Additional information provided by applicants for exemption under DDA section 55: Cinema captioning and audio description

See notice of inquiry

On receipt of the application the Commission asked the applicants for additional information including:

1. How many cinema locations do the applicants have nationally? Answer - 125.

2. How many screens are operated in total? Answer - 1182.

3. What would be the set up cost of providing both captions and audio description in any one screen? Answer - The set up cost will vary depending on the amount of work required to install the new equipment. I can advise that the equipment (hardware alone) will be approximately $30,000 per screen. It is not possible to judge the labour component due to the complexity each cinema may have in its original design.

4. What is the applicants' position in relation to the provision of captions and audio description in any new cinema being built or major renovation of an existing cinema that occurs, but is not currently identified on the applicants schedule, during the period of the Temporary Exemption? Answer - The cinemas chosen have been decided on a very logically and long thought out process that was designed to cover as much of a geographical cover across all regions in the areas that the cinema operators have sites. New sites or major renovations would be a consideration of any future discussion, in areas that are not covered geographically in the submission. However, given the nature of our business and competitiveness between each company, there is no public information for any new or major renovation, at this stage.

5. The Commissioner would also appreciate your views on the effect of the introduction of digital technology on future costs and availability of captions and audio description if available. Answer - It is unclear what the introduction of digital technology will have on costs or availability, at present we have not received any communication from the distributors about how this may effect the captioning or audio description films they provide. Therefore, we would not be able to comment on this at this stage.