OFCOM'S PROPOSALS FOR TELEVISION SUBTITLING

Early day motion 690, tabled 25 February 2004 by Lord Bruce of Bennachie (Liberal Democrat). Signed by 134 members.

That this House expresses concern that Ofcom is proposing to grant broadcasters of live discussion programmes and parliamentary proceedings an exemption from the provision of subtitling services; further notes that Ofcom is proposing to extend the requirments to provide access services to a very small proportion of the total number of licensed digital cable and satellite channels and in addition is rejecting the long established practice adopted by ITC since the Broadcasting Act 1990 of setting increasing interim targets for subtitling provision which will lead to the small number of newly regulated channels facing a minimum requirement of subtitling of a mere 10 per cent. of their output for the next five years; further believes that Ofcom's current proposals are based on a number of inaccurate technical assumptions and that it is failing to recognise the immense benefits of television subtitles for the one million people who use them for all television viewing as well as to the far greater population that use them on a regular basis; and therefore calls upon Ofcom to fully reconsider its current proposals and ensure that the intent of Parliament as clearly expressed in the Communications Act 2003 and in the extensive debates on access services are fulfilled by ending the proposed exemption for live discussion and parliamentary proceedings and by setting demanding yearly targets for subtitling provision for a significantly greater number of channels.

Signatures by party: Labour 49, Liberal Democrat 40, Conservative 30, Labour/Co-operative 6, Plaid Cymru 3, Scottish National Party 2, UUP 2, DUP 1, Independent Conservative 1.