At the Feb. 27 Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA) Summit in London, several experts in the streaming service provider space tackled an oft-overlooked area of importance to the business: existing and future legislation around access services.
The panel — “Access Service Legislation for Streaming Service Providers” — included Diana Sanchez, head of business development, access services for Red Bee; Alberto de la Puente Nieto, director of worldwide localization for NBCUniversal; James Hurrell, content operations manager for Sky Showtime; and Lucia Johnston-Cowan, new business manager, access services for Red Bee.
The European Union’s directive on the requirement for access services for streaming service providers (the European Accessibility Act, or EAA) comes into force on June 28, and while the broadcast regulators will decide the specific terms of the legislation in the different territories, at the moment the details have yet to be determined, leaving the industry in a state of confusion over what they need to do to comply.
Additionally, streaming providers will need to comply with the Audio Visual Media Services Directive, which coordinates legislation on all audiovisual media in the EU.
Speakers agreed that streamers have a moral obligation to provide access services to all viewers, but how to go about it is causing headaches.
“We saw that there was a lot of confusion around the EAA and [we need] more clarity around what the expectation was and what everyone in the supply chain was supposed to be doing,” Nieto said.
The EU’s directive targets how content is accessed, but not the content itself. So that means the interfaces, the remote controls, and how any broadcast content interacts with the internet.
“The directive is this kind of overarching cover-all, but it doesn’t tell us what we need to do,” Hurrell said. “And that’s the bit that everybody in this room is thinking … what is access services in terms of, like, what percentage do we need to do? … It’s about the distribution into the country that you go to, not the point of origin. So we need to work with the local regulators.”
Everything that’s distributed starting after late June will need to have accessibility features, according to the directive. But does that mean subtitles? Closed captioning? Speakers were hard pressed to say they know exactly what’s expected of them.
“The only way in which we’ve done that is through talking to one another, being very open. And I think the role that we can play on the service provider side is really in that collaborative point with the EU regulatory bodies which are going to be enforcing this directive,” Johnston-Cowan said. “They’ve been enforcing the Media Services Directive, as we’ve already mentioned, and really kind of arming, if you like, our customers and streamers with as much information as possible as they then interpret this together with the regulators within each EU country.”
Traditional, linear broadcasters have been dealing with these sorts of challenges for many years, giving streamers a sort of roadmap to start with. But internet-delivered streaming and over-the-air broadcasting are two different beasts, speakers agreed.
“If we just take the UK landscape, there’s been really ambitious targets being driven by our broadcast sector when it comes to accessibility,” Johnston-Cowan said. “This is a very positive thing. This is about enriching content, it’s about widening access services.” She noted that one streamer her company works with is looking to grow its subtitling of content from 60% to 100%, due to the regulations.
Speakers, though, continued to stress that anything they shared shouldn’t be construed as legal advice. The EU regulations are so broad, and come with so few details, that many companies are feeling a bit adrift, wondering if they’re doing everything they should be doing.
“I think a lot of the confusion comes from the fact that the EAA doesn’t stipulate in its terminology. You need to do 50 captioning or 50 [subtitiles for hard of hearing],” Nieto said. “Because it’s not specifically outlined and it was deliberately left open for interpretation. That’s created this sort of vacuum that we’re now trying to navigate through.
“But I think a more positive view on that is, well, it was left open to interpretation because each EU country is very different and has very different needs and requirements for access for their communities.”
With the theme “Where AI and Localization Converge,” the Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA) Summit in London brought together the European community to talk about key trends, challenges and the future for the localization industry.
Attendees heard from subject matter experts, academics, content creators, creatives, and their service provider partners as they delve into issues around the industry landscape following a tumultuous period, including how artificial intelligence, voice technologies, and machine learning are playing an ever-more important role, and how the adoption of smart, targeted cloud-based solutions can help achieve greater workflow efficiencies.
The CDSA Summit London was sponsored by Papercup, Red Bee, Deluxe, EIDR, Iyuno, Tech Align Group, OOONA and Voiseed.
