BBC OUTPUT FOR YEAR ENDING 31 MARCH 2001

ITV STATEMENT OF PROGRAMME POLICY

In preparation for the establishment of Ofcom and the proposals to simplify regulation, ITC licensees were asked by the ITC to produce their programme aspirations for 2001/2. Carlton - London Region was the only company to voluntarily send us a copy of their Annual Statement so we asked the ITV Network for a copy of their own Policy and to obtain the others for us. We appreciate the ITV Network's prompt response to this request.

"ITV Network - expects to meet the ITC target of 68% of output with network subtitling alone and live output will increase. In 2001 ITV will sign a wider variety of programmes, including films, factual and arts and will also be the first broadcaster to sign religious programming."

"Carlton - London Region: For a number of years all our news broadcasts have been subtitled. We will continue to strive to improve the quality of this service, especially the subtitling of live interviews and reports….. We are also working with other broadcasters to improve the portrayal and employment prospects of those with disabilities."

"Channel: Thanks to funding from the States of Jersey and Guernsey, Channel TV will continue to operate a subtitling service to increase the access of the deaf and HOH to the company's local programmes. We undertake to subtitle a minimum of, on average, two and a half hours every week of local programmes, including every edition of Channel Report."

"Ulster: Our community programming will continue to form a vital part of our regional service…… In partnership with the RNID we will examine the needs of the deaf and HOH and we will extend our coverage of people with disabilities and of their family and carers."
"Yorkshire: Calendar will continue to be subtitled for the HOH. We have also been subtitling Tonight but rather than subtitle LiveLunch, which by its nature will be largely live and unscripted, we have decided to subtitle all our Tuesday peak-time programmes broadcast in the 1930 slots. This way we are ensuring the programmes watched by the largest number of our viewers are all subtitled."

"Carlton - West Country: We take our responsibilities to deaf and HOH viewers seriously and will maintain our commitments to signing news headlines and the weekly news round-up programme, Westcountry Update. Recorded news items are subtitled and, subject to the satisfactory conclusion of a systems test, we hope to begin the subtitling of live news items in the coming year."

"Scottish TV: we will also comply with subtitling requirements." [NOTE: STV's paper had to be scanned with a magnifying glass because it was produced in micro size print and this is all I could find about the needs of deaf people.]

"HTV West of England …… In addition, the half-hour news review for the deaf Newsweek will continue to be co-presented by a signer for the deaf and will be fully subtitled."

"Carlton - Central Region: Central Newsweek will, once again, be broadcasts on Sundays. Separate editions for the east, west and south of the region will summarise each week's events with the added benefit - for viewers who are deaf or HOH - of signing."

"Anglia: We intend to expand our regional subtitling unit to further improve our service to our hearing impaired viewers."

Editor's Note: I spent a lot of time scanning 15 documents for this information, some of which used such small print size that it was difficult to read even with a magnifying glass. One other used small white font on yellow - does anyone in the company check the documents for legibility, which is becoming increasingly rare these days.

It is disappointing that the move towards light-touch regulation means that the ITC does not require broadcasters to use a separate heading for ancillary services (signing, subtitling and audio description) to be itemised. DBC thanks all those who made even a passing reference to the all-important issue of subtitling in the regions but please can we stress that subtitling is used by both deaf AND hard of hearing people. And please can we be called "deaf and hard of hearing people. Thank you!

AUTUMN DATE

DBC is arranging a seminar on Sign Language and Employment issues on Saturday, 27th October 2001, 11am to 4pm at the Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London W C 1. The venue is a few minutes walk from Holborn and Russell Square underground stations.
[Web editor: click here for a 1:10,000 scale map of the area, or here for a 1:2000 scale aerial photograph of the area. Institute approx. position is indicated by a red circle. ].

The seminar is open to everyone with an interest in signing on TV, if you would like to attend, contact the National Secretary, enclosing a cheque for £5 to cover administration expenses.

DVD RECORDERS

A report in the New Scientist (12th May) says:

"A DVD recorder that can record one TV programme while playing back another recording from the same disc has been developed by the Japanese electronics company Matsushita, which markets consumer electronics under the more familiar name of Panasonic. The recorder will be the first that can do this. It will use a single laser for both recording and playback - helping to keep the price down. Other companies are also racing to develop play and record DVDs, with the first of them going on sale later this year.

"The Panasonic recorder uses ordinary blank recordable DVDs. The single laser continually alternates between high power to "burn" a recording and low power to read one. At the same time, the laser skips between different parts of the disc, recording onto one and reading from another. A memory buffer allows the DVD recorder to store data while it is playing back a programme and recording, so that it can switch seamlessly between the two without affecting the quality of either."

ENGINEERING QUALITY

DBC does not normally report on general broadcasting issues but we thought the following extracts from Broadcast (9th March) would be of interest:

"…..Lighter-touch broadcasting regulation has its problems, the greatest of these is the huge and increasing diversity of technical standards, particularly on TV today….. It is increasingly clear to anyone zapping between the many channels of the multi-channel universe that technical standards vary from service to service. The most obvious difference is in the range of sound levels that assail the ear as broadcasters apparently arbitrarily decide which decibel to set their output at.

"One argument suggests the root of the problem lies in the relative lack of training within the industry, compared to the exhaustive apprenticeships that those joining TV 20 years ago might have expected to serve. But this is only part of the reason for the change in technical abilities. Organisations such as the BBC continue to run in-depth courses on everything from sound editing to vision mixing - and the BBC's training arm now organises courses for third parties. But broadcasters and producers under pressure to deliver to tight budgets and deadlines are likely to see training as a corner to be cut, rather than a benefit to be shared for the greater good of the industry.

