Deaf News: BBC iPlayer subtitle shambles

Posted on October 10, 2013 by



Reports have been coming into the Chicken this week of numerous problems with subtitles on the BBC’s iPlayer website.

Irritated viewers have been reporting on social media that some programmes have been rendered unwatchable by oddly intermittent subtitles. The programmes affected include two episodes of A Very British Murder, The Le Mans Disaster, Strictly Come Dancing, Orphan Black and Fabric of Britiain.

The problem seems to be that every other line of the subtitles is missing on the affected programmes. With only half the story subtitled, the shows make little sense and are almost impossible to follow. The problems surfaced last week and show no sign of improvement.

Ironically, this week, the BBC pledged to invest millions more in the iPlayer to offer 30-day catch-up and new channels with exclusive online only content. Despite the millions being ploughed into improving the iPlayer in the near future, the complaints that have been lodged with the BBC this week about the subtitle problems have had no effect.

Can it be that difficult to fix? We wonder how quickly a problem with the sound would be addressed.

 


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Posted in: deaf news