Improving Live Subtitling

Over the years, thanks to innovation from broadcasters, work from lobby groups, and rules from Ofcom, subtitles are now ubiquitous. BBC channels were the first to provide subtitles on 100% of programmes in 2008 and now subtitles can be expected on 70 different channels in the UK.

So quantity? Tick, VG. But what about quality? The quality of prerecorded subtitles is generally acknowledged to be very good but live subtitling is a tougher challenge. This summer Ofcom launched a consultation on how to improve the quality of live subtitles, tackling the issue from the most important perspective – the viewer’s.

Live subtitles come in for a fair amount of stick, especially from journalists looking for a jokey article to fill up column inches. What these articles rarely acknowledge is the scale of the challenge. As a subtitler reading Ofcom’s consultation document, it was nice to see that they really understand the difficulties involved and acknowledge the “considerable lengths” (their words!) we go to. After all, producing word-perfect subtitles of what someone is saying at the exact moment they say it is a pretty tall order.

Ofcom acknowledges that there is no single method of improving live subtitles. They identify four factors in live subtitling which could be addressed through a series of changes:

• The accuracy of the text itself.
• The delay between speech and the subtitles.
• Subtitles freezing or disappearing for no apparent reason.
• What the subtitles look like – scrolling or blocks of text.As a respeaker, the first issue is the only one directly in my control. Again it was nice to see Ofcom acknowledge that Red Bee Media has invested a great deal in new software to keep textual accuracy high. Even more importantly, our grasp of the niche skill of respeaking has improved dramatically in the years since its inception. What’s more, a respeaker’s work is never done – our respeaking abilities are constantly assessed by the Red Bee managers.

It’s this kind of assessment that Ofcom would like to see more of. They are proposing regular reports on textual accuracy and exact measurements of subtitle delays. The consultation explains at length the technical issues that cause subtitles to freeze and disappear, and recommends reports to try and identify the exact cause of each incident. Although Red Bee Media already compiles this kind of information, the hope is that by standardising the reports and publishing them, broadcasters can identify specific areas for improvement and then any improvements can be quantified.

Ofcom also discusses the pros and cons of blocks versus scrolling subtitles, pointing out that although blocks may be easier to read, they increase the delay before the subtitles hit the screen. Perhaps the most radical proposal for the broadcasters to discuss is having a time delay on live programming – a lag of several seconds before the programme is transmitted. This would potentially buy subtitlers time to correct textual inaccuracies and could be a way of reducing the subtitle delay to make subtitles more in synch with the sound.

As a respeaker, I really welcome this extensive report into our (slightly peculiar) art and the concerted effort to make as many improvements as possible.

What do you think?

Rachel Thorn, Subtitler.