Reporting Subtitling Errors

NADP members are reporting increasing issues with the quality of subtitles on TV particularly those for live television programs.

Please can we ask all members and non-members to keep an eye on subtitles over the Christmas period and report back to us on any problems you face? We can then use this information to reinforce our requests for improvements.

To ease this reporting we have put together some common issues along with a format for reporting to capture key information and minimise your thinking time. Ideally, if you can record an offending program please do. For help email subtitles@nadp.org.uk

The Information we need

We need as much of the information below as possible, preferably in the format suggested.

{Channel} {Date} {time of issue} {1st part of your postcode} {name of program} {platform}{issue – see list below}

Notes

Item	Possible Entries	Comment
{channel}	e.g. BBC1 ITV1 C4 SKY1	Basic identifier of the channel
{time of issue}	xx:xx am/pm	when the event occurred. This is important to avoid the need to include the name of the program
{1st part of postcode}	AAxx	this will help identify if it is a regional or transmitter issue
{platform}	e.g. Free view FreeSat Sky	How you are viewing the program
{issue}	See list	During the trial, these have been purposely limited to address specific technical issues only so that they can be dealt with accordingly. If you wish to raise an issue outside this list please be brief and try to maintain a similar format to those proposed

List of potential issues

Please use the wording under the “issue“. If the issue is not included in this list please keep the description brief and in a similar format to those proposed.

Issue	Description
NO SUBTITLES	There are no subtitles being shown on the screen
FROZEN SUBTITLES	Subtitles are shown but they have frozen for 10 seconds or more
EXCESSIVE DELAY	Subtitles are appearing at least 10 seconds after being spoken
SUBTITLES DISAPPEARING TOO QUICKLY	Subtitles are being shown but are not being displayed for at least 10 seconds
SUBTITLES OVER EDITED	Subtitles are not reflecting exactly what is being said which is impacting comprehension
INTERMITTENT SUBTITLES	Subtitles appear to stop and start excessively or sipped up and slow down over a prolonged period
SUBTITLE POSITIONING	Subtitles are consistently obscuring faces or factual information on the screen e.g. Traffic reports, football scores.

Example

ITV1 23 Dec 21 10.03 pm NW3 FreeSat News SUBTITLES DISAPPEARING TOO QUICKLY

Please email any issues to subtitles@nadp.org.uk

Or you can compile a list of issues and send it to:

NADP 
Crown House
27 Old Gloucester Street
London
WC1N 3AX

Or post on our Facebook page Subtitles NADP

Or Tweet us @SubtitlesNADP

Please feel free to share this information with non-members, print out the instructions where necessary and encourage them to get involved.