New Zealand Parliament selects Ericsson for live captioning services
- Ericsson signs exclusive multi-year contract to remotely provide live captioning services to the New Zealand Parliament
- Live captioning will cover the live broadcasts of the sittings of the House of Representatives on Parliament TV
- The contract expands Ericsson's access services business into New Zealand for the first time
Ericsson today announced that it has won an exclusive multi-year access services contract with the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives in New Zealand. The contract will see Ericsson remotely deliver live captioning services for the Parliament TV broadcasts of the sittings of the New Zealand House of Representatives. The new captioning service will be available on Parliament TV for the first time from August 2016.
David Wilson, Clerk of the House of Representatives, says "One in nine people in New Zealand uses captions when watching TV content. So providing live captioning for our Parliament TV audience is a significant advance towards making Parliament's information even more accessible. As a result live captioning will enable more people in our communities to be informed about and involved in the work of their Parliament."
Thorsten Sauer, Head of Broadcast and Media Services, Ericsson, says: "This contract to provide captioning to the New Zealand Parliament is an important win for Ericsson and marks the first time that we will be delivering our world-class captioning service to New Zealand. At Ericsson, we believe that content should be accessible by everyone, especially content that is integral to shaping a country's future and the lives of its citizens. We remain committed to investing in technology and innovation to ensure we deliver the very highest levels of service and quality to both our clients and their audiences and we look forward to building a long and successful partnership in the years to come."
In March, Ericsson announced multi-year captioning contracts with Australian public service broadcasters, ABC and SBS. In November, Ericsson also announced a multi-year news captioning contract with ANC, Australia's leading 24-hour multi-channel, multi-platform news service provider. As part of the contract, Ericsson provides captioning services for SKY NEWS-produced bulletins on Qantas flights.
Ericsson's closed captioning business is one of the largest in the world, with hubs in Australia, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and the US. Ericsson has been providing captioning services for over 30 years and delivers 230,000 hours of captions every year, 100,000 of which are live. It is also the world's largest provider of TV audio description and sign-language translation.
More information about Ericsson's Broadcast and Media Services portfolio can be found here.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Office of the Clerk of House of Representatives - New Zealand
The Office of the Clerk is a small but important organisation at the core of New Zealand's democratic system. Our central business is to provide secretariat support to the day-to-day functioning of the New Zealand House of Representatives and select committees.
The Office of the Clerk provides an authoritative source of advice on parliamentary procedure to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and to members of Parliament.
We also maintain the definitive record of Parliament's decisions, and advocate for the effectiveness of Parliament as a democratic institution.
For more information about the New Zealand Parliament or Office of the Clerk, please
Visit the New Zealand Parliament website
Read information about the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives
Broadcast and Media Services press backgrounder
For media kits, backgrounders and high-resolution photos, please visit www.ericsson.com/press
Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society - a world leader in communications technology and services. Our long-term relationships with every major telecom operator in the world allow people, business and society to fulfill their potential and create a more sustainable future.
Our services, software and infrastructure - especially in mobility, broadband and the cloud - are enabling the telecom industry and other sectors to do better business, increase efficiency, improve the user experience and capture new opportunities.
With approximately 115,000 professionals and customers in 180 countries, we combine global scale with technology and services leadership. We support networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers. Forty percent of the world's mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. And our investments in research and development ensure that our solutions - and our customers - stay in front.
Founded in 1876, Ericsson has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Net sales in 2015 were SEK 246.9 billion (USD 29.4 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX stock exchange in Stockholm and the NASDAQ in New York.
www.ericsson.com
www.ericsson.com/news
www.twitter.com/ericssonpress
www.facebook.com/ericsson
www.youtube.com/ericsson
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
Ericsson Corporate Communications
Phone: +46 10 719 69 92
E-mail: media.relations@ericsson.com
Ericsson Investor Relations
Phone: +46 10 719 00 00
Email: investor.relations@ericsson.com