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AOL launch subtitles trial
- 23 Aug 07, 12:52 PM
AOL started yesterday - also known as closed captioning.
The company has two video websites. , which has various short interviews, comedy clips and excerpts from TV shows like Fonejacker from Channel 4. The other is , which carries instructional videos covering topics as diverse as how to bend spoons and the best hangover cures.
At the moment, there is a handful of material from AOL Video to check out. Some cartoons, some interviews with the Great and the Good of film and music, things like that. The content will be refreshed every week, with film trailers and Show Me videos soon to be added as well.
As it is a trial, I did notice some experimentation in style between the captions on various videos. The text is pretty small for the Princess Natasha cartoons, but nice and big for the Lilly Allen interview. It was also good to see the lyrics captioned when Lilly was singing.
Tom Morgan, Head of Live Events & Digital Media Operations, AOL UK commented that, 鈥淎s video becomes more and more prevalent online it is essential that the industry makes every effort to ensure content is accessible to everyone, including people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.鈥 Once the trial is completed, AOL plans to provide subtitles for their most popular content.
I also caught up with Tom Wlodkowski, AOL鈥檚 Director of Accessibility to ask if they had plans to add audio description to videos. This extra narrative voice explains on screen action and enhances the enjoyment of video for visually impaired users. This is something AOL plan to try in the future, but Tom added that 鈥渁udio description presents additional complexities that will take time to research.鈥 These problems relate in part to the technical delivery of the extra audio track required for the narrative.
Whilst YouTube remain way out in front as the destination of choice for video content, AOL is still a big player in this sector, and a big, big fish on the internet as a whole. I鈥檝e been hoping for a commercial organisation to do something like this for ages. Hopefully, where AOL lead, other video on demand websites like and will soon follow.
The subtitled video trial is scheduled to last 3 months. The website has a survey to submit feedback and asks some straightforward questions about the specifics of the subtitling like the size and colour of the text. Fill it in and tell them how they're doing.
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Captions are not subtitles, and vice versa:
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