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.
Dean Clinton
October 10, 2013
On the iPad, you can see Subtitles on the app if the program has subtitles but as soon as you switch to AirPlay (so it’s streaming to AppleTV), the subtitles and button disappear!
Liz
October 10, 2013
Yes I have noticed this problem every time I have tried to watch Orphan Black on their iPlayer.
Robert Mandara
October 10, 2013
As well as the problems mentioned above, Have I got news for you and Mock the week both consistently have unwatchable subtitles. The subtitles exist but appear way after the jokes…
Another problem I have noticed is that subtitles are often missing in the final moments of programmes, usually when they’re introducing what’s coming up in the next episode. This looks like a total lack of quality control at the BBC.
jumeirajames
October 10, 2013
It’s not just BBC iPlayer – ITVPlayer is the same.
I watched Doc Martin last night and understood not a word of it (I’m only partially deaf).
One other point – the ‘reailstic speech’ on TV programs means lots of mumbling and people talking with their back to the camera and intrusive background noise. Even my wife, who has the most amazing hearing, can’t understand what’s being said. Some elucidation + diction lessons would help.
Dean Clinton
October 10, 2013
@jumeirajames – and see below ITV’s response at the weekend to me enquiring about why there are no Subtitles on their ITVPlayer app…
“Dear Dean,
We now offer subtitles on most of our popular programmes, including Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Dickinson’s Real Deal, Doc Martin and other entertainment shows such as The Chase and Jonathan Ross. We endeavour to have subtitles available for the majority of all catch-up content as quickly as possible.
In order to activate the subtitles, please click on the ‘S’ located in the bottom right-hand corner of the player on a PC or Laptop.
At present, we do not have subtitles available on the ITV Player app. Whilst there are no current plans to provide subtitles on the application this is something we may review when the next version of the player is being developed.
In the meantime, please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Kind regards
Linda
ITV Customer Support”
jumeirajames
October 10, 2013
I know all about the S button. It didn’t work.
Thanks for the post and the note.
Steven
October 10, 2013
What about downloading programmes to the Ipad for off line viewing? Is there still no subtitles?
Natalya Dell
October 12, 2013
BBC said on 2nd Oct after I complained on 27th Sept.
Dear ####
Reference ##############
Thank you for contacting the BBC iPlayer Support Team.
I’m sorry to read that you were affected by issues with subtitles on various content including ‘Fabric of Britain’.
We’re currently investigating faults with subtitle delivery and hope to have a fix in place shortly. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience caused.
The BBC is committed to universal accessibility for all and you can view our Accessibility Policy here:
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/access_iplayer/
I do understand that you feel very strongly about this issue, so I’d like to assure you that I’ve fully registered your concerns. This will be included on feedback reports that are available to personnel responsible for maintaining and improving the BBC iPlayer service.
These reports are viewed as important documents that can help shape decisions on future aspects of BBC iPlayer.
Once again, thanks for taking the time to contact us.
Kind Regards
PERSON
BBC Audience Services
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
NB This is sent from an outgoing account only which is not monitored. You cannot reply to this email address but if necessary please contact us via our webform quoting any case number we provided.
It is now 12th October and *still* no fix and programmes are still broken. I’m really rather annoyed so I have sent the following fairly ranty complaint to the BBC complaints webform of stupidness – the horrid one which forces you to complete useless dropdowns and mouse a lot…
———————-
I feel the BBC’s response to my initial complaint ############ is inadequate.
The issues with the subtitles have now been going on for at least two weeks with no sign of improvement or indication of when they will be fixed.
Questions I would like answered by a human being who I can reply to by email without having to deal with this ghastly web form!
1) When will the problem be fixed?
2) Will the BBC allow the episodes with broken subtitles be re-shown again with fixed subtitles for those of us who missed them?
3) Why is the BBC not fixing the problem faster and acknowledging there’s a system wide error more prominently!?
4) Why does the BBC treat subtitling as an “add on”.? If the sound or pictures was broken the issue would be fixed much faster.
5) What is the cause of this latest problem?
6) What will the BBC do to ensure this problem doesn’t happen again?
7) What will the BBC do to speed up the proper response to reports of subtitle faults, instead of the usual expecting people to report while nothing is done before the episodes go offline?
I am so unhappy with the BBC I am finding it hard to remain polite. The BBC is a MASSIVE organisation. There is absolutely NO excuse for this level of failure in 2013. This is a sign of poor and sloppy attitudes towards access and inclusion.
