Hopes for rapid restoration of subtitles across Channel 4’s other services after progress over the weekend, exactly one month on from a major incident that knocked out Channel 4.
Offshoot channels E4, More4, Film4 and 4seven are all carrying active subtitle tracks following the restoration of subtitles on the main Channel 4 service last week. And the number of programmes with subtitles available is also growing.
On Friday, Channel 4 confirmed that a handful of programmes would carry subtitles on its main channel, including The Last Leg, Gogglebox, F1 coverage and Channel 4 News. Now, a wider selection of programmes across its whole portfolio of services are carrying subtitles.
On satellite, most subtitles remain limited to teletext format, which means Freesat viewers can’t access the majority of subtitled programmes. Over the weekend, 4seven has begun carrying DVB-subtitles. This means Freesat viewers can now access subtitles on 4seven only.
Following complaints from viewers requiring access services, Ofcom said it expected Channel 4 to “exceed or beat its timeframes for restoring access services”. While progress is being made on subtitles, other access services such as Audio Description are yet to return to normal. Channel 4 previously indicated it will take until mid-November to go back to normal.
On 25th September, the fire suppression systems at Red Bee Media’s Broadcast Centre were activated. This destroyed servers, taking channels off-air. Channel 4’s back-up system for access services also failed.
Last week, Channel 5’s services, which were also affected, were finally restored out of disaster recovery mode.
As of 25th October, Kerrang and Film4 Ireland remain off-air and substituted by other services.