Ireland

[IE] New access rules for broadcasters

IRIS 2016-9:1/21

Ronan Ó Fathaigh

Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam

On 4 August 2016, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) published its updated Access Rules, which set out the rules on providing subtitling, captioning, Irish sign language and audio description for broadcasters in Ireland (for the previous rules, see IRIS 2015-3/18).

In particular, the rules include targets for three new public service broadcasters, namely Oireachtas TV, UTV Ireland and Irish TV (see IRIS 2015-4/14 and IRIS 2016-8/14). Under the rules, a range of percentage targets are set for each new broadcaster that they must provide for the period 2016-2018. The target range is increased annually for each broadcaster on the following incremental basis:

For Oireachtas TV, its subtitling targets are 5-6 percent in 2016, 12-14 percent in 2017, and 16-18 percent in 2018; while its sign language targets are 1 percent in 2016, 2 percent in 2017 and 3 percent in 2018. The rules provide that Oireachtas TV may set off any sign language provision against the targets for subtitling in 2016. For UTV Ireland, its subtitling targets are 46-52 percent in 2016, 52-56 percent in 2017, and 56-60 percent in 2018. Finally, Irish TV’s subtitling targets are 3 percent in 2016, 4 percent in 2017, and 6 percent in 2018.

A review of the rules will take place in early 2017.