"A key point is that regulators cannot monitor the technicalities of the output of the many broadcasters operating in this increasingly fragmented industry. High standards may be expected of the public service broadcasters, but who will ensure that a viewer surfing from BBC1 to the Discovery Channel, via the Paramount Comedy channel, doesn't have to endure three different levels of audio and three different versions of focus? Commercial broadcasters are expected to conform to the ITC's technical quality codes, while the BBC has its own similar standards. But with new broadcasting legislation looming, the time is right to ask whether anyone is actually policing such codes."

A supplement in the same magazine said:

"Turn on your TV set any night of the week and you will spot: on one channel, out of focus shots; on another, burnt out exposures; on a third, multiple shadows; the next varying sound levels. Back in the bad old days of regulation, the IBA (now the ITC) imposed the Code of Practice as it if was set in stone. Every transmission was vetted by an eagle-eyed IBA engineer for a slip in standards, even the non-technical kept a censorious eye on output.

"Then there was the annual inspection - every studio was visited, every piece of kit rigorously tested. The need for compliance (to the Code of Practice) boosted the position of engineers within the industry. Every ITV company had its own chief engineer on the main board, however, this came to an end with the 1990 Broadcasting Act. In came light-touch regulation and privatisation of the transmitters and the merger and consolidation of ITV companies finally swept engineers off the Board.

"With the ITC soon to be replaced by an even softer touch regulator - Ofcom - will anyone bother about technical quality? The ITC thinks that high technical quality will still be required from public service broadcasters. The Unions, however, are less certain and say that, 'While we accept that the ITC will be replaced by Ofcom, we have expressed our concerns to the government that there needs to be a separate division of the new regulator to ensure quality output on TV - including quality of production standards'."

Editor's Note: We have quoted these reports at length because they indicate that it is not only the needs of deaf people which are affected by soft touch regulation. However, at time of writing, we understand that Tony Blair has said that a draft Communications Bill will be published this month or next and that Ofcom will be in operation by 2003. We need to give careful consideration to how to overcome the problems of soft touch regulation.

DIGI GUIDE

DigiGuide is computer software which allows you to handpick your channels, so you do not have to wade through pages of listings for channels you do not receive. And it has a useful search facility. Just enter the name of your favourite programme, star or film into the "search" box and you will get details of every programme featuring that programme, star or film which will appear in the next fortnight. The software also lets you select your favourite programmes so it will only pick out those programmes. Full registration costs £5 per year.

Well, that's what the blurb says. If anyone has time to search the Web and see if it matches this description, check it out on: www.digiguide.com DBC would welcome a report on this software for publication in the next Mailshot, and it would be very interesting to know whether it gives information about subtitles and/or sign language.

ITV'S SERVICES FOR DEAF AND HOH VIEWERS

This is a précis of Coleena Reid's presentation to the Open Forum by the Controller of Broadcasting at Carlton TV:

First of all it is important that I convey to you all that ITV remains fully committed to the principle of widening access to its TV programmes. I am sure that you all know that, since the 80s, ITV has been subtitling an increasing number of TV programmes each year. This year ITV is required to subtitle 68% or 98 hours per week of all its programmes on the analogue terrestrial service. Next year we are required to subtitle 75% of all our programmes - that will be another 10 hours per week bringing the total up to 108 hours a week. And the targets continue to increase up to 83% or 120 hours per week by 2004.

When these new targets were set in 1997, we viewed them with some trepidation. The targets represent fairly significant increases year on year and have required ITV to start subtitling programmes that we had previously felt were very difficult, if not virtually impossible to subtitle. Many of ITV's topical programmes are edited and completed very close to transmission, leaving insufficient time for the usual process of preparation of subtitles. Also many of ITV's programmes are live, making it impossible to prepare subtitles in advance, but requiring highly trained and skilled subtitlers - and in 1997 trained subtitlers who could carry out work on live programmes simply didn't exist in sufficient numbers.

But we weren't too daunted. ITFC (who provide the ITV subtitling) set about the recruitment and training of subtitlers; working practices were reviewed, the practical and technical challenges of subtitling 'difficult' programmes were reviewed and of course, the increased costs had to be looked at. We have had some technical problems and mistakes do happen when dealing with these higher volumes of subtitled programmes. We have found solutions to many of the technical problems and we are learning from the mistakes that have been made. But sometimes there is little we can do because the problems are to do with reception. We share your frustrations and apologise for the times when the subtitling has not been 100% perfect.

ITV is at the forefront of subtitling new programme strands, for example, the Formula One Grand Prix races and live programmes with very rapid dialogue such as SM:TV LIVE. Not only has ITV exceeded the minimum statutory level of subtitling each year and provided additional regional subtitling services but we have also launched a new telephone relay system to enable deaf and hard of hearing viewers to enter as contestants for Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Don't think it has been easy to provide these levels of subtitling and access - it is proving to be exceptionally challenging. As the targets go up, so does the volume of 'difficult' programming that we have to subtitle, and we must maintain the highest possible quality of our subtitling service.

Where digital services are concerned, the subtitling targets for new digital channels are lower but still has to reach 80% by the tenth year of service. For small DTT channels like Carlton Cinema, these high targets pose much more of a challenge because they are start-up channels with very small audiences and low budgets.

The digital terrestrial channels are heavily regulated and have to meet increasing targets for subtitling, signing and audio description. We support the recent DCMS proposals to extend the regulations to the digital cable and satellite platforms in order to provide the same level of access and choice to deaf and HOH people.

ITV has developed one service on DTT to which I would like to draw your attention - the TEXT+ service on channel 16. This is an exciting opportunity to further improve viewer information and interaction with our programmes. As a separate development to subtitling, this text-based facility provides programme and schedule information and up to date news and weather reports. The TEXT+ service is still in its infancy and further enhancements are in the pipeline to provide a stimulating addition to viewing.

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