§ Mr. BerryTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what action his Department is taking to ensure that broadcasters comply with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in respect of subtitling on their(a) digital television channels and (b) videos. [106138]
§ Janet AndersonIt is for the broadcasters themselves to ensure that they are acting in accordance with the requirements of the Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, which relates to access to goods, facilities and services. Broadcasting, like other services to the public is covered by the Act, while the manufacture and design of manufactured goods, such as videos, are not. Broadcasters are also subject to the "Code on Subtitling, Sign Language and Audio Description on Digital Terrestrial Television", drawn up by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) under Section 20 of the Broadcasting Act 1996. The Code is concerned with the access to digital terrestrial television services for people with hearing disabilities and visual impairments. The code requires digital terrestrial broadcasters to provide subtitles on at least 50 per cent. of their services within 10 years of the commencement of digital services. The Independent Television Commission will continue to monitor the performance of commercial DTT channels to ensure compliance with the code. The ITC are currently looking at the implications of the Disability Discrimination Act to ensure that their codes are consistent with it.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will list the ITC's returns from each of the(a) digital and (b) analogue terrestrial channels covered by its statutory subtitling targets for each of the last five years. [106974]
§ Janet AndersonThe first digital terrestrial services began in November 1998 and the Commission has not yet published returns for these services. The ITC has published the following returns for analogue terrestrial channels in its Annual Reports:
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Percentage ITV GMTV Channel 4 Channel 5 1994 30 29 37 — 1995 35 30 36 — 1996 41 37 45 — 1997 51 39 56 23 1998 61 42 60 27
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what plans he has to introduce legislation to set statutory subtitling targets for cable and satellite broadcasters; and if he will make a statement; [106970]
(2) what is his Department's policy on subtitling on (a) cable and (b) satellite television channels. The Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting, [106971]
§ Janet AndersonThe Government have no current plans to legislate on subtitling for cable and satellite broadcasters. They have however, made clear their concern at the apparent poor level of subtitling on cable and satellite channels and have encouraged all broadcasters to respond positively to the RNID's initiative for a voluntary charter on broadcast subtitling.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will list the statutory subtitling targets set by the ITC for each year from 1995 to 2005 inclusive. [106973]
§ Janet AndersonThe ITC has set the following targets:
Percentage Analogue Digital Terrestrial Television Channel 3 GMTV Channel 5 Year From date of start of each programme service 1995 32 29 — 1. 5 1996 38 33 — 2. 10 1997 45 37 23 3. 15 1998 52 41 27 4. 20 1999 56 46 32 5. 25 2000 61 50 37 6. 30 2001 68 54 43 7. 35 2002 75 54 50 8. 40 2003 79 58 — 9. 45 2004 83 58 — 10. 50 The Commission will review the targets for subtitling on Channel 3 and Channel 5 analogue services in 2001 to decide whether any further increase is feasible and has undertaken to review the interim targets set for digital terrestrial services every two years from the start of services.