Ofcom raps AXN and TV3 over lack of subtitling, audio description

Ofcom has found Sony Pictures Entertainment-owned AXN and MTG’s TV3 in breach of it Code on Television Access Services for failing to provide sufficient subtitling and audio description services.

In its latest Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin, the UK regulator said that AXN and AXN Sci-fi, channels which both broadcast to Italy, were required to provide subtitles on 15% of their content during 2014. However, as of April this year the channels had only achieved a provision of 6.2% and 2.3% respectively.

Separately, the MTG-owned channels TV3 (Denmark), TV3 Puls (Denmark), TV3 (Sweden), TV6 (Sweden) and TV8 (Sweden) were required to provide audio description on 2% of their content during 2014. However, MTG reported that it had not provided any audio description for the channels’ content.

Ofcom said that both failings marked a “serious breach”, but has given the AXN channels until June 30, 2016 to meet their 2014 targets, while MTG has been told to meet an increased 6% audio description target by the end of 2015.