Captioning and audio description help make television accessible.
The rules for captioning
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) regulates TV captioning in Australia. Captions must comply with requirements set out in legislation, industry codes of practice and the TV Captioning Quality Standard.
The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 requires free-to-air TV broadcasters to caption all news and current affairs programs and any program screened on their primary or main channels between 6am to midnight, unless the program is music-only or not in English.
Captioning requirements on subscription TV channels vary according to the type of programming. Subscription TV licensees have annual targets for the number of programs that must be captioned. These targets vary depending on the category of the channel.
TV licensees may apply to the ACMA for particular services to be exempt from captioning.
There are also obligations on free-to-air and subscription TV broadcasters to caption repeat programs. Free-to-air broadcasters are required to caption any program re-screened on their channels if that same program was previously screened with captions. Subscription broadcasters are also required to caption any program screened on one of their channels if the program was previously screened with captions on another channel.
More information about captioning rules and compliance can be found on the ACMA's website.
Information about making a complaint about captioning can also be found on the ACMA's website.
Last reviewed: 9 October 2026