subtitles

[Anonymous User]

Where are the subtitles????

[Anonymous User]

Excuse me Aaron, you have been copy, cutting and pasting that reply for several years on the forum. I am a consumer writer, so let me give you some advice, based on people's responses to your poor customer relations. You're really irritating a very large proportion of Now TV's potential customer base - not to mention demonstrating that Sky is a company that does not value their custom.

Do you know how many people having hearing difficulties or English as a second language in the UK? You might want to do your market research on that front. 

What people are asking for - if you'll care to listen - is an answer to their question. You have failed to give this in many years. Clearly the previous answers are being interpreted as a big fat lie if you'd care to read the posts in this forum. This will irritate your customer base even more.

Please answer the question - people after all deserve it having parted with their good money, only to find you don't cater for the disabled.

Question 1 - Do you intend to include subtitles on your service in the very near future, or not?

Question 2 - If not, why not? I think you need to justify this as your customer base feels the lack of this service is at best unacceptable, and at worst in contradiction of UK equality legislation.

If you can only copy, cut and paste, please escalate this to your manager for a PROPER response. If you cannot do this, I will take this argument to external threads to spotlight what's been going on here.

I'm very interested in how Sky can justify this. The thread in here is getting so interesting, I think it's about time I write an article on it (P.S. this will be for mainstream media, and a blog, so I recommend you don't copy, cut and paste again).

[Anonymous User]

@sophie. Firstly let me declare an interest. I have major eyesight problems and hearing loss. I would appreciate both subtitles and audio description as options,

However, let's get some facts straight. Aaron is an employee so blaming him for politely doing his job. The community manager is well known here. His name is Tom. At least have the courtesy to address him although he can't wave a magic wand either.

Now TV has only been available just over a year, so let's get our facts straight before we throw around accusations about "years".

Netflix is the only On Demand service to provide subtitles.

Lovefilm, BTVision and Now TV etc do not. Nor do many of these companies do anything to make their products suitable for those with sight problems. Netflix again lead the way in a highcontrast setting, BTVision are the worst, I can no longer use it. Now TV could do better.

I am no lover of the Murdoch media empire however Sky do have a wonderful accessibility service - albeit well hidden and for those who need it lists of programmes that have AD.

No On Demand service provides AD.

So let's be reasonable shall we?
No threats?
No attacks on employees?

[Anonymous User]

Hi StuartRogerson,

Thanks for your reply, but I'm afraid you must have rather misread my tone. Threats..?! Attacks..?!

I am merely criticising the poor communication templates that Sky provides on this website. 

Facts. Google this and you'll see that Now TV has been supplied as some type of box and there are threads from 4 years ago. On this website alone there are posts from 2 years ago. I'm going from these threads - afraid I haven't written a well-researched article yet, but as a consumer writer I really do take an active interest in these issues.

If believe I am as entitled to my views as you are. But I think it's a bit of a stretch to call anything I said a threat or attack. As a customer I'm entitled to criticise tardy communications. Perhaps it's not specifically Aaron's fault - potentially Sky is providing him with poor templates to communicate with customers. If you go back over the threads over the years on here and externally, you would appreciate why a lot of people are getting so irritated.

As a customer, if I have a poor customer experience, this is the place I am entitled to leave feedback. It's quite up to you if you want to perceive that as an attack or threat, but personally feel I am just pointing out the facts and expressing my viewpoint on poor customer service.

I appreciate that words can be read in a number of ways, but it's the intention that matters. And aside from venting my frustrations I'm trying to get a proper response to a reasonable question. That is all everybody else has been trying to do on this forum for 2 years (yes there is a service by Now that's been around for this long apparently - I'm not sure if it came as a box or something before it came online but if you search this thread you'll find it..?)

Also, I think it is very reasonable to ask for subtitles. Thanks!

