Subtitles are far too large and intrusive. Friends and family are furious that subtitles can’t

[kennyrb · Accepted solution]

It's all very well being awarded 10 badges and 52 likes for my discussion on Sky's totally unacceptable subtitles which have caused widespread dissatisfaction for years. But Sky have done absolutely nothing to correct this urgent requirement to address the issue. I'm stone deaf in one ear and have severely impaired hearing in my good ear. I am totally dependent on  subtitles. A vast mumber of Sky Community have been complaining about the ridiculous large size of the subs, their intrusive position on the TV screen and the solid black background  box which adds to  the insult especially when they obliterate the faces of zoomed in presenters of news programmes etc.  Just look at Papers on BBC as an example of this infuriating issue. The subtitles in their present form are also a major contributory factor of of burn-in on OLED screens. 
I implore you once again  to take some positive action to rectify this everlasting problem. 

[kennyrb]

• I note that one of the replies to my post on 22/4/22 owns an LG TV.  I do too and have had problems with burn-in which has  definitely been caused by Sky's massive subtitles with a solid black background. I bought my OLED 65inch LG TV four years ago and after 2 years had to get the screen replaced at my expense. Two years later the same burn-in has started to appear. I rely heavily on subtitles which means that if I keep Sky I can't have an OLED TV .
• It's a real shame as I believe that SKY is the best platform available.  
• Sky community is also great for airing our views but seems to have no power to action this significant problem.  This needs contact at a high level to get this sorted once and for all. 
  
  
• kennyrb

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[LGUser]

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@kennyrb wrote:

• I note that one of the replies to my post on 22/4/22 owns an LG TV.  I do too and have had problems with burn-in which has  definitely been caused by Sky's massive subtitles with a solid black background. I bought my OLED 65inch LG TV four years ago and after 2 years had to get the screen replaced at my expense. Two years later the same burn-in has started to appear. I rely heavily on subtitles which means that if I keep Sky I can't have an OLED TV .
• It's a real shame as I believe that SKY is the best platform available.  
• Sky community is also great for airing our views but seems to have no power to action this significant problem.  This needs contact at a high level to get this sorted once and for all. 
  
  
• kennyrb

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If you were to use headphones with your LG TV, would you be sble to hesr the sound well enough? Your LG TV supports bluetooth. I have a blutooth receiver that I can use to plug in wired headphones and also I csan use it while I am charging it. I don't need it for a hearing issue, but it can make the sound cleaer and if it works for you, you won't need subtitles.

[rit81]

The point here isn't changing audio settings, using headphones etc.

It's that in the 2020s Sky, who market themselves as the premium TV provider in the UK, shouldn't have subtitles that take up a large portion of the screen, and remind you of teletext subtitles from the 80s.

[ijkijk]

And if you have a hearing aid, headphones are not practical....

[Bernadette24]

I contacted Sky in January about this because they clearly don't pay any attention to threads like this and this is the reply I got:

Good morning Theresa,

Thanks for taking the time to get in touch with us again about changing the size of the subtitle font.

The subtitle format we use is called Teletext. It is a fixed font and unfortunately you can’t alter it to make it smaller or bigger.
We use Teletext as a Sky Set Top can only decode that format at the moment. This is something we are working on changing in the future, but at the moment the size cannot be changed.

 I appreciate your taking the time to get in touch and take care.

 Best Wishes,

Chris

Sky Viewer Relations

So you're right about it looking like Teletext - that's because it is!

Their response isn't terribly helpful is it?!

[LGUser]

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@rit81 wrote:

The point here isn't changing audio settings, using headphones etc.

It's that in the 2020s Sky, who market themselves as the premium TV provider in the UK, shouldn't have subtitles that take up a large portion of the screen, and remind you of teletext subtitles from the 80s.

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The point is to find a solution that may work. The subtitles are lousy.. But if headphones work, then why not use them?

[Zordon]

Please I would like to customise the sky subtitles size and style like you can do in Netflix and many media streaming platforms 

Please sky implement this feature asap

[ampc]

Hello,

Netflix has the option to change the size, font & highlighted features in subtitles.

Is there any way to do this in sky?

deaf & visually impaired & can't read the subtitles as they're too small.

Sky is very poor on accessibility such a shame.

[Kae53]

@kennyrb 

I agree with all the comments here regarding the size and position of subtitles on Sky. I've just got Sky Q today and disappointed to see the problem still exists. I remember being involved in the campaign to actually get subtitles across the Sky network -this was probably about 10 years ago. How can the technology be so difficult for Sky (teletext for goodness sake!!) to adapt as other platforms have?

[Mikil1]

How can we go about actually getting this to change. I have tinnitus and struggle to hear so many words so I need subtitles. Sky don't seem to be listening to anything we're dating or reading anything on this forum for that matter. I've written to them using a couple of different email addresses I found. One was for complaints and another for communications or something like that. It's crazy that they don't reply to or acknowledge anything. I have to watch the TV with large subtitles with a black background stone dead in the middle of the screen sometimes blocking out peoples faces. Incredible

[LGUser]

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@Mikil1 wrote:

How can we go about actually getting this to change. I have tinnitus and struggle to hear so many words so I need subtitles. Sky don't seem to be listening to anything we're dating or reading anything on this forum for that matter. I've written to them using a couple of different email addresses I found. One was for complaints and another for communications or something like that. It's crazy that they don't reply to or acknowledge anything. I have to watch the TV with large subtitles with a black background stone dead in the middle of the screen sometimes blocking out peoples faces. Incredible

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I suggest you try to contact Ofcom and see what they have to say.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/complaints

[Brighthelmstone]

I see that others have complained about Sky subtitles being too large and horrendous black back ground.

I second that.  my wife and I are not deaf but we have found over the last few years actors have tried to make dialogue more realistic but this has caused problems understanding some voices as they speak too low and indestintly.

Apart from the above reiterated issues we get annoyed that Sky do not move subtitles around the screen to allow people to experience a programme properly. So the Sky News ticker tape at screen bottom is hidden.

About five minutes from a programme end a banner appears bottom of screen to advertise the next episode. The subtitles are completely hidden.

This happened while watching Transplant this evening. In this case it would be a pain for all viewers as the subtitles were translating an Arabic conversation (except Arabic workers of course!).

Sky have some compassion for your less able viewers.

[Sadman2]

Hi, is it possible to enlarge subtitles on Paramount+ like you can on Netflix and Amazon, as they are to small for me to read?

[Tom-W19]

Hi Sadman2

I have escalated your post to our Community Messaging team who will invite you to a private chat shortly and help you with this.

Just look out for the blue bubble to start the conversation.

Here's more information on how Community Messaging works - https://community.sky.com/t5/Did-you-know/Escalating-a-post-to-a-Sky-expert/ba-p/3711147