SlovakiaMinistry of Culture decree on subtitles for persons with hearing impairment in audiovisual works, television programmes and on-demand programmes
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
- Instrument type
- a regulation made under an act
What it requires
- If you broadcast television programmes or provide on-demand audiovisual media services with subtitles for persons with hearing impairment, centre the subtitles at the bottom of the screen with at most 42 characters per line including spaces and punctuation, show them statically in at most two lines on a dark background in white, yellow, light blue, light green or pink in contrast to the background, and show them long enough to be read; do not centre them at the bottom where that would cover information essential to understanding the programme and your technology can place them elsewhere (s. 1).
- Show subtitles at the same time as the character's speech, a reasonable time before it or after it where needed for reading (s. 2).
- Distinguish the speech of several characters by colour, keep a stable main character's colour throughout, mark a change of speaker with a dash, identify an off-screen speaker in capital letters followed by a colon, mark an unfinished sentence with three dots, and mark speech impairment, accent, emphasis, emotion and inner monologue as the Decree sets (s. 3).
- Show speech in a foreign language that is left untranslated in that language, with the language named in capital letters, as the Decree sets (s. 4).
- Give a verbatim transcript of speech, shortened or adapted only where needed to keep time to read and to stay synchronised and keeping all essential information; show colloquial speech, dialect, slang and vulgarisms in the same way (s. 5).
- Announce in capital letters sounds and noises that affect the plot and are not apparent from the picture, repeating the duration of a long sound every 30 seconds, and announce the absence of an expected sound (s. 6).
- For live programmes, subtitles may be produced by simultaneous transcription, automatic or through a respeaker, and several of the display rules do not apply (s. 7).
- For on-demand audiovisual media services and for broadcasts provided through a website or application, the white-colour rule of section 8(1) and the colour-distinction rule of section 3(1) do not apply (s. 8(2)).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
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Penalty structure
Section 142(5) of the Media Services Act 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, which include subtitles that meet the requirements of this Decree under section 53(1)(d).
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Minimum
- 3,000
- 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 this law does
Section 53(2) of the Media Services Act has the Ministry of Culture issue a generally binding legal regulation on the requirements that subtitles for persons with hearing impairment must meet for audiovisual works, television programmes and on-demand programmes.
Section 1 of Decree 318/2023 sets the display of subtitles: centred at the bottom of the screen, at most 42 characters per line and two lines, shown statically on a dark background in white, yellow, light blue, light green or pink with contrast against it, and displayed long enough to be read. Section 2 requires subtitles to appear at the same time as the speech of the character, and lets them appear a reasonable time before it and stay a reasonable time after it where needed for reading.
Section 3 requires colour to distinguish the speech of several characters, a dash to mark a change of speaker, identification of an off-screen speaker, three dots for an unfinished sentence, and marking of speech impairments, emphasis, emotion and inner monologue. Section 4 sets how speech in a foreign language is shown in subtitles.
Section 5 requires subtitles to give a verbatim transcript of the speech, with the text shortened or adapted only where needed to leave time to read and to stay synchronised, keeping all essential information. Section 6 requires sounds and noises that affect the plot and are not apparent from the picture to be announced in capital letters.
Section 7 allows subtitles for live programmes to be produced by simultaneous automatic transcription or by a respeaker and excludes several of the other requirements for them. Section 8(2) excludes on-demand audiovisual media services and broadcasts provided through a website or application from the white-colour rule of section 8(1) and the colour-distinction rule of section 3(1).
Section 9 required a notice, during 2024, at the start of a programme whose subtitles are produced by simultaneous transcription, that the subtitles are in test operation and may contain errors. Section 11 of the Decree sets as its commencement day, and section 10 repeals Decree 12/2016. Section 142(5) of the Media Services Act 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.
From , section 143(2) of the Media Services Act requires the regulator to fine a provider of an on-demand audiovisual media service from 100 to 5,000 euro for breaching the multimodal access duties of section 58(1).
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