TWO-THIRDS OF PEOPLE WATCH TV WITH SUBTITLES ON AT LEAST OCCASIONALLY
INCLUDING 13% WHO ALWAYS DO
Are you someone who doesn’t mind having the subtitles on, or do you find them too distracting? Well, it sounds like MOST people turn them on occasionally, even if they know the language and don’t have hearing issues.
In a new survey, 66% of people say they turn their TV subtitles on at least occasionally, with 13% saying they always have them on.
There are lots of reasons people do this, and the two most popular reasons are: “Enhanced comprehension” and to help understand accents.
That’s like adding subtitles to understand thicker English accents on British shows or even regional American accents, especially Appalachian, Southern, and South Boston.
22% of people like to have subtitles on in noisy places. And other reasons include Hearing difficulties, avoiding disturbing others, learning a new language, “sound sensitivity”, and making it easier to multitask.
The reasons people don’t like subtitles include: They’re distracting and don’t always match the words being spoken, they move too fast or slow, they can clutter the screen, and they’re “inconvenient to turn on.”
When it comes to watching shows in a different language, subtitles are more than twice as popular as “dubbed” audio.
The survey also had a few other fun stats, like:
8% of us think today’s movies and shows don’t have enough sexy scenes. Only 37% of us think the sex scenes we see are realistic. And 43% of us say sex scenes are “rarely” or “never” important to the story.
