A language learners’ forum

Posted: **Sun Jul 09, 2017 8:35 am**

Channel 4 offer some foreign language TV with subtitles on their website. May require login. They will show you adverts.

From their home page, select 'categories' from the horizontal navigation menu, then 'world drama'.

So far I've watched a french language programme with english subtitles.

Posted: **Sun Jul 09, 2017 1:37 pm**

LesRonces wrote:My mum had one of those 'NOWTV' boxes and it had loads of good French stuff on the C4 section. Unfortunately they all had L1 subs which to me is less than useless.

For generations, the native Gaelic speakers of Scotland have been forced to watch TV in their mother tongue with English-language subtitles burned in. The traditional cure for this was a strip of cardboard and some Sellotape....

Posted: **Sun Jul 09, 2017 2:14 pm**

Cainntear wrote:For generations, the native Gaelic speakers of Scotland have been forced to watch TV in their mother tongue with English-language subtitles burned in.

That seems a bit bizarre - pretty much everything on S4C has optional English and Welsh subtitles (the Pobl y Cwm omnibus being an exception). Different language policies, I guess...?

The traditional cure for this was a strip of cardboard and some Sellotape....

Genius!

Posted: **Sun Jul 09, 2017 5:01 pm**

Ingaræð wrote:
Cainntear wrote:For generations, the native Gaelic speakers of Scotland have been forced to watch TV in their mother tongue with English-language subtitles burned in.

That seems a bit bizarre - pretty much everything on S4C has optional English and Welsh subtitles (the Pobl y Cwm omnibus being an exception). Different language policies, I guess...?

It's a source of much friction. Programming was until relatively recently all through a few ours on BBC and the Scottish ITV franchises. The new digital channel was set up with the bandwidth for only a single SD video stream and a standard audio stream. There's no reason additional subtitle bandwidth couldn't be added, but the official line is that not having subtitles when you switch over would scare away non-speakers.

Posted: **Mon Jul 10, 2017 6:24 am**

Cainntear wrote:
LesRonces wrote:My mum had one of those 'NOWTV' boxes and it had loads of good French stuff on the C4 section. Unfortunately they all had L1 subs which to me is less than useless.

For generations, the native Gaelic speakers of Scotland have been forced to watch TV in their mother tongue with English-language subtitles burned in. The traditional cure for this was a strip of cardboard and some Sellotape....

To make it more fun, I used to have the cardboard cut like the characters in Mystery Science Theater 3000. :lol:

My father got annoyed when he found himself watching "Mystery Science News" and ripped it up.

Posted: **Wed Jul 31, 2019 9:46 pm**

It's possible to see their 'world drama' programmes grouped by language by clicking on the "featured channels" > "Walter Presents" link.

https://www.channel4.com/collection/walter-presents

Posted: **Fri Sep 18, 2020 2:29 pm**

The 'walter presents' programmes are also available from some non-uk broadcasters.

Walter Presents, the streaming service for non-English language drama, has launched in New Zealand after striking a distribution deal with state broadcaster TVNZ.

Walter Presents first launched its curated selection of subtitled drama series via Channel 4’s video streaming platform All 4 in the U.K. in 2016. The service says it recently passed more than 100 million views.

In 2017, Walter Presents launched as an SVOD platform in the U.S. The following year, it partnered with PBS Distribution in the U.S., to make its foreign language drama available on PBS Masterpiece on the Amazon Prime Video channel. Additionally, select titles chosen by PBS are also broadcast on PBS stations and stream on PBS Passport. In 2019, Walter Presents increased its U.S. distribution, launching on Comcast Xfinity X1 and on the Roku Channel.

Walter Presents is also available in Australia through pay-TV service Foxtel and in Italy on Discovery’s Nove, Giallo and Dplay channels.

In April 2019, Walter Presents teamed up with Medialaan to make the service available to Flemish audiences on their newly launched digital channel VTM GO. In Oct. 2019, the service joined forces with S4C to make its dramas available in Welsh.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/global/walt ... 234609213/

Posted: **Tue Dec 01, 2020 5:17 pm**

Walter Presents UK have a twitter account. They’re currently running a poll on what twitter users think was their best new series in 2020.

This tells us that:
1. They added 20 new series in 2020.
2. The language breakdown was:

Looking at their ‘latest arrivals’, I think they’re not including sequel series in this poll. So Series 4 of Locked Up (Spanish) is not mentioned, etc.

EDIT
Clicking around Walter Presents twitter posts/responses has turned up a weekly subtitled (UK?) TV blog that looks useful.

https://squareeyedworld.wordpress.com/

First new thing: BBC 4 has a German language film called Balloon.

EDIT2
They're running another twitter poll, this time for 'returning series':

Posted: **Tue Dec 01, 2020 6:00 pm**

Thanks for the list Dave.

Interestingly, the Welsh language channel S4C, for the last year or two, has been showing some of the Walter Presents material. I'm not sure if it's only on its "on demand" service (Clic), or whether it also broadcasts it.

(I can only watch S4C via Clic anyway).I tried it at first and there wasn't much I wanted to watch, so I haven't tried it lately. IIRC, it gives you Welsh subtitles as well as the built-in English ones.

The Walter Presents material on Channel Four is often very good. (The adverts are a bit of a pain though).

A language learners’ forum

UK - Channel 4 - foreign language TV

UK - Channel 4 - foreign language TV

Re: UK - Channel 4 - foreign language TV

Re: UK - Channel 4 - foreign language TV

Re: UK - Channel 4 - foreign language TV

Re: UK - Channel 4 - foreign language TV

Re: UK - Channel 4 - foreign language TV

Re: UK - Channel 4 - foreign language TV

Re: UK - Channel 4 - foreign language TV

Re: UK - Channel 4 - foreign language TV