SlovakiaMedia Services Act: multimodal access (subtitles, sign language and audio description) in television broadcasting
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
What it requires
- If you are an authorised broadcaster (oprávnený vysielateľ), provide multimodal access to your television programme services so that, across all of them, at least 25 percent of all programmes broadcast carry subtitles for persons with hearing impairment or are interpreted into, or presented in, Slovak sign language, and at least 10 percent carry audio description for blind persons (s. 55(3); Directive 2010/13/EU, Art. 7).
- Until the full minima apply, meet the phased level: 13 percent and 5 percent for 2023, then raise the share each year from to under your approved action plan; the section 55(3) minima apply at the latest from (s. 240(3) to (5)).
- Measure each share as broadcast time of programmes with that type of access over all broadcast time per calendar quarter, leaving out programmes between 02:00 and 05:00, sports programmes, music programmes and programmes that are mainly music, and for the audio description share also journalism programmes based on guest discussion (s. 55(4) and (5)).
- Give subtitles that meet the Ministry of Culture regulation on subtitles for persons with hearing impairment (s. 53(1)(d) and (2); Decree 318/2023).
- If you give multimodal access to one part of a series or serial, give it to every part you broadcast (s. 55(6)).
- Mark clearly every programme with subtitles, audio description or sign language, tell the regulator how you mark them, apply the mark in the broadcast, in your programme offer and in the programme listings you give to third parties, and mark no other programmes this way (s. 55(7) and (8)).
- Within 15 days of the regulator's request, give it the share, number and running time of programmes with each type of access and a list of them with their broadcast dates (s. 56).
- Draw up an action plan for three years aimed at lasting and gradual multimodal access to your television programme service, publish it on the website of your service if it has one, submit it to the regulator by 31 December of the year before the period, and submit an account of it by 31 March of the year after the period (s. 57).
- Local broadcasting and broadcasting abroad are outside these duties (s. 55(9)).
- Give state bodies free of charge, in an urgent public interest, the broadcasting time needed for important and urgent announcements or civil protection information, and broadcast them with interpretation into Slovak sign language together with subtitles for persons with hearing impairment or simultaneous transcription of the spoken word (s. 20(4)(d); Directive 2010/13/EU, Art. 7(4)).
- Keep continuous recordings of your broadcasting, including broadcasting with multimodal access, for 45 days and give them to the regulator within 15 days of its request (s. 20(4)(e)).
- As a television broadcaster, keep special statistics that include the shares of programmes with multimodal access and deliver them to the regulator within 15 days after each calendar quarter, or within 15 days of its request if you are an authorised broadcaster that does not broadcast terrestrially (s. 20(5)(b) and (c)).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
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Penalty structure
Section 142(5) requires the regulator to fine a television broadcaster from 3,000 to 66,000 euro for breaching the multimodal access duties of sections 53 to 55, and section 142(2) requires a fine from 650 to 66,000 euro for failing to give the data under section 56(2), to meet section 57 or to give broadcasting time in an urgent public interest under section 20(4)(d). Section 142(1) requires a fine from 150 to 6,500 euro for failing to keep and give the recordings of broadcasting under section 20(4)(e) or to keep or deliver the special statistics under section 20(5)(b) and (c). Under section 140(1) the regulator imposes a fine if the person, despite a warning, repeatedly breached the same duty, a repeat being a breach less than three years after the earlier breach of that duty; section 140(2) lists the duties that may be fined without a warning, and they do not include these.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Minimum
- 150
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 66,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Council for Media Services (Rada pre mediálne služby), the regulator under the Media Services Act
What it reaches
Instrument type
an act of a legislature
Applicability criteria
Section 19(2)(b) treats as an authorised broadcaster (oprávnený vysielateľ) every broadcaster that must apply for authorisation of broadcasting and is not the public service broadcaster. The quota of section 55(1) binds only the public service broadcaster, the broadcaster established by law (section 19(2)(a)). The duties of sections 20(4)(d) and (e), 20(5)(b) and (c), 55(6) to (8) and 56 bind every television broadcaster.
