Channel 4 pledges return to ‘100% subtitles’ as it looks to move past September outage

Channel 4 has committed to providing 100% subtitles across all of its channels and its All 4 streaming service for 2022, after a subtitles outage last year sparked an Ofcom investigation.

The communications regulator confirmed in January that it would investigate the broadcaster, after an incident at access provider Red Bee Media at the end of September caused the channel to go almost a month without subtitles, audio description or sign language.

In a statement released at the start of the year, Ofcom said: “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.”

Channel 4 responded to news of an investigation by apologising for the “significant impact” the triggering of the fire suppression systems at Red Bee Media’s West London base had on their access services.

A spokesperson told The Limping Chicken: “[We] 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.”

In a new statement issued on Friday, the broadcaster announced a string of new commitments around its access offer for this year, including a pledge to increase the number of signed box sets and the percentage of signed programming from 5% to 10% on Channel 4 and E4.

Channel 4’s Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan Allan, said: “Channel 4 has always delivered a greater range of programmes with access services provision than required by regulation. While Channel 4 did exceed the regulatory targets set by Ofcom, we would like to apologise once again to everyone who was affected by the severe technology incident at the end of last year that affected our services.

“This year not only will every programme on our linear channels and All 4 be subtitled, but we are increasing the number of programmes that are audio described and have BSL provision.”

In addition to promising improvements to its access provision this year, the channel also detailed plans in place for its coverage of this year’s Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing, which began on Friday.

Alongside its previously announced all-disabled presenting team, Channel 4 have said it will provide 86 hours of accessible sporting coverage during the international contest – with subtitles available for the opening and closing ceremonies, live events and daily Breakfast and Highlights shows.

The Highlights programme will also come with audio description and British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation on More 4.

Mr Allan continued: “Channel 4 is immensely proud that, in a global first, its entire presenting team for the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics are disabled. This not only underlines our commitment to providing opportunities for people with disabilities but also demonstrates the wealth of disabled talent that exists in the UK.

“Therefore, this year we will also continue to work with a range of organisations to ensure that we continue to focus and invest on providing services and opportunities for our audiences with disabilities.”

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 – 09/03/22 – 12:00: In a news article released on Tuesday, the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID) said: “Channel 4’s promise to deliver full coverage on all its All 4 content is greatly welcomed.

“We hope that other on-demand services will follow Channel 4’s lead in making accessibility a priority for 2022.

“RNID will continue to monitor progress towards achieving these goals and we hope that Channel 4 will keep its promise to the deaf community to improve access services for its audiences through the year.”