The Access Services department ensures the accessibility of the programmes on behalf of the public broadcasters. Automated subtitling software is now in use for the political channel. The current contract expires on 31 August 2023.
NPO realizes that automatic subtitles are in full development and wants to be both compliant and give the best experience to the primary target group of people with an auditory disability.
The access is standardized in the media law at a minimum of 95%. The ambition of the NPO is 100%. The NPO wants to keep up with the developments of the supplier and possibly suppliers.
The ambition of the NPO is to continue to provide 100% on channel NPO Politics & News with automated subtitling software that is accepted by the target group.
More information about NPO can be found via https://over.npo.nl/organisatie/bestuur-en-organisatie
More information about subtitles can be found here: https://over.npo.nl/voor-publiek/toegankelijkheid/tt888-ondertiteling#Live-ondertiteling
A European tender was chosen according to the public procedure according to the Procurement Act 2012. It concerns a tender for the software (and necessary hardware) supply and service for the NPO (the contracting authority).
It concerns a solution to provide the NPO Politics channel with Dutch subtitles aimed at the primarily deaf and hard of hearing. The solution is able to receive an HD-SDI signal provided by NPO and deliver the subtitles via an IP stream. This is a facility for the theme channel NPO Politics, which broadcasts 24 hours a day throughout the year. The channel can also be viewed online via link: https://www.npostart.nl/live/npo-politiek-en-nieuws.
NPO is also considering connecting a second channel during the contract period and is considering the video stream of NPO Radio 1. https://www.nporadio1.nl/live
The system runs day and night and that is about 8766 hours of LIVE subtitles per year.
Description of the assignment
Current situation
The Access Services department ensures the accessibility of the programmes on behalf of the public broadcasters. Automated subtitling software is now in use for the political channel. The current contract expires on 31 August 2023.
The current solution has been tested by the public and appreciated as acceptable.
The agreement has now been concluded for a maximum of 4 years.
NPO realizes that automatic subtitles are in full development and wants to be both compliant and give the best experience to the primary target group of people with an auditory disability.
The access is standardized in the media law at a minimum of 95%. The ambition of the NPO is 100%. The NPO wants to keep up with the developments of the supplier and possibly suppliers. As an example, you can specify the pace of updates to the speech engine. Another example is the development agenda (roadmap) of the application that produces the subtitles.
Desired situation
The ambition of the NPO is to continue to provide 100% on channel NPO Politics & News with automated subtitling software that is accepted by the target group.
The NPO wants to conclude a longer agreement with initially 2 years and then 4 extensions to a maximum of 6 years.
The NPO expects the supplier to keep up with market developments and to stay ahead where possible.
The NPO expects the supplier to move with the developments within the NPO and to be able to deliver the subtitles with different protocols during the contract period, temporarily delivering two streams.
The NPO accounts for the percentage of time that subtitles were actually needed and whether these subtitles were broadcast. NPO expects logging that can support accountability. The Commissariat for the Media tests our accountability. https://www.cvdm.nl/
The current solution was expanded after tendering in 2019. This concerns logic for the position of the subtitle and the omission of subtitles. NPO also wants to see this functionality in the new contract period.
The NPO has created 200 hours of teaching materials for AI systems. Programs of a wide range are provided with literal high quality transcription/subtitles. It is expected that the supplier to be selected will be able to use this 'teaching material' to train his recognition system to improve it at no cost.