- As of
- Combinator
- All of
- Criteria
- an authorised broadcaster (oprávnený vysielateľ) of a television programme service, for the quotas of section 55(3) and the action plan of section 57
What this law does
Section 53 defines subtitles for persons with hearing impairment as on-screen text in the language of the broadcast that is synchronised with the sound track, captures the speech so that persons with hearing impairment can understand it, has no errors that would materially affect understanding, and meets the requirements of a regulation of the Ministry of Culture.
Section 54 defines audio description for blind persons as a spoken description of the visual parts of a programme, placed in passages without speech and delivered in a voice different from the original voices. Section 19(2)(b) treats as an authorised broadcaster a broadcaster that must apply for authorisation of broadcasting under the Act and is not the public service broadcaster.
Section 55(3) obliges an authorised broadcaster to accompany at least 25 percent of all programmes on all its television programme services with subtitles or sign language and at least 10 percent with audio description. Section 55(4) and (5) measure the share by broadcast time per calendar quarter and leave out programmes between 02:00 and 05:00, sports programmes, music programmes and programmes that are mainly music, and for the audio description share also talk-based journalism programmes.
Section 55(6) obliges the broadcaster to give multimodal access to all parts of a series or serial if it did so for even one part. Section 55(7) and (8) oblige the broadcaster to mark clearly every programme with subtitles, audio description or sign language, to tell the regulator how it marks them, and to apply the mark in the broadcast, in its programme offer and in the programme listings it gives to third parties.
Section 55(9) leaves local broadcasting and broadcasting abroad outside those duties. Section 56 obliges the broadcaster to give the regulator on request, within 15 days, data on the share, number and running time of programmes with each type of access and a list of those programmes with their broadcast dates.
Section 57 obliges an authorised broadcaster to draw up an action plan for three years, publish it on the website of its programme service, submit it to the regulator by 31 December of the year before the period and submit an account of it by 31 March of the year after the period.
Section 240 phases the quotas in at 13 percent and 5 percent for 2023, a yearly increase under the broadcaster's approved action plan from to , and the section 55(3) minima at the latest from .
Section 20(4)(d) obliges a broadcaster to give state bodies free of charge, in an urgent public interest, the broadcasting time needed for important and urgent announcements or civil protection information, and to broadcast them with interpretation into Slovak sign language together with subtitles for persons with hearing impairment or simultaneous transcription of the spoken word.
Section 20(4)(e) obliges a broadcaster to keep continuous recordings of its broadcasting, including broadcasting with multimodal access, for 45 days and to give them to the regulator within 15 days of its request.
Section 20(5)(b) and (c) oblige a television broadcaster to keep special statistics that include the shares of programmes with multimodal access and to deliver them to the regulator within 15 days after each calendar quarter, or, for an authorised broadcaster that does not broadcast terrestrially, within 15 days of the regulator's request.
Section 142(5) requires the regulator to fine a television broadcaster from 3,000 to 66,000 euro for breaching the multimodal access duties of sections 53 to 55. Section 142(2) requires the regulator to fine a television broadcaster from 650 to 66,000 euro for failing to give the data under section 56(2) or to meet section 57.
Section 142(2)(b) requires the regulator to fine a television broadcaster from 650 to 66,000 euro for failing to give broadcasting time in an urgent public interest under section 20(4)(d). Section 142(1)(c), (e) and (f) require the regulator to fine a television broadcaster from 150 to 6,500 euro for failing to keep and give the regulator the recordings of broadcasting of section 20(4)(e), to keep the special statistics of section 20(5)(b) or to deliver them as section 20(5)(c) requires.
Section 140(1) has the regulator impose a fine if the person, despite a warning, repeatedly breached the same duty, a repeat being a breach less than three years after the earlier breach of that duty. Section 140(2) lets the regulator fine without a prior warning only for the duties it lists, which do not include the multimodal access duties. Section 1(1)(e) names the Council for Media Services (Rada pre mediálne služby) as the regulator.
Article XIV of the Media Services Act takes effect on apart from the exceptions it names. The Annex to the Media Services Act lists Directive 2010/13/EU among the acts it takes over.
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