Sky Kids New Channel Launch!

Sky Kids, the brand-new Sky channel, launched this week with over 20% of content Audio Described and 100% of content subtitled. Sky Kids is the first channel we have ever launched with 100% subtitles from day 1! This was a huge effort from across the Access Services team, including co-ordinators, subtitlers and Audio Describers – read on to hear some of their stories.

We were keen for this to be the first channel to be launched with 100% subtitles, not only because we already have recently increased 26 of our other Entertainment and Cinema channels to 100% subtitled, but in support of the TOTS campaign – Turn On The Subtitles- which is a national campaign to encourage children to watch TV with the subtitles turned on to improve children’s literacy skills by up to 50%.

From a co-ordinators' perspective, there was a huge challenge to ensure all the Sky Kids content was subtitled. This meant going through thousands of videos and subtitle files and making sure they're all processed in time and done to the highest possible standard. It's been a long journey, however it's a fantastic example of our team all working together towards a common goal; to ensure that the widest range of consumers can enjoy our content on time, without any issues

A subtitlers perspective… Let’s face it: kids’ programmes are fun! And, as Subtitlers, our aim is to make them just as fun for deaf and Hard of Hearing children to watch. This can be very tricky with American cartoons, where the characters often speak really fast. Sometimes we have to edit their lines slightly or condense the text to make sure that all the dialogue appears on screen at a reading speed suitable for our younger viewers. If it’s too fast, things will blip by on the screen too quickly for kids to read. We don’t want them to miss out, so we make sure that all the important dialogue, atmospheric music, all the reactions, the goofy laughs and zany sound effects are there.

Sometimes those zany sound effects can be challenging to describe, but that’s all part of the fun of subtitling. We get to be very creative in our descriptions. So, whether Master Wu is kung-fu fighting a giant, fire-breathing demon snake; Twilight Sparkle has a crisis with an oozing, bubbling cauldron of magic pudding; or the Pinky-Ponk is floating along on its burbling, parping way… Whatever it is, we’ve got it covered, so you and your kids don’t have to miss a thing!

Enjoy our brand-new ad-free channel Sky Kids with Subtitles and AD on channel 609.