Captionator.tv

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Live captions for Australian TV and radio

The offline world, online: Australian TV, talk radio and Federal Parliament turned into words as they air, from each channel's closed captions or transcribed live. Every line is kept, so you can search what was said, hear it, quote it, link to the moment, and get an alert when a name comes up.

Advanced search: exact phrases, OR, exclusions, channels, dates and programmes.

Sign in or create a free account to read live captions, search the archive and get an email or a Telegram message the moment a name or phrase is said on air.

What we bring online

Broadcasts are said once and gone. We turn them into text as they happen and keep every word.

TV

Live captions from Australian free-to-air TV (ABC, Seven, Nine, 10, SBS and NITV) and news channels from around the world, from their own closed captions or transcribed as they air.
34 channels
Radio

Live transcripts of Australian talk radio, as it’s spoken: ABC Radio Sydney and Melbourne, ABC RN, ABC NewsRadio, 2GB and 3AW.
6 stations
Parliament

The House of Representatives and the Senate, word for word from ParlView whenever they sit.
2 chambers
Planes

Air traffic control over Sydney, transcribed, with the aircraft it’s talking to on a live map.
Coming soon
Boats

Vessels around Sydney Harbour and the coast on a live map, with what each is doing.
Coming soon

What you can do

Read it live

Pick a channel and read what’s being said, a few seconds behind air. Make the text as big as you like.
Go back in time

Each channel’s page lists its programmes by day. Open one to read its whole transcript, or download it.
Search everything ever said

One search across every channel’s archive, by exact words or by meaning. Open a result to read around it.
Ask a question

Ask in plain English what’s been said about something. The answer quotes the captions it rests on, each linked to the moment it aired.
Hear any word

Click a word to play the audio from there, or select a passage to hear just that and check it against the broadcast.
Quote and link

Select some words to quote them with a citation, or copy a link to the exact moment they aired.
Get alerts

Add a name or a phrase and get an email or a Telegram message the moment it’s said on air, on any channel.
Watch live TV

News channels side by side, straight from the broadcasters. Double-click one to fill the screen, or record it to keep.

More on how it works

Every channel

A green dot means its words are coming in right now. Pick one to read it live.

Australian TV: ABC TV, ABC News, Seven, 9, 10, SBS, NITV and Sky News, in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. World news: BBC News, DW News, France 24, NHK World, Al Jazeera, CNA, euronews, CNN, CBS News and RT. Business news: Bloomberg, ausbiz, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar and ticker News. Radio: ABC Radio Sydney, ABC Radio Melbourne, ABC RN, ABC NewsRadio, 2GB and 3AW. Parliament: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Questions

Which Australian TV channels have live captions here?: ABC TV, ABC News, Seven, 9, 10, SBS and NITV, read from the closed captions the broadcasters publish with their free web streams, in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Sky News and the world and business news channels don’t publish captions, so they’re transcribed live by speech recognition instead.
Which Australian radio stations are transcribed?: ABC Radio Sydney, ABC Radio Melbourne, ABC RN, ABC NewsRadio, 2GB and 3AW. Each station’s words appear a few seconds after they’re spoken, and every line is kept, so a radio transcript is there to search, read back and quote whenever you need it.
Can I get a transcript of a TV or radio programme?: Yes. Each channel’s page lists its programmes by day. Open one to read the whole transcript, play the audio back from any word, or download it. Or search every channel at once for a name or phrase and open a result to read around it.
How accurate are the captions and transcripts?: Live captions are typed or generated in real time, and automatic transcripts are made by OpenAI’s Whisper with no person checking them, so expect delays, abbreviations and misheard names. Check anything against the audio before you quote it; see how it works.
What does it cost?: Nothing. Reading live, searching the archive and alerts need a free account, so the captions aren’t republished to the world at large. Captionator.tv is a personal project, not run or endorsed by any broadcaster.

A tribute to tveeder, which streamed Australian TV captions from 2011; this site carries on what it did. Captions belong to the broadcasters and their captioners, including Red Bee Media and Ai-Media; see credits.

TV

NHK World live captions

Read the live captions from NHK World as it airs, and search every word the channel has said since. Play the audio back, quote it with a citation, link to the moment, and get an alert when a name or phrase comes up. Free, from Captionator.tv.

NHK World-Japan, the English-language news and features channel of Japan's public broadcaster. The captions are the broadcaster's own closed captions, read from the caption track of its free web stream as it airs. They're typed or generated live, so they can be delayed, abbreviated or wrong, and the site shows them as received.

Sign in or create a free account to read NHK World live

What you can do with the NHK World captions

Read it live. Every line appears a few seconds after it airs. Make the text as large as you like.
Go back in time. NHK World's page lists its programmes by day. Open one to read its whole transcript, or download it.
Search. Search everything NHK World has said, by exact words or by meaning, then narrow it by date or programme. Or search every channel at once.
Hear it. Click any word to play the audio from there, or select a passage to hear just that and check it against what went to air.
Quote and link. Select some words to quote them with a citation, or copy a link to the exact moment they aired.
Alerts. Add a name or phrase and get an email the moment it's said on NHK World, or on any channel.

More TV channels with live captions

ABC News 24, Sky/News24, 9 Sydney, Seven Sydney, ABC TV Sydney, 10 Sydney, SBS, 9 Melbourne, 9 Brisbane, 9 Adelaide, 9 Perth, Seven Melbourne, Seven Brisbane, 10 Melbourne, 10 Brisbane, ABC TV Melbourne, ABC TV Brisbane, NITV, BBC News, DW News, France 24, Al Jazeera, CNA, Bloomberg TV, euronews, CNN Headlines, CBS News, RT, ausbiz, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, ticker News, CNBC.

The captions belong to NHK World and its captioners; see the credits. Captionator.tv is a personal project, not run or endorsed by any broadcaster.