Channel 4 has “reaffirmed” its commitment to access services such as subtitles in light of an investigation by U.K. media regulator Ofcom.
The investigation relates to a prolonged outage to its subtitling, signing and audio description services last year after a fire alarm at distribution hub Red Bee Media.
A number of broadcasters’ access services were disrupted but Channel 4’s was the most prolonged disruption, with services ceasing on Sept. 25 and not fully resuming until Nov. 19, a period of almost two months.
Ofcom has confirmed to Variety the investigation into Channel 4’s compliance with government quotas for access services is still ongoing.
Despite that, the beleaguered broadcaster, which is at risk of being privatized, has set out to reaffirm its commitment to access services.
It has confirmed it will provide 86 hours of access services-supported programming during the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games, including the opening and closing ceremonies, live sports coverage and the daily highlights shows.
It has also promised to “over-deliver” on regulatory quotas and surpass other U.K. broadcasters by offering 100% subtitles on all its linear networks with a plan to offer 100% subtitles on its streaming platform, All 4, by the end of the year, double signing on Channel 4 and E4, increase audio description on its linear networks and increase audio description and signing on All 4.
“Channel 4 has always delivered a greater range of programmes with access services provision than required by regulation,” said Jonathan Allan, Channel 4’s chief operating officer, Channel 4. “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 [British Sign Language] provision.”
“Channel 4 is immensely proud that, in a global first, its entire presenting team for the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics are disabled,” Allan continued. “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 U.K. 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.”
