Nine Network

The Nine Network has introduced yet another technology that will change the way Australians watch sport and other popular television programs: Nine Extra. 

Nine Extra is a newly designed “live game” companion for the iPad. It was trialled for the first time in last night’s State of Origin game two in Sydney, giving rugby league fans at-a-glance access to real-time match and player information and statistics.

With Nine Extra, fans can watch in-game highlights and on-demand video replays of every great moment shortly after exclusive live broadcast on Nine. 

Apart from an immediate inventory of facts and statistics, sports fans will be able to access multiple camera angles of each match highlight to conduct their own in-game analysis at home.

Wide World of Sports, Australia’s leading sports brand, has embraced every new phase of broadcasting technology for 30 years. Wide World of Sports has again led the way with the launch of Nine Extra in what is arguably the biggest sporting contest of the year, the rugby league State of Origin series. 

Nine confidently anticipates that this new technology will prove successful and popular with viewers. After pioneering it in Origin, the network plans to refine and expand the application of Nine Extra to more sports and other relevant programs. 

“Nine continues to give viewers the very best in sports broadcasting and Nine Extra is a testament to our commitment to the ongoing development of sports television presentation in Australia,” Executive Producer, Rugby League, Matthew Callander, said.

Nine Extra has iPad features including multi-camera-angle video on demand available just moments after it happens, live scores and match statistics, State of Origin match historical data, team and player profiles, live feed of Nine’s State of Origin Twitter feed, live news feeds from Nine’s commentary team and expert panel, and profiles of the Wide World of Sports rugby league broadcast team. It will also have archival vision from 2011 Harvey Norman State of Origin games one and two.

The new application will be made available as a free download from iTunes prior to Origin game three which will be played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Wednesday, July 6, at 7.30pm and broadcast live on Channel Nine.

The Nine Network has provided the ACMA with an enforceable undertaking designed to underpin its improved compliance with the complaint-handling provisions of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010.

‘This undertaking follows numerous breaches of complaint-handling provisions since 2006 by the Nine Network, which Nine itself had acknowledged to be unacceptable,’ said ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman.

‘By offering this EU, Nine has shown its commitment to address the problem and the ACMA welcomes its pro-active approach.’

Viewers concerned about code breaches must first complain, in writing, to the station involved. The broadcaster then has 30 working days to respond to the complaint.

‘It is important for members of the public to feel confident that TV stations will respond, substantively and promptly, when they make a complaint about a code matter,’ Mr Chapman added.

Key features of the Nine Network undertaking are:

• Nine will send responses to postal complaints by either registered mail or Express Post

• Nine will maintain a register of all code complaints

• Nine will provide the ACMA with a monthly report on complaints received and processed

• Nine will provide the ACMA with quarterly reports on compliance prepared by an independent auditor

The Enforceable Undertaking is available on the ACMA website.

After finding that Nine Network stations TCN and NBN breached their licence conditions by failing to provide a captioning service, Nine has agreed to put in place an independent audit system to prevent future breaches.

It is the first time an investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority has received this voluntary undertaking for a captions-related breach.

Under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the Act), it is a condition that commercial television licensees provide a captioning service for all news and current affairs programs.

However, since 2005, TCN and NBN have breached the captioning requirements on several occasions. In this case, NBN failed to provide a captioning service for NBN Evening News for four broadcasts between 24 June 2010 and 28 July 2010; and TCN for a segment of A Current Affair on 28 July 2010.

‘Given Nine’s patchy track record in providing this essential service, the ACMA considers that the introduction of outside auditors reflects an appropriate measure of independence and oversight,’ said ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman. ‘We welcome Nine’s initiative in resolving this matter, however, the ACMA will naturally continue to closely monitor any complaints received about caption delivery in the broadcasting sector.

The captioning process and delivery at TCN and NBN will be independently audited. six monthly over a period of two years, and began from 14 March 2011.

In addition, the ACMA is working with industry, consumers and government in the development of indicators for the assessment of caption quality. Quality is a primary concern of consumers and the captioning working committee is aiming to develop meaningful, measureable and deliverable quality indicators that are acceptable to all stakeholders.

To this end, the committee has met regularly following the ACMA captioning forum in September 2010 with the most recent meeting taking place on 21 March 2011.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has found that the licensee of GTV, General Television Corporation Pty Ltd, breached a condition of its licence by broadcasting an election advertisement during the three day ‘blackout’ period leading up to the 2010 State election in Victoria.

It is a condition under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the Act) that commercial television licensees not broadcast an election advertisement during what is commonly known as the ‘blackout’ period. This begins at the end of the Wednesday before polling day and concludes at the close of that polling day.

The ACMA received a complaint on 30 November 2010 regarding an advertisement broadcast by GTV at approximately 8:00pm, Thursday, 25 November 2010, two days before the Victorian State election.

GTV submitted that the error occurred while Nine was relocating its traffic system to a new facility. In response to the breach finding, GTV advised the ACMA that all traffic for GTV is now administered from Sydney using an automated ‘cart’ system.

There are no previously recorded breaches of this licence condition by a Nine Network licensee. The ACMA will monitor any future complaints to ensure compliance with the rules.