Introduction
First News aims to be as accessible and usable as possible for every user. Our videos are subtitled for the hard of hearing, for people who have English as their second language or for anyone who wants to watch with the sound off.
- First News subtitles are produced by Access Subtitling, who have 20 years’ experience working for all the major broadcast channels – BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky – as well as films and DVD. They have supplied the guidelines below for generating subtitles on First News Live.
Subtitle guidelines summary
- Timing: At least two seconds for one line of text and at least 3.5 seconds per two lines of text.
- Grouping: Keep a natural grammatical structure so the viewer can understand each subtitle line before it disappears.
- Style: Generally use 42 characters per line, with a maximum of 44 to avoid awkward subtitle breaks or very fast subtitles.
Teach yourself subtitling in 5 minutes
- Watch this news video with automatic YouTube subtitles.
- Watch the same news video with the subtitles reworked.
- Have a little discussion about any differences you notice.
- Read this PDF: Introduction to subtitling (opens in a new tab).
- Watch the original and reworked versions without sound again, making note of the suggested techniques.
How to use the subtitle files
- Our subtitle files are supplied in a variety of formats, plus a copy of the video with the subtitles burned in. The main video platform is included in the file name, eg, YouTube_Banoffee pie.stl
- Use these file extensions for these platforms:
- First News Live – .vtt
- Facebook – .srt
- YouTube – .stl
- Vimeo – .vtt
- Twitter, Instagram – burned in subtitles
- Read more about the importance of website accessibility.
That’s it for subtitles for the mo.