@Anonymous User wrote:
@Anonymous User. Firstly let me declare an interest. I have major eyesight problems and hearing loss. I would appreciate both subtitles and audio description as options,

However, let's get some facts straight. Aaron is an employee so blaming him for politely doing his job. The community manager is well known here. His name is Tom. At least have the courtesy to address him although he can't wave a magic wand either.

Now TV has only been available just over a year, so let's get our facts straight before we throw around accusations about "years".

Netflix is the only On Demand service to provide subtitles.

Lovefilm, BTVision and Now TV etc do not. Nor do many of these companies do anything to make their products suitable for those with sight problems. Netflix again lead the way in a highcontrast setting, BTVision are the worst, I can no longer use it. Now TV could do better.

I am no lover of the Murdoch media empire however Sky do have a wonderful accessibility service - albeit well hidden and for those who need it lists of programmes that have AD.

No On Demand service provides AD.

So let's be reasonable shall we?
No threats?
No attacks on employees?

---

x

[Anonymous User]

Until yesterday I had the same view as many of you that this thread was irrelevant and any comments were a waste of time as we were being ignored.

Tom (mentioned above) took time to message me privately about a few things, and although these messages were private so I won't reveal the details, reassured me that our feedback and comments will be passed on and considered.

I do agree some form of statement regarding the issue would be nice, just to let us know where we stand and if subtitling (and possibly audio description) features are in planning or development.

[Anonymous User]

I think if they are REALLY listening and planning then at the very least it
is fair to ask for an estimated completion date. If only to shut us all up!
If I promised something to my customers then after 2 years still didn't
keep to my promise I think it fair to say that I would lose those customers.

I think the real issue is cost. How much would subtitling / audio
description cost the company over how much extra revenue would they gain
from these additional customers. They've obviously done the sums, and as
they seem to not give a toss about the DDA they can carry on regardless and
keep fobbing us off.

This is not just NOW TV, Sky doesn't offer subtitling or audio description
on any of its Sky Anytime stuff through the Sky+ Box either.

[Anonymous User]

Hi Everyone,

We are really listening, and I do feed back all of the comments and requests we get through the community to influence future developments.

The fact is, we haven't yet confirmed whether we'll have subtitles or not.

They're under consideration for introduction in the future, but adding subtitles to the service is actually an incredibly complex thing to do. I know other services which appear similar to ours have them, but NOW TV is built in a  different way to those services. That ultimately means we can't give a yes or no, or provide a date at this stage.

I completely understand all of the compelling reasons listed as to why we should have subtitles- I agree with you. But we can't always implement something right away on the basis of customer demand. Take a look at Android tablets as an example: We had requests for support for them for over a year before they eventually launched earlier this month (whilst we're on the topic of time, the service has been running since June 2012, to confirm).

I know this will be frustrating for many of you, but it's genuinely the truth, and you've all asked for us to be up front and honest.

As soon as there's any news, we'll of course let you all know via the community, but in the meantime I'll be directing everybody back to this message as the latest source of information.

Thanks,

Tom

[Anonymous User]

Hi Tom, thank you for communicating that, I'm sure people will be a lot happier with that answer - I know I am! 

[Anonymous User]

So I was right then? It's about money.

Tom, this isn't "Customer Demand" this is discrimination against the
disabled. And how dare you liken the needs of disabled people to the needs
of an Android Tablet user!

Subtitles and Audio description should have been in NOW TV's plans when
they built the platform and they weren't. So having to go back and redesign
to include them will be extra work and therefore extra money. It just shows
how little your company considers the needs of disabled people that they
were not in the original plans.

[Anonymous User]

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING"

Haha. I'm so glad I use Virgin for everything and don't have to put up with
Murdochs Morons anymore.

[Anonymous User]

What does your CEO thinks of it?

I'm pretty sure your CEO would want to solve it rather than losing customers?

Maybe you should watch few episodes of "Undercover Boss" which can be found at http://www.channel4.com/programmes/undercover-boss

And for those who didn't know, channel 4 have SUBTITLES.