Like I said. I expect a reply by email from a proper email address which I can respond to and not some useless appeasing, apologistic useless template reply.
I look forward to hearing back from someone soon.
mjfahey
October 13, 2013
In the meantime, please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Kind regards
Linda
ITV Customer Support”
In other words do without!
Peter Kendall
October 14, 2013
I noticed that BBC iplayer help section reported subtitle issue (http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/access_iplayer/subtitles_iplayer/) so hopefully it will sorted very soon. 🙂 Peter
Toby
October 16, 2013
Hello, it is quite doubtful as I reported an issue with the programme called Politics Scotland ages ago, and it still hasn’t been resolved despite the programme indicating that subtitles is available – http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03cwcq9/Politics_Scotland_10_10_2013/ However with the Daily Politics, it is subtitled without a problem?! Typical!
As most of you know that there is going to be a debate in the House of Common on Thursday on services for deaf children, I will be watching this with a keen eye to see what the MPs have to say for themselves, however it will not be available on BBC iplayer as for example, a House of Common debate taking place on 14th of October and you can clearly see that subtitles was available when people was watching it on TV – http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03dyqdm/House_of_Commons_14_10_2013/ but guess what?! No subtitlles via the BBC iplayer platform.
I have found some success with complaining but with programmes being available only for seven days, it tends to get swept away under the carpet unfortunately so I end up missing out on a potential interesting programme.
Toby
October 16, 2013
Surprise, surprise! – http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03cwcq9/Politics_Scotland_10_10_2013/ is subtitled now, it wasn’t the case yesterday and I am looking around the internet to see if I can somehow “cache” the video for future reference, However the subtitles on the programme is a very poor quality unfortunately, compared to the Daily Politics for example
Melisseus
October 22, 2013
Received from BBC today…
Dear Melissaeus
Reference CAS-9999999-QQQQQQ
Thank you for contacting the BBC iPlayer Support Team.
I understand you’re unhappy with the quality of subtitles offered on many BBC television programmes, notably ‘Orphan Black’.
With the delivery of our new online media publishing service we have
discovered a bug in the way subtitles are processed. Symptoms include
missing words and sentences as well as subtitles appearing out of sync.
We have identified the root of the problem and have a software update
scheduled to address this. We apologise for the loss of subtitle quality
and we are working hard to correct it.
In the meantime, I do understand that you feel very strongly about this
issue, so I’d like to assure you that I’ve fully registered your
concerns. This will be included on feedback reports that are available
to personnel responsible for maintaining and improving the BBC iPlayer
service.
These reports are viewed as important documents that can help shape decisions on future aspects of BBC iPlayer.
Once again, thanks for taking the time to contact us.
Kind Regards
Jamie Patterson
BBC Audience Services
Louise Tee
November 19, 2013
I bought episodes of Vera on itvPlayer. After trying to watch the first episode I reported that subtitles are out of sync. It was suggested I try a different browser as they had been “unable to replicate” my issue. I tried two other browsers with no improvement and got same reply when I reported the problem. Then I tried the next episode and found that the subtitles shown for the first episode were actually from the second episode! So much for their claimed attempt to replicate the issue!
I bought 9 episodes in all and probably less than half were watchable as the subtitles did not sync.
Total waste of money! I wish deaf friendly versions of programmes could be made and perhaps shown on a different frequency e.g. without loud background music.
David Jackson
February 21, 2014
Can anyone tell me what that word “macro” should be as it often appears in live subtitling particularly during the winter Olympics?
Paul berg
November 29, 2014
I cannot find an S buttons to press on any of the programs on bbc I view on my ipad3
Can anyone help?
I just subscribed for one month from Melbourne Australia
Please send me a solution to my email: paulberg@optusnet.com.au
ian craig
February 7, 2016
War and Peace on iplayer – subtitles about 10 seconds ahead of the action – impossible!!
Chris Davis
September 19, 2016
Im not deaf but I can appreciate how poor the service is by the BBC on Iplayer especially when the content is not live, the subtitles should be embedded in the content and quality checked before made available. I watched the non live edition of Match of the Day 1 on the Monday after broadcast (17/09/06) and the subtitles are useless, they can’t keep pace and often freeze before catching up so you miss a lot in between, the punctuation is poor, you cant tell who is speaking and words are made up as it miss translates what is said. I have seen better on youtube on foreign language films, I don’t see why the subtitles cant be checked for quality as Im sure they must check the whole program whilst they are preparing it for display on their site!