Dancing on Ice deaf viewers complain over bizarre subtitles

Dancing on Ice viewers have complained about its poor subtitles during its live shows.



The ITV1 show has been condemned by the National Deaf Children's Society for a long list of "bizarre and confusing" subtitles throughout its broadcast.

Incorrect captions during the show included the lines: "Across the ice and the Samaritans and speedo you," and: "The choreography for this routeneit's quite a blasphemy."

Host Phillip Schofield is later seen to be apparently saying: "They will be toasted to their limits."

Campaign officer Ian Noon said: "Shoddy subtitling shows that broadcasters are not making access for deaf viewers a priority."

"Deaf young people all too frequently find that the subtitles for their favourite shows are riddled with mistakes and hugely out of sync with speech. There's no excuse for poor subtitles like this - even on live programmes. But ITV is not the only channel guilty of bizarre and confusing subtitles.

"Through basic planning such as involving the subtitler in rehearsals and sharing scripts and plans in advance, broadcasters could dramatically improve live television for deaf viewers."

ITV has since defended its hard-of-hearing content, stating that live programming often produces mistakes.

"Dancing on Ice is a live programme and therefore has live subtitling which is a challenge for any broadcaster," the channel said in a statement.

"We are now also subtitling 70% of the programmes on ITV Player, our on-demand catch-up service."

Last year, the BBC received a number of complaints for its poor subtitles after a clip from BBC Breakfast went viral.