Ireland

[IE] New Rules on Television Subtitling

IRIS 2015-3:1/18

Ronan Ó Fathaigh

Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam

On 27 January 2015, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland published its new “Rules on Television Subtitling, Sign Language and Audio Description”. The previous rules had been in effect since 2012 (see IRIS 2012-7/28) and in 2014 a public consultation was launched on revising the rules (see IRIS 2014-7/25). The rules set out the level of subtitling, sign language and audio-description that television broadcasters must offer to the public.

Under the new rules, a range of percentage targets are set for each broadcast service (television station) that they must provide for the period 2014-2018 and different targets are set for each broadcaster. The target range is increased annually for each applicable broadcast service on an incremental basis over the five-year period.

Subtitling (on-screen text that represents what is said on screen) targets are set for the first time for the three additional public service broadcaster television services established in 2011, namely RTÉjr, RTÉ Plus One and RTÉ News Now. The new rules do not prioritise any programme genres, types or time-blocks. However, broadcasters must consult at least annually with user groups as to their viewing preferences. Further, targets for Irish sign language and audio description (commentary that provides a verbal description of what is happening on screen) are also set in the new rules, including for the children’s channel RTÉjr.

The new rules come into effect on 1 March 2015 and provide that further reviews will take place in 2016 and 2018.