ACMA finds WIN breached captioning record-keeping requirements – The Australian Communications and Media Authority has found WIN Television Qld Pty Ltd breached captioning record-keeping requirements connected to six episodes of Chicago Med.
The episodes were broadcast in January 2026, with the ACMA investigation following a complaint about the program’s captioning.
For Australian free-to-air broadcasters, captioning compliance does not stop at the broadcast itself. Accurate records must also be kept so regulators can check whether captioning obligations were met after a complaint is made.
What The ACMA Found
During the investigation, WIN advised the ACMA that it could not provide recordings that accurately reflected the broadcasts because the records were no longer available.
As a result, the ACMA found WIN failed to make and retain audio-visual records that were sufficient to allow compliance with captioning obligations to be readily checked for 90 days after the program was broadcast.
The ACMA said this was a breach of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and WIN’s licence conditions.
Regulatory Response
The ACMA is considering the appropriate regulatory response and will publish the outcome once it is finalised.
The full ACMA investigation report is available on the ACMA website.
For more ACMA stories, visit TV Central’s ACMA section. For more free-to-air stories, visit TV Central’s Free to Air section.
