Ofcom today published its first report on the quality of live TV subtitles provided by broadcasters in the UK, looking at the accuracy, speed and latency (delay between speech and the subtitle appearing) of live subtitles.
Subtitles are used by over a million people with hearing impairments to watch TV. Addressing concerns from viewers, Ofcom asked broadcasters last year to start reporting on the quality of live subtitles to identify areas for improvement.
Samples of BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky programmes showed that the median latency (delay between speech and subtitle appearing) was 5.6 seconds, which nearly doubles the recommended guideline of a maximum 3 seconds delay.
Viewers have told Ofcom that poor latency is one of the most frustrating aspects of live subtitling, often resulting in a disjointed viewing experience.
Ofcom has said it will ask broadcasters to consider how latency can be reduced.
For more information, go to: http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2014/04/30/ofcom-publishes-first-results-on-quality-of-tv-subtitles/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=accessservices
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Linda Richards
April 30, 2014
Accuracy of subtitles is poor… since when was ‘draught’ spelt ‘draft’ and ‘drawer’ spelt ‘draw’? These are some of the worse examples and now appear to be the standard [default] spelling. Sigh!
pennybsl
April 30, 2014
This morning we Deafies endured a longer than that delay in BBC Breakfast News – subtitles of a news items popped up at the third or fourth news items.
This does no good for our early morning fuddled brains, it was like seeing a newspaper with all the headlines in the wrong columns.
It is time for a similar ‘Sick Of It’ campaign relating to the mass media – both about access and how Deaf issues are portrayed patronisingly, full of clichés.
Play By Eye
April 30, 2014
Thanks to Ofcom for doing such a report, now the challenge is getting broadcasters to commit to strategies to improve subtitles
bozothewondernerd
April 30, 2014
I would like to require the producers of news programmes to have to audit their own programmes for quality and content by (after the event) watching them with the sound off and then writing a precis of the day’s news from what they have experienced – with their bonus depending on the quality of said precis. This would soon trigger a rapid improvement in live subtitling!
Hartmut
April 30, 2014
Are the subtitles (or captions for readers from USA) generated by a speech recognition software or live stenotypist? There may be slight differences in timing and accuracy between them.
When the subtitles are prepared before broadcast or when a TV show is rebroadcast that were live-captioned, then there should be no excuse at all for the low captioning quality. They ought to be fined to deter them to do such an injustice to us.
It is time for BDA (or NAD and TDI in the USA) to establish a quality standard for captioning live or prepared before first broadcasting. Also there ought to be advocacy for which producers of films and TV shows are required to deliver a COMPLETE product, which includes captioning following the established quality standards. The costs for captioning ought to be included in the overall production costs, not an after-production cost, paid by some other outfit, no arguing about it PERIOD. It should be legislated, if the producers show resistance to it.
Problem arises for live broadcasts, like news items from a location and other live talk shows.
They must be scrutinized, if it can be completed at least two hours before broadcast, which talk shows surely can be required from. For any of the last minute productions, such captioning delays and inaccuracies cannot be avoided. But then the captions need to be edited and placed correctly right away for any subsequent rebroadcast. This must be the LAW of the industry.
Captioner
May 1, 2014
Two thirds of TV subtitling in the UK is now produced by re-speaking. This means that a hearing person listens to the live speech of the programme and ‘re-speaks’ it clearly into speech recognition software just after hearing it. It is much less accurate, and slower than using a stenographer – but it costs less, because they require less training. If this is resulting in not achieving the required delay time, this should definitely be challenged.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_5150000/newsid_5150600/5150650.stm