The Broadcasting Services (Digital TV Standards) Regulations 2000 require that all free-to-air broadcasters must caption all prime time, all news and all current affairs programs. There have been some limited exceptions. However, the regulations came into full force on 1 January 2004, whereby all news and current affairs programs (both metropolitan and regional broadcasts) must be captioned in full. An agreement negotiated by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) also requires that free-to-air broadcasters progressively increase the volume (amount) of captioning on their programs over a period of years. There is another HREOC agreement that requires regular screenings of captioned movies in cinemas. In addition, negotiations with PAY TV broadcasters are expected to lead to captioning of some of their broadcasts in the future. Whilst Australia has generally enjoyed high quality captions on TV broadcasts, since the advent of the captioning regulations there have been some incidents of poor quality captioning. There currently are no legislated standards for captioning quality. Poor quality captioning is not acceptable. Captions must be understandable and must communicate the soundtrack, otherwise there is not point in them being there. There is a need for quality standards to assist industry and government. Those standards should be endorsed by the caption suppliers, broadcasters, manufacturers of captioned DVDs, videos and movies, relevant government authorities and other relevant bodies.

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