end of the episode it was revealed that Juan had accidentally killed Gonzalo when he told Gonzalo that he was tortured when he was sent back to Cuba in 1998

ACMA Investigation Report - various programs broadcast by TCN between 21 and 30middot 24 July 2009