Subtitles are ok occasionally, but on a regular basis, or for a show series, would turn off many people. Basically they get tired of reading and not being able to take in a scene because their eyes are glued to the bottom of the screen reading the script.  In some cases you can rewind but again that is just something else you need to do which also ruins the tempo of a program, especially a drama.  

CBC already has problems getting viewers for many shows.  Subtitling as a regular feature would just be another reason not to watch for a lot of people.  It would also give Post Media something else to complain about.   

Link: Gen Z viewers are much more likely to use subtitles, with 70% of respondents saying they use subtitles frequently 

Last edited by RadioAaron (August 29, 2025 9:10 am)

RadioAaron wrote:

Link: Gen Z viewers are much more likely to use subtitles, with 70% of respondents saying they use subtitles frequently 

There's a difference between watching a show with spoken English dialogue with English subtitles on and using subtitles for translation.

I'm a bit hard of hearing so I use subtitles to catch the odd word Ive missed either because actors aren't enunciating or because of overlapping dialogue or noise but that's different from having to read every word for translation purposes.

newsguy1 wrote:

Also subtitles in both English and French might just take up too much of the screen, blocking out the video.
To fit it in they might make the font smaller but then you'll be squinting to be able to read it.

I don't think they were talking about doing both. English shows would have a French caption option. French would allow you to select English. There would be no need to have both on the screen at the same time. 

I watch all current shows with subtitles, mostly because I find a lot of actors don't enunciate very clearly, and it's been like that for probably about the past 20 years or so. I've gotten to the point where subtitles aren't really a distraction, as my eyes have gotten used to darting up and down the screen. However, I do watch a lot of older shows without subtitles, mostly because they're not available in many cases (particularly on DVD releases), and I generally have no problem hearing the words properly. Mind you, with shows like All in the Family and WKRP in Cincinnati, I've watched them so many times I have a lot of the lines memorized by now, so that probably plays into it, too. 



PJ