Ofcom to investigate Channel 4 over subtitle outage

Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom is to investigate Channel 4 after an extended outage over its subtitle services.

The broadcaster experienced several major outages late last year, caused by issues at the centre which handles its playout services.

Its subtitling, signing and audio descriptions were all affected, prompting the National Deaf Children's Society to call for action.

The BBC has asked Channel 4 for a comment.

A statement from Ofcom said: "We have found that Channel 4 managed to meet the statutory requirement to subtitle 90% of its programme hours over 2021 on most programmes.

"It also met its requirements for audio description and signing."

But the media watchdog added: "However, Channel 4 fell short of its subtitling quota on Freesat, a satellite TV platform used by around two million UK homes."

The issues originally arose in September after a fire suppression system was triggered at the broadcast centre of Red Bee Media, causing severe damage.

Last October, Channel 4 said they would "like to apologise to viewers for not currently being able to provide access services. We realise how frustrating this is for our viewers".

The "extended outage" of Channel 4's broadcast channels was not fully resolved until November.

Ofcom "remains very concerned" about the incident, which it said resulted in a "lengthy outage to Channel 4's access services provision and also wider disruption to its general broadcasts on all platforms".

The authority is now reviewing Channel 4's transmission arrangements and back-up facilities that were in the place at the time, and what they have done about it since.

It noted how the broadcaster's "access services" are relied on "by millions, including deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind and partially-sighted people, to watch and listen to television".