Noting that nearly half of all viewing hours on Netflix happen with subtitles or captions on, the streaming giant is rolling out a new option for how text appears along the bottom of the screen.
Starting with Season 5 of You, which just went live today, Netflix is offering the option of original language subtitles displaying only spoken dialogue instead of all audio cues. Traditionally, viewers would select a language marked with “SDH/CC,” short for Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Those comprehensive representations of the sound of a show include audio cues like “[phone buzzing” or “[dramatic music swells]” as well as the name of the character speaking.
Now, as Netflix explained in a blog post, viewers can zero in on just the dialogue by selecting “English,” as opposed to “English (CC).”
The option will be rolled out across all Netflix originals, with the SDH/CC version remaining available, in every language offered by the company.
In the blog post, Netflix cited a recent study by online language tutoring firm Preply say more than 50% of viewers watch programming with subtitles on “most of the time.” (The study, incidentally, rates Netflix’s Peaky Blinders and Derry Girls as the two “hardest-to-understand” shows.)
“Whether you’re watching in a noisy room, sneaking in an episode while someone’s sleeping, or just trying to keep up with Joe’s internal spiral, you’ve now got more subtitle options to choose from,,” the blog post summed up, nodding to Penn Badgley’s lead character in You.
Netflix also continues to offer subscribers the ability to change the font, size, shadow and background color of subtitles and closed captions.
