Media Act (Act CLXXXV of 2010), section 39, access to programmes for people with disabilities, and its enforcement

Section 39(1) of the Media Act requires the media service provider of an audiovisual media service to endeavour to make its programmes continuously and progressively more accessible to people with disabilities.

Section 39(2) requires a national audiovisual media service provider whose audience share in the previous calendar year passes the statutory threshold to ensure that all its programmes, apart from television shopping windows, advertising and trailers, are available with Hungarian subtitles or with sign language interpretation.

Section 39(2a) requires the public service or significant market power audiovisual media service provider, for its media service with the highest average audience share, to make domestically produced films shown between 18:30 and 21:30 accessible to visually impaired viewers. Section 39(3) excludes programmes made available in their original language from the duty in section 39(2), except those published under section 99(2).

Section 39(4) sets the duty concerning the hearing impaired at no less than ten hours of daily programme time from 2014. Section 39(5) requires the media service provider to subtitle, sign-interpret or make accessible for visually impaired viewers a programme, or a dramaturgically connected series of programmes, throughout its whole duration once it has made it accessible in that form.

Section 39(6) requires the media service to indicate before a subtitled programme that it is also available in that form on the related teletext service, and lets the subtitles carry an abridged summary of what is said where their length would otherwise make it impossible to follow.

Section 39(6) also requires the subtitled text to be accurate and in step with the events on screen, and requires a pictogram and a spoken announcement before a subtitled, sign-interpreted or visually-impaired-accessible programme to say that it is available in that form. Section 39(7) requires subtitling of programmes that are not published from a recording to be accurate and in step with the events on screen in a reasonably expected way.

Section 39(8) requires a programme distributor to pass on the teletext signal or other subtitling that the audiovisual media service provider supplies, in step with the picture and sound, on every transmission system, network or distribution platform. Section 39(9) requires the media service provider of an audiovisual media service to prepare an action plan on accessibility measures and to report on the measures taken on the call of the NMHH.

Section 39(10) requires the NMHH to provide on its website an online contact point, easily accessible to people with disabilities, for complaints and information on accessibility. Section 184(1)(c)(cc) gives the Office of the NMHH the supervision of the rules on programmes made accessible to people with disabilities in section 39.

Section 187(4) lets the Media Council and the Office impose an administrative fine, which may be 200 million forints for a significant market power media service provider, 50 million forints for any other media service provider and 5 million forints for a programme distributor. Section 187(1) lets the Media Council and the Office fine the executive officer of the infringing organisation up to 2 million forints on a repeated infringement.

Section 187(3) lets them also exclude the infringer from the Fund's tenders for a set time, order publication of a notice or the decision, and suspend the exercise of the media service right for set periods. Section 187(7) applies the measures of section 187(3)(a) to (c) and the fine of section 187(4) to the provider of an on-demand or ancillary media service.

Section 187(3)(d) lets them delete a linear media service from the register, or terminate its administrative contract with immediate effect, after a repeated serious infringement. Section 187(5) treats an infringement as repeated where the infringer repeats, within 365 days, the conduct a final decision found unlawful, on the same legal basis and provision and in the same subject, minor infringements excepted.

Section 186 limits the response to a minor first infringement to a finding, a warning and an order to stop the conduct within no more than thirty days. Section 204(1) of the Media Act brought the Act into force on 1 January 2011. In that first text, section 39(1) required the media service provider of an audiovisual media service to endeavour to make its programmes progressively accessible to people with hearing impairments.

Section 39 takes its text from section 4 of Act CVII of 2014, as later amended. Act LXIII of 2019 inserted section 39(2a), and Act LXXVI of 2020 set its present text. Act LXXVI of 2020 rewrote section 39(2), (2a), (4), (5), (6) and (9).

Article 7(1) of Directive 2010/13/EU, as replaced by Directive (EU) 2018/1808, requires the Member States to ensure that services provided by media service providers under their jurisdiction are made continuously and progressively more accessible to persons with disabilities through proportionate measures. Article 7(3) of that Directive requires the Member States to encourage media service providers to develop accessibility action plans. Section 50 of Act LXXVI of 2020 took effect on 20 September 2020.