Deaf viewers of TVNZ will have news subtitles

Some Television New Zealand news bulletins are to be subtitled for hard-of-hearing viewers, but no titles are planned for TV3 news.

New Zealand On Air programme manager Emily Loughnan said test transmissions would begin at the end of this month on TV2 newsbreaks.

Subtitles giving a precis of the words of newsreaders and reporters could be expected on TV1’s 6pm news from August.

Ms Loughnan said viewers would need sets capable of displaying Teletext information, or a separate decoder costing about $190, to receive the titles.

Equipment worth $200,000 had been bought by New Zealand On Air, the former Broadcasting Commission, to make the subtitles, but there were technical difficulties in offering the same service on TV3 broadcasts, she said.

The technology used “spare” lines among the 625 lines which made up each screen’s picture, similar to the method used to subtitle entertainment programmes through Teletext, but TV3 did not have access to that TVNZ subsidiary.

“We can’t even get our programmes listed on Teletext without paying $60,000 for the privilege,” a TV3 spokesman said.

A weekly digest of news and current affairs, News Review, which was paid for by New Zealand On Air, used simultaneous translation into sign language until it was axed in February. Ms Loughnan said it was not wanted by the deaf community.

This year the commission has set aside $1 million from broadcasting fees — about half of which is being spent on an improved Teletext service — so subscribers can have subtitles scroll across their screen on a wide variety of programmes.

A survey by Christchurch researcher Tony Mooar, also paid for from the broadcasting fee, showed the majority of deaf or partly-deaf people had subtitling of a daily news programme as their first or second priority.

But New Zealand on Air has said the Teletext moves will not address a concern expressed by deaf people about the absence of sign language on television, and it is looking at other ways to meet that need. — NZPA