Five Things You Can’t Do On British Television
Pull down this description for information on all the shows I mention, plus all my references, and some advice if you’re looking to subtitle your videos!
🔤🔤 SUBTITLES 🔤🔤
15% of my viewers watch with subtitles! They’re helpful for folks without headphones, or in loud environments, or who can’t hear well, or who just like subtitles. More people will watch if subtitles are an option.
Before 2020, YouTube had a volunteer community-captions system. Alas, due to spam (and, I suspect, the difficulty of porting it to the new Studio), YouTube turned it off. So your options are:
OPTION 1: DO IT YOURSELF
If your video is one or two people talking, you can add subtitles easily with YouTube’s tools: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734796 – that’s also possible for more complex videos, but it can be time-consuming.
OPTION 2: PAY A SMALL AMOUNT
If you can afford an editor, you can afford subtitles! They only cost $1-2 per minute of audio.
For simple audio, try Rev: https://www.rev.com/blog/coupon/?ref=tomscott To be clear, that’s an affiliate link: you get $10 of captions free (enough for up to an 8-minute video), and I get a kickback from them. However, my opinions of Rev are mixed. They have downsides, and they may not be the right option for you!
Advantages of Rev:
✅ Extremely fast turnaround
✅ Easy, simple, automated, self-service
✅ Reasonable price
Disadvantages of Rev:
🚫 Rev is a gig-economy company, with everything that entails. In 2019, transcribers raised issues including low pay. https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/25/20979249/rev-recordings-transcriptions-low-pay-complaints-freelance-transcribers
🚫 Accuracy is usually acceptable for clear speech, but not the near-perfect results you’d expect from a more high-end subtitle company.
🚫 They’re limited to their simple, narrow, house style. That isn’t ideal for videos with long sentences or many speakers.
For more complicated audio or for multiple speakers, try Caption+: https://caption.plus — a small company that produces extremely high-quality subtitles for a reasonable price.
Advantages of Caption+:
✅ Exceptional subtitle accuracy.
✅ Hand-tweaked broadcast-standard subtitles that are perfect for accessibility, and which the audience love.
✅ Can use positioning and per-speaker colors, and match other style requests.
✅ Still a reasonable price.
Disadvantages of Caption+:
🚫 Not automated: you’re dealing with a human by email, and paying invoices.
OTHER COMPANIES: I also used 3PlayMedia once, but unfortunately can’t recommend them based on that experience. YouTube also mention ceilo24 and Amara, neither of which I have experience with: https://cielo24.com/ https://amara.org/
📺📺 SHOWS 📺📺
Here’s a list of all the shows mentioned, with links where available. (Where Amazon links are listed, those are affiliate links, where I earn a commission from sales.)
The Demon Headmaster is available on DVD from Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/37Cb68U – and the 2019 revival is available in the UK on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m0009f6n/the-demon-headmaster
Derren Brown: The Events: How To Control The Nation is available for free on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyIilWb9SW0 – although it lacks the live broadcast cut-ins.
The pilot episode of Crisis Command: Could You Run The Country? has been uploaded to YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjkSeuD-8yA – normally I wouldn’t link to an unofficial upload, but the series will likely never be repeated or see a commercial release.
Ghostwatch is available on DVD from Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3kweAgL – I should absolutely have put the ghost in the background of one of my shots here, I regret missing that joke!
The full Ghostwatch continuity announcement is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDSZWpp_Rhw
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire have an entire YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/c/MillionaireUK/videos – and yes, Jeremy Clarkson is the host now, I suspect that’ll surprise a lot of people.
📙📙 REFERENCES 📙📙
Ofcom Broadcasting Code: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code
On sports: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-codes/code-sports-events
On access: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-codes/tv-access-services
On advertising: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-codes/code-tv-advertising AND https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/16328/rules.pdf
“Only five complaints” about the Derren Brown show is from Broadcast Bulletin 148 [PDF]: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/47160/issue148.pdf
Ghostwatch, and the “full tabloid fury afterwards”, is well-documented in many places, so I’ll leave researching that to the reader. Don’t have nightmares.
📝📝 CONTACT 📝📝
I’m at https://tomscott.com
on Twitter at https://twitter.com/tomscott
on Facebook at https://facebook.com/tomscott
and on Instagram as tomscottgo
@TomScottGo
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
This video has a correction! The final "sixth thing", the rule on advertising breaks, was superseded in 2008 by a different rule that requires that "the integrity of the programme is not prejudiced" and adverts must be placed "where natural breaks occur". The old Code is still on Ofcom's site, and I missed the replacement. Back when Millionaire started, those throws-to-commercial were definitely not allowed, but it's now more ambiguous. You can see all corrections on this channel at https://www.tomscott.com/corrections/
@Pogulation
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
now do 5 things you can't do on british internet
@emre_ez
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
6:11 LMAOO
@theringsmc
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
"oh look at me I've bought a lamborghini" xD
@nine_pound
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
Another one. On the day of the general election no tv station is allowed to show political content.
@tadhgroche-rq8nv
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
Just watched the All Ireland hurling final on SaorVeiw TV and can confirm that I did not have to pay 😂
@Orangeeclipse15
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
1:14 In the actress' defence, Tom, the character was being mind-controlled at the time!
@kuroargos
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
6:05 I'll join everyone else in applauding this stance – my simple take is that if you make any money off your YouTube channel, you should be captioning your videos. It's a damn shame that YouTube scrapped its community-sourced captions however many years back.
@Norvik_-ug3ge
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
You missed no political advertising, although that is being ignored with animal rights adverts, green campaigns by all and sundry etc.
@BDSFormula1
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
1:14 they rebooted this 1:14
@JimJohnMarks
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
The subtitle rant is amusing four years on with the now ubiquitous [isn’t really] AI generated subtitles as a style, let alone as a accessibility obligation.
@darrenmurray861
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
Beautifully filmed at the Jewel of South East London: Crystal Palace.
@WhoThisMonkey
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
Tell the truth? 😂
People have been kicked off countless shows for just stating a demonstrable fact.
Just look at the reactions Alex O'Connor got on the Piers Morgan show
@Grignr
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
1:01
@parasocial_relationship_man
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
3:30 should probably be rally
@drewwalker1644
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
Is itv player/ bbc iPlayer exempt from these rules? Itv player definitely has more than 12 minutes of adverts per hour!
@paulgerrard9227
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
Youtube subtitle the poor diction mumbling and speed.
@andrewjones-productions
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
I'm four years late in watching this particular episode that I somehow missed. I really appreciate Tom's 'rant' on subtitles and to my mind, it demonstrates Tom's very strong ethical mindset. This is why his channel was so successful. Mistakes were made and to err is human, but Tom religiously and thoroughly follows these errors up with corrections. This video being no exception and one only has to read Tom's pinned comment to see as how or why the error occurred and what the error was with the correction.
@listerofsmeg884
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
5:00 what was that? 'Tabloid Fury'? The same tabloids that are always moaning that stuff is being 'cancelled' buy the 'woke mob'…
@RDChoirgirl
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
What about Space Cadets channel 4?
@cooldudeorgan3872
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 am
If Tom ever chooses to come back to YouTube, he should post the entire subtitles rant in full
Comments are closed.