Subtitles in the UK were traditionally limited to arthouse cinemas and decoders for d/Deaf viewers, but recent studies show that most younger viewers now expect to watch media with subtitles. Subtitled foreign-language film and TV have been more available in the UK for some years. Legislation has made subtitles for the d/Deaf and hard of hearing much more widely available, though there are still gaps. Subtitles are becoming increasingly responsive and interactive and they are being used in environments, and by viewers for which they were not necessarily designed. Subtitles are being adapted for new viewing environments such as videogames and virtual reality (360 degree subtitling). The technical parameters of subtitling have also changed rapidly; subtitles are longer and denser, and spectators are expected to read faster.

Some researchers maintain that viewers can manage higher reading speeds than was previously thought. Other researchers feel that this is at the expense of actually taking in the fuller meaning of the audiovisual text. There is evidence that viewers are frustrated by issues including errors in subtitles; lack of availability of subtitles; restricted choice of language or mode of subtitling (descriptive subtitles for the d/Deaf and hard of hearing vs. subtitles for the hearing); limited scope for personalisation e.g. changing size, colour or font; perceived lack of correspondence between the original text and the subtitles. The number of evidence-based reception studies still falls far short of what is needed to understand how the quality of subtitles may affect the viewing experience. For the UK context, our knowledge is hampered by the fact that most research has been conducted on viewers of English-language content translated into other languages, which means that its relevance to exporting countries like the UK is limited. Research is often undertaken without the collaboration of industry actors including translation companies, distributors or exhibitors; it still has an emphasis on individual viewers, often language students, rather than broader audiences. The degree to which the historically-perceived ‘resistance’ of UK audiences to subtitles is a function of subtitling quality or other factors, and the extent to which that may change now that young adult viewers are choosing to watch so much of their content with subtitles, is largely unknown.

The network will bring together leading subtitling researchers, a prominent localisation company, subtitling practitioners, a film distributor, a producer, exhibitors and two professional associations of audiovisual translators to address key questions in this field and develop innovative methods for audience-focused research.