BREAKING: Channel 4 subtitles outage to be investigated by Ofcom

Channel 4 is to be investigated by the communications regulator Ofcom, after a subtitles outage in September meant they failed to reach their access quota for Freesat in 2021.

The triggering of “fire suppression systems” at the West London base of Red Bee Media – which also provides access and post-production services for the BBC and ITV – meant the broadcaster experienced issues with subtitles, sign language and audio description for almost a month.

Channel 4’s access data for last year was released on Friday, which found the broadcaster only provided subtitles for around 85% of its content on Freesat – 5% under its annual requirement.

Ofcom said in a statement: “Although Channel 4 still met most of its annual statutory quotas for access services in 2021, the broadcaster fell short of its quota for subtitles on the Freesat satellite platform.

“As well as investigating this, and the circumstances surrounding it, we are conducting a broader review of the transmission arrangements and backup facilities that Channel 4 and other affected broadcasters had in place at the time of the outage.”

They went on to add that alongside investigating the lack of subtitles on Freesat, they would examine “the extent to which Channel 4 promoted the awareness of the availability of its access services” during the outage.

While Channel 4 did meet other requirements, the broadcaster did so “as a result of over-performance outside the period of the outage” – the watchdog said.

Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom’s Group Director for Broadcasting, added: “These problems caused deep upset and frustration among the millions of people who rely on subtitles, signing or audio description to enjoy TV.

“Channel 4 took several weeks to provide a clear, public plan and timeline for fixing the problems.

“As well as investigating Channel 4, we’re reviewing the wider effects of the outage to make sure broadcasters learn lessons and protect access services in future.”

Ofcom said the findings of its review would be used to make sure “steps are taken” to avoid future incidents, and that they would consider “whether further regulatory action may be required” to ensure a “reliable access services provision” remains in place for viewers.

As well as revealing Channel 4’s subtitling data for 2021 for Freesat, the access services report also showed the broadcaster only achieved subtitles on 91.3% of its content last year.

In 2020, 99.99% of the channel’s content was subtitled on TV across all platforms.

It also found that Channel 4 met its 5% signing quota, but suffered a small drop in the percentage from 5.55% in 2020 to 5.27% in 2021.

On audio description, 36.27% of Channel 4’s programming came with AD in 2021, which passed the 10% quota, but fell below the 43.99% figure achieved in 2020.

Around 500 complaints were made to the watchdog over the outage by mid-October, with Ofcom previously describing the situation as “unacceptable”.

In the same month, the National Deaf Children’s Society wrote to the organisation saying it was “most alarmed” about an issue which was having a “detrimental impact” on deaf young people, calling on the regulator to act on a potential breach of the Communications Act 2003.

Mike Hobday, executive director of policy and campaigns at the charity, wrote at the time: “It is already some 25 days since the index incident and we are fast approaching 1 November 2021, the date marking 37 days of no, or very little, subtitling being available.

“Broadly speaking, this would mean subtitling provision had been absent from Channel 4 for 10% of the year.”

Ofcom did not confirm whether it would take regulatory action following NDCS’ letter in October, but acknowledged Channel 4 “did not have strong backup measures in place” and it “should not have taken several weeks” to set out a timeline for fixing the problem.

The full access report can be viewed on Ofcom’s website.

Channel 4 has been approached by The Limping Chicken for comment.

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 – 15:30: In a statement to The Limping Chicken, a Channel 4 spokesperson said: “We apologise for the significant impact the Red Bee Media incident had on our access services.

“Channel 4 would like to reassure our audiences that we have thoroughly reviewed the resilience of our systems to ensure that such a catastrophic event cannot harm our ability to deliver these essential services in the future.

“Whilst we have not met our own high standards in 2021, we still delivered all of our overall statutory obligations and we are once again offering market-leading access services.”