News broadcasts of licensed regional stations newly subtitled
Starting April 1, the 13 licensed regional television stations will broadcast their news programs with closed captions for the hearing impaired. In doing so, they are complying with a requirement established as part of the recent partial revision of the Radio and Television Act.
After the regional broadcasters have already carried out a comprehensive test operation over the past three months, the time is now serious: The main news programs of the broadcasters TeleBasel, TeleBielingue, TeleBärn, Tele M1, Tele 1, TVO, TV Südostschweiz, Canal alpha, Canal 9, La Télé, Léman bleu and TeleTicino, which are organized in the Telesuisse association, will be subtitled with immediate effect. The editorial responsibility for the preparation of the subtitles lies with the respective broadcasting companies. The costs of preparing the subtitles are financed in full from the radio and television levy, according to the statement.
As a rule, the subtitles can be accessed via teletext. In the medium term, the broadcasters also plan to broadcast the subtitles via the new HbbTV format. With analog TVs and Swisscom TV, the subtitles for each station are switched on manually via the corresponding teletext page. Other TV providers (e.g. UPC) enable permanent subtitling through a setting in the setup menu. This is practical in that the subtitling remains when switching to another channel.
What began in 1984 with the subtitling of SRG broadcasts around the Pope's visit to Switzerland has now become a comprehensive service for all those viewers who can only understand television programs thanks to subtitles. In Switzerland, there are about 6,000 deaf people, several thousand late-deafened people and almost 100,000 people with severely impaired hearing.
Particularly in German-speaking Switzerland, the representatives of regional programs produced mainly in dialect are convinced that subtitles also help those people to follow their programs who have difficulty with the German language and Swiss German in particular. (pd/hae)
