Frustration with the quality of subtitles from BBC’s iPlayer continue among deaf viewers unabated. Although the BBC uploaded a fix to iPlayer last week, which has resolved problems with missing or jumpy subtitles, viewers are reporting new problems.
Some viewers accessing iPlayer on internet connected TV’s are reporting super-small subtitles that left one viewer with a headache as she strained to read them. Another viewer watching TV in the South-West was bamboozled by super-fast subtitles on Match of the Day on Saturday night.
Other viewers are still waiting to find out if programmes that were impossible to watch with subtitles a couple of weeks ago and are now not available on iPlayer will be allowed to watch the programmes they missed. The fix that iPlayer techno-wizards employed last week worked but came more than 7-days after the problems first emerged. That means some of the programmes that viewers were ‘really looking forward to seeing’ are denied to them forever. That can’t be right.
Defeat was also grabbed from the jaws of victory when on Thursday the BBC subtitled the live debate about deaf children in Parliament but left the subtitles off the iPlayer coverage. Kudos to the Beeb for extending the subtitling coverage on the day but now only people who know about the BBC’s Democracy Live website or Hansard (verbatim reports of Parliamentary debates) will get to know what was said, unless they happened to be watching it live or reading this.
Just because a transcript exists, it doesn’t mean that its OK not to subtitle it. Emailing deaf viewers the East Enders script instead of subtitling the programme wouldn’t do either.
By Andy Palmer, Deputy Editor
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Joe Healy
October 22, 2013
To be fair, EastEnders scripts are released months before showing by way of spoilers!
Linda Richards
October 22, 2013
Let’s not confine the subtitling issues to iPlayer… The whole of the subtitling provision needs to be addressed. Even the recent live debate about Deaf children had lines like …. “Because of their redness…”
Joe Healy
October 22, 2013
And why are some pre-recorded programmes live subtitled? Panorama being the main culprit!
Natalya
October 22, 2013
The programmes on iPlayer which had broken subtitles 3 weeks ago which ARE still up are not fixed either. I tried to watch episode one of Pain, Pus and Poisons with Michael Mosley and while ep3 is working in a slightly oddly timed subtitles way, episode 1 is still as broken as it ever was with whole missing lines.
Suzie Jones
October 22, 2013
Not even been able to see the full 3 episodes of “A very British Murder” with Lucy – was so looking forward to it – and like Natalya, wanted to see Pus, Pain and Poison, I’m an analytical chemist with a chemistry degree by trade… grrr 🙁
Julia Spillman
October 23, 2013
If you want to access iPlayer on a different device, such as a smartphone or tablet, you have to download the iPlayer app. The app does not have an option for subtitles at all, so is completely useless to anyone who needs them.
Elisabeth (Lizzie) McDermott
November 11, 2013
Another point I’d like to make is this: I am continually defending subtitles when watching TV with my hearing family/friends where they almost always say “the subtitles are so bad, they’re so far behind” etc etc and I say “at least they are there, at least I can watch some programmes and understand what is going on” and at other times they are a source of amusement because the palantype has misinterpreted the word and it comes out as 3 separate words usually completely irrelevant to the topic to hand! My main issue is those subtitles which appear in the middle of the screen obscuring speakers’ faces especially on programmes like the X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing when the judges give their verdicts….I like to watch their lips and read the subtitles at the same time not have the subtitles over their lips!!! I hope Ofcom looks into this as well:)))
Ian Ashton
October 20, 2014
BBC iPlayer currently has very small subtitles. There has been a recent change viz a viz the introduction of colours and changing the colours for different speakers.
ITV has been doing this for some time now. Still, I would like to know how to increase the size.
Gisela
May 27, 2016
To change the size and colour of subtitles on BBC iplayer go to this webpage:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/faq.shtml [bookmark for future use]
At the top right hand corner there are three text sizes. The largest is a great improvement on what is currently possible. You can also change the colour by selecting the one that suit you next to the three text sizes.
Although the changes are designed for this particular website, amazingly it changes the size and colour of the subtitled on BBC iplayers as well.