TV can and should take the lead on accessible advertising

16 May 2024 - Warren O'Donnell - Communications & Marketing Manager, egta

Globally, at least 2.2 billion people have vision impairments and around 430 million people experience some form of disabling hearing loss, according to the WHO. By 2050, it is projected that 1 in every 10 people will have disabling hearing loss.

The number of people facing barriers to accessing and enjoying audio-visual content is significant. If we agree that TV is for everyone, ensuring it is truly accessible to all is surely the right thing to do.

TV: Leading the way towards greater accessibility

Broadcasters have made considerable progress in making TV programmes more accessible by making subtitles and audio descriptions (AD) available on their channels. Interestingly, these access services are not only used by people with disabilities. Today, four out of five young people watch TV with subtitles on at least some of the time, even if they don't have hearing loss.

As people continue to watch TV on streaming platforms and consume more digital content, customisation, such as switching audio tracks or turning on subtitles, is something audiences now expect from media channels and platforms.

But audiences don't just consume content, they also consume the ads around the content they love. The huge shift towards AVOD models only goes to show that there continues to be a huge appetite for ad-funded content. Despite the availability of access services on programming, advertising has not yet followed suit, with commercial breaks today remaining inaccessible for the most part.

Advancing towards accessible TV ads

The advertising industry is beginning to wake up and brands are realising that millions of people are still being excluded from their media campaigns. Ultimately, accessibility is about removing barriers between audiences and the media they wish to consume, ensuring everyone has equal access to useful information, services, and experiences that form an important part of our daily lives and media interactions.

Conversations with egta members and partners indicate that advertisers are increasingly concerned with ensuring their communications not only reflect but reach diverse audiences. But to make change happen in this space, there needs to be a joined-up industry-wide approach. For TV companies, that means leveraging their existing technical capabilities to facilitate the availability of access services on advertising breaks, enabling closed captions and audio description voiceovers. It means having conversations with advertisers, effectively communicating the availability of these access services on TV, and ultimately making booking accessible ads as barrier-free as possible for clients.

We've seen great examples of this. Last year, M6 Publicité teamed up with leaders in ad delivery, Peach and XR Extreme Reach , to launch an initiative on the French market. For advertisers who have never included subtitles on their TV ads, M6 Publicité offered the first set of subtitles on the house.

"By offering this service, we want to show our advertising partners how important it is to include subtitles in their spots, so they can be understood by all audiences.” - Maxime ANDRE , Director of Customer Marketing Innovation & Communication at M6 Publicité.

A growing demand for accessibility from advertisers

Facilitating access services on TV is not enough on its own. There needs to be a demand for these kinds of access services from advertisers. Global brands, such as Unilever, Mastercard and Diageo, are already stepping up by asking publishers to include captions and audio descriptions on their TV ad campaigns. FMCG giant P&G has ambitious goals for "100% accessible advertising."

In the UK, ISBA, in collaboration with Flock Associates , produced an accessible advertising guide for marketers so that more advertisers can learn how to incorporate accessibility into brand advertising campaigns. The guide aims to encourage all advertisers to make accessibility part of the briefing process to drive towards a more accessible audio-visual advertising ecosystem.

"It doesn't just make economic sense for brands to reach a wider audience. It's a moral and social demand to put inclusion at the heart of advertising and marketing, in the best creative tradition of our industry." - Bobi Carley , Head of Media and Diversity & Inclusion Lead at ISBA.

Ensuring accessibility in advertising is more than just a moral imperative, it is also a strategic necessity for brands, agencies, and TV businesses alike. For advertisers, it's about integrating access services seamlessly into the creative and media planning processes, making them a fundamental consideration from the outset. For agencies, it’s about treating subtitling and other access services as essential deliverables and not afterthoughts. What is essential is for brands to articulate a clear demand for accessible advertising, driving the industry towards a more inclusive standard.

Here lies a significant opportunity for TV companies to take the lead. With their multiplatform reach, they can truly make a difference by ensuring that audiences with hearing and vision loss are not left behind. This endeavour, however, requires a firm commitment and readiness to meet the demand from audiences and advertisers head-on. As big tech platforms like Google and Meta make huge strides in making their services more accessible, TV companies must also keep pace with advancements in access services and customisation.

Ultimately, driving change in accessible advertising requires a collective effort. We must work collaboratively across the industry, breaking down silos to champion inclusion at every stage. In doing so, we can create a media landscape where everyone has equal access to information, services, and experiences, reflecting the diverse audiences we serve.