FORMER Labour Home
Secretary David Blunkett MP has criticised broadcasters over poor subtitling
for those of us who suffer from hearing loss or profound deafness. He has also
complained that blind people are being frustrated by the lack of voice dubbing
on some of the increasingly popular foreign television drama series.
Mr Blunkett is also on record as saying,
“Broadcasters talk a lot about equality, but
preaching is not enough. In an ageing population, people with hearing and sight
impairments are becoming part of the mainstream. It’s no longer about a
minority. We are a major sector of the viewing public, and we have the same
rights as everyone else who pays the licence fee.
“The way TV executives worship the cult of youth these days seems to be
an unstoppable fetish. It is the trendy, the metropolitan and the under-forties
who determine what we view and what we listen to. However, much of today’s spending
power reflects an older age group.”
Writing this Blog as one who has suffered significant and permanent
hearing loss, I wholeheartedly agree with Mr Blunkett. The
subtitles issue is a major problem. They’re not only unreliable, but they are also
non-existent on some of today’s most watchable TV programming. And I bet I’m not alone in claiming that far
too many of today’s TV presenters, announcers, newsreaders and character actors
resort to mumbling or jabbering indistinctly, as if they’re in a private one-to-one
conversation. Clearly, as Mr Blunkett
suggests, the subtitles problem and the dubbing issue need to be addressed to
take account of the ageing population.
That said: I believe Mr Blunkett has only scratched the surface here.
These issues go much deeper than those who suffer aural or visual disabilities
and, in doing so, they embrace the whole of the UK’s pensioner population. In short, we older, more discerning viewers (and
radio listeners) have been systematically deprived of our fair share of the TV
and radio cake by an undignified scramble for younger and younger audiences. Yet
younger people are already spoilt for viewing and/or listening choice.
Take, for example, the TV and radio alternatives available to them.
First, there are personal computers, the internet, computerised games, iPods
and on-line social networking. Then there’s pubbing and clubbing, and all
manner of other activities that can keep them away from their TV screens and radios.
Consequently, those elusive younger audiences that the TV and radio executives
have been seeking for upwards of twenty years simply aren’t out there.
But that’s not the end of the story, because there IS a huge UK audience
just waiting to be entertained. That’s you and me folks: pensioners! However, since
the mid-1980s, we’ve been sacrificed on the altar of, not only the frantic
search for younger audiences mentioned earlier, but also by Janet
Street-Porter’s beloved 1980s “yoof culcha” movement. How ironic that Janet
Street-Porter joined our pensioner ranks seven years ago!
Now, as if to add injury to insult, and allegedly in an attempt to boost
its ratings, Channel 4 has launched a season of programmes about pornography.
Hardly the kind of output to appeal to the older, more discerning viewer
methinks. But, what an opportunity missed! If Channel 4 (or any other channel
for that matter) looked beyond the confines of London or the other metropolitan
areas, they would find a huge, untapped audience waiting patiently in the wings:
the retired and elderly.
"Evenin' all"
