| I am concerned about the cosy relationship developing between the
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the pay-TV
industry.
I am profoundly deaf. Along
with 5 per cent of Australian viewers, I use the closed captions
when watching free-to-air TV.
More than 40 per cent of free-to-air broadcasts include closed
captions. Virtually all news and all broadcasts from 6pm to 10.30pm
are captioned. The percentage is increasing.
In the US, both free-to-air and pay-TV include extensive closed
captioning and coverage is increasing by 10 per cent a year.
Virtually full caption coverage will be achieved in the US by 2006.
Pay-TV in Australia does not caption its broadcasts unless they
are in a foreign language. Many programs already have closed
captions in English but the pay-TV operators do not broadcast the
captions.
It is discrimination for the ACCC and the industry to ignore the
needs of consumers with disabilities in their negotiations.
John Byrne,
Lesmurdie, WA.
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