Below is the BBC’s response to our article on the lack of on-demand subtitles on Sky, explaining what some of the issues are:
I read your Limping Chicken blog on the lack of subtitles on Sky and I thought I would offer the BBC Future Media perspective on this.
Since we launched iPlayer in 2008 subtitles have been a core part of the service. We have gone through many software iterations and workflow designs to create a service that can be delivered on multiple platforms and can deliver 100% of the available subtitles to those platforms.
It’s been a bit of a rocky journey as broadcast technical standards and web standards are mostly not interchangeable.
Back in those early days there was no media player that could properly display subtitles so we built our own, the web standards did not support the broadcast experience so we have ended up chairing both the international working groups on the subject (EBU an W3C) and our own broadcast systems were built before anything like iPlayer had been thought of so a complete technical refresh was required.
We knew this was going to be a big project as there was no precedent and there was nothing off-the-shelf subtitle solution we could use. This programme is still underway and we are still making improvements.
One of the problems we have had is that a lot of the 1,200+ devices we have published a version of iPlayer on are based on older technology platforms. Some were not originally designed to deliver access services and some were not even originally designed to support a VOD service.
In these cases we have worked with the manufacturers to see if features like subtitles for VOD can be retrofitted. In a few cases we have been successful but in others despite a lot of effort by both the BBC and the platform providers this has not been possible.
In those cases we have focused our efforts on their new platforms and products. Virgin is a perfect example of that. For 2 years we had a technical project with Virgin to retrofit subtitles on their classic platform. I believe around 5 ideas were built and tested but all of them broke. Eventually we turned our attention to Virgin TIVO which had the right capabilities built in from the start.
FYI, other platforms that we couldn’t get subtitles to work on included; Wii, BT Vision and FreeSat. Their new platforms; Wii U, YouView and FreeSat G2 all support the service.
Sky OD is the last of these older platforms to get a version of iPlayer and subtitle delivery has been part of the project from the outset. We are working closely with their technical team on this but they still haven’t cracked the problem. When they say that ‘they are working on it’ you have to believe them and we have seen a lot of progress, but reverse engineering something like this is not straightforward.
The content is there, the platform just cannot deliver it, yet. Sky has always done a lot of work on accessibility and this is our first project with them and like you, both the BBC and Sky are keen to see this resolved.
As standards converge and legacy platforms are replaced this problem will eventually resolve itself however I appreciate that as a consumer this no help to you in the shorter-term.
In the meantime we hope to make a lot of improvements to our subtitle service and are currently undertaking a programme of research into the user experience of subtitles which will help us deliver a better experience on all platforms.
I hope this has been useful and if you have any questions please contact me directly (*via thelimpingchicken@gmail.com – we will pass it on to him) and I’ll do the best I can to answer your questions.
Regards,
Gareth Ford Williams
Head of Accessibility, User Experience & DesignBBC Future Media
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becks
March 6, 2015
So Why can’t we enjoy a discounted service until this is resolved?
Aled Owen
March 6, 2015
That’s a very informative response from the BBC. Is there a good reason why most if not all adverts don’t have subtitles?
JGJones
March 6, 2015
While that might be an informative response from the BBC about the technical difficulties, in my opinion it only serve to highlight how low of a priority it is for Sky to get subtitles onto OnDemand.
BBC have said that they found it quite a challenge to get subtitles – however they are doing this over many different multiple platforms from set-top boxes to mobile devices to computers and consoles and so on and they’ve succeeded in getting subtitles working across nearly all of them although have not succeeded across every platform, it is still quite impressive what they have managed to do.
Sky have had plenty of time but this continues to drag on and on but meanwhile continue to charge a full amount for an unequal service and making a bit fat profit out of their £5+ billion revenue (its profit have increased 16% this year).
The difference between the two is simply a matter of policy. Subtitles is a priority for BBC, they do want to provide 100% subtitles across all services. Sky does not have such a policy so they aren’t as keen to invest. Sky at a minimum are just following the Ofcom Code on Television Access Services whereas BBC declared that they will aim for 100% across all services, above and beyond Ofcom’s code. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/tv-access-services/code-tv-access-services-2013/
The Code on TV Access Services by Ofcom doesn’t cover on demand TV at all as far as I am aware so there’s no requirements on Sky to do it so they’ll just have the minimal number of people working on it as a token gesture probably.
Good example is Netflix – not related to Sky at all and a wholly different company, but they was prepared to fight against having to provide 100% subtitles when they was sued by NAD over this in USA. Netflix settled (or lost, can’t remember which) and is doing it now.
John David Walker
March 6, 2015
I am one of those people who have left Sky quite recently. In my conversation with them, I did not receive any of the explanations expressed in this article directly from them. (I am a bit surprised to discover a perspective from the BBC, rather than Sky themselves). When I challenged Sky for the lack of subtitles on VOD services, it was explained that such services were ‘free’ for all customers but I argued back that Sky has pitched itself as a premium product with high prices and world leading provision in access (which was true at the time I joined); I was not convinced that a ‘free product’ was an explanation for lack of progress. Since then, Sky fell on the wayside and other competitors have demonstrate greater commitment to subtitling.
The drip feed of information from Sky did not give me a lot of confidence in the product and its future direction. There was no schedule, no update in their plans for testing, rolling out or any other initiative. It was silence and excuses.
Because of that, they have lost me as a customer and I have halved my telephone/broadband/TV bill with the same service and access to VOD with subtitles. If Sky wants to pitch itself as a leading product, staying in the backwater is not the way to go.
JGJones
March 6, 2015
^ This is the best way to log a complaint – with your wallet. There is no point complaining about lack of subtitles while you’re happy to keep on paying the full price every month. Loss of income is what they will notice. Be sure to tell them that you are leaving their service because of subtitles etc.
mustard
March 6, 2015
“When they say that ‘they are working on it’ you have to believe them” – You can’t tell us what to believe and what not to believe, please provide evidence/log details from Sky techical department on dealing with subtitles.
“reverse engineering something like this is not straightforward.” – it is not rocket science, it is just inserting subtitles on. It is been around for many years, another piss poor excuse.
“The content is there, the platform just cannot deliver it, yet.” – They can’t be arsed.
“Sky has always done a lot of work on accessibility” – Bahahahahahaha!
“I appreciate that as a consumer this no help to you in the shorter-term.” in other word, don’t give a fig about their disability customers. If this is a shorter term, give us a time line of when. Discount for the time being? No? Threatened of loss? Good. It’ll give them a deadline.