500 complaints to Ofcom over Channel 4’s subtitling issues as regulator meets with broadcaster

Around 500 complaints have been made to Ofcom over Channel 4’s ongoing subtitling issues, the communications regulator has revealed, as the broadcaster experiences its third week of technical difficulties.

Ofcom said on Friday that it had held meetings with both Channel 4 and Channel 5 to discuss the outage, which has also affected signing and audio description services and caused “deep upset and frustration” among deaf and blind viewers.

“We have received around 500 complaints about Channel 4’s ongoing outage. Channel 4 has assured us it will shortly communicate to its audience the clear measures it is taking to restore these services.

“Channel 5 has now restored these services to its forward schedule, and is adding them back to recent on-demand programmes where they are lacking.

“We welcome this progress, and will continue to engage with broadcasters to make sure these services are restored as a priority,” their statement reads.

We have held meetings with Channel 4 and Channel 5 to address the lack of subtitling, signing and audio description, which has caused deep upset and frustration among audience members with sight and hearing impairments. [1/3] pic.twitter.com/VW64DCJh6r

— Ofcom (@Ofcom) October 15, 2021

The latest update from Channel 4 was issued on Wednesday, when they said it was “really sorry” that viewers were unable to view programmes with the accessibility settings enabled.

“We have always been committed to supporting viewers with hearing or sight impairment very seriously, and realise how frustrating it is that you can’t enjoy your favourite programmes.

“Our engineers have been working around the clock to fix the problem. It is a priority for Channel 4. However, it is a complex process and will take some time.

“However, when access services are fully restored, Channel 4 will make sure that all the programmes that you have missed will be available to watch with subtitles, audio description and sign language support,” they said.

The ongoing outage has now entered its third week, after a triggering of a “fire suppression system” at Red Bee Media’s London base last month hit mainstream channels reliant on services from the company.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.

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Update – 16:45: In their latest statement posted to Twitter, Red Bee Media have said that “things are improving daily” with regards to the provision of subtitled, signed and audio described content – with “more and more accessible programmes as a result”.

“As soon as we receive the media (the programmes), our teams proceed to create and add pre-recorded subtitles, audio descriptions and signing.

“This process has been disrupted since the incident in the Broadcast Centre in London on 25 [September], but we are getting back on track.

“We know and understand that the lack of accessible programmes is a source of frustration for the communities who rely on them, and we are doing everything we can together with our customers to get all services fully restored,” it reads.