What is audio description?
The spoken track that describes what is happening on screen for blind and partially sighted viewers. Here is how it is made, who is legally required to provide it, and what changes when the Media Act reaches streaming.
In short: Audio description is a spoken track describing on-screen action for blind and partially sighted viewers, written into the gaps between dialogue and mixed under the original soundtrack. UK broadcast channels must describe 10% of output under the Communications Act 2003, and the Media Act extends similar quotas to large streaming services including Netflix, Disney+ and ITVX.
It is not narration. It is what fits in the gaps.
Audio description is the track you get when you press the AD button on a television remote and a calm voice starts telling you that a woman is standing alone at a window, or that the letter says three words. It exists so that blind and partially sighted viewers get the story rather than half of it.
The interesting part is the constraint. A describer cannot talk over dialogue, so everything has to fit in the silences the programme happens to leave. Sometimes that is eight seconds and sometimes it is under two. Deciding what matters most in those two seconds, and saying it without editorialising, is the entire craft. Written badly it is intrusive and patronising. Written well, viewers stop noticing it.
How it gets made
1. Watch and time
The describer works through the material identifying what a viewer would miss and where there is room to say it. The output is a script locked to timecode.
2. Write to the gaps
Present tense, no interpretation, no spoilers ahead of the picture. On-screen text and speaker identification matter more than most people expect.
3. Record to picture
Read against the running material in a treated room, so the delivery sits in the gaps rather than being cut into them afterwards.
4. Mix underneath
The description is balanced against the original soundtrack, which is usually ducked slightly rather than muted, so the atmosphere survives.
5. Deliver
As a separate audio track, a mixed version, or both, in whatever format the platform requires.
Not the same as subtitles
Subtitles carry the audio to deaf viewers. Audio description carries the picture to blind viewers. They are separate obligations with separate quotas.
Who is legally required to provide it
Broadcast television. Under the Communications Act 2003, qualifying channels must audio describe 10% of their output, a target phased in over ten years from the point a channel first becomes obligated. Ofcom monitors compliance and publishes access services reports.
Streaming is next, and it is a large change. The Media Act extends access requirements to on-demand services. Ofcom has consulted on an Accessibility Code under which Tier 1 services must subtitle 80% of catalogue, audio describe 10% and provide signing for 5%. The Tier 1 threshold has been confirmed at 50,000 average monthly users, which captures Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, ITVX and Channel 4 On Demand.
The timing. The consultation closed on 7 August 2026. Ofcom's final statement is expected in Q3 of 2026/27, and quota obligations apply from the first anniversary of publication, or from the date a service first qualifies if that is later. In practice the new volume of description work lands in 2027 and 2028 rather than now.
Everyone else. There is no equivalent statutory quota for corporate video, but public sector bodies have accessibility duties, and a great many organisations are now writing description into their own content standards without being told to. That is the part of the market that is genuinely underserved.
Audio description services: where we fit, and where we do not
Broadcast access services in the UK are dominated by Red Bee Media, which produces description for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky, UKTV and GB News. If you are a broadcaster looking to meet an Ofcom quota across a schedule, that is who you should be talking to, and we would say so on a call.
Where a studio like this one is useful is everything below that tier, which is a much larger group of organisations with far fewer places to go:
- Corporate and public sector video where accessibility is part of the brief or the procurement standard
- Universities and colleges describing lecture capture, open days and course material
- Museums and heritage sites producing described guides alongside standard ones
- Theatre, where described performances are commissioned locally and Chichester is fifteen minutes away
- Independent film and short-form needing a described version for festivals or distribution
The room suits it: acoustically treated, a 55-inch panel to work against, Shure microphones into Midas preamps, recorded straight to the DAW with an engineer on the desk. It is the same setup we use for ADR and dialogue to picture, which is a closely related discipline.
We can record a script you already have, or bring in a describer to write one. Quoted per project rather than by the hour, because the work is the finished track. All prices exclude VAT.
Ready when you are
Availability and a firm quote, usually same day. No pressure, no hard sell.
A note on getting it wrong
Two failures come up repeatedly. The first is description written by someone who has not watched the material properly, which produces lines that arrive after the thing they describe or give away a reveal a beat early. The second is recording it in a room that does not match the programme, so the description sounds like it was pasted on from somewhere else, which is exactly what a blind viewer does not need.
Both are avoidable and neither is expensive to avoid. They just require the writing and the recording to be treated as one job rather than two.
Questions we get asked
What is audio description?
An additional audio track that describes the visual parts of a programme, film or video: actions, settings, facial expressions, on-screen text and anything else a blind or partially sighted viewer would otherwise miss. It is written to fit the natural gaps between dialogue, then recorded and mixed under the original soundtrack.
Who has to provide audio description in the UK?
Qualifying broadcast television channels must audio describe 10% of their output under the Communications Act 2003, phased in over ten years from when a channel first qualifies. The Media Act extends access requirements to larger on-demand services, and Ofcom has consulted on a code requiring Tier 1 services to subtitle 80% of catalogue, audio describe 10% and sign 5%.
Which streaming services will be affected?
Ofcom has confirmed the Tier 1 threshold at 50,000 average monthly users, which brings in Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, ITVX and Channel 4 On Demand. The consultation closed on 7 August 2026 and the final Accessibility Code statement is expected in Q3 of 2026/27, with quotas applying from the first anniversary of publication or from when a service first qualifies.
How is audio description written?
A describer watches the material and writes to the gaps. The discipline is compression: saying what matters in the two seconds available between lines, without editorialising or talking over dialogue. Good description is unobtrusive enough that viewers forget it is there.
Is AI narration acceptable for audio description?
For some low-stakes corporate material, increasingly yes. For drama and anything where tone carries meaning, no. The timing judgements and the delivery are the craft, and synthetic reads currently struggle with both. We would rather tell you which category your project sits in than sell you the wrong one.
Do you provide audio description?
We provide the studio, the engineer and the recording to picture, and can work with a describer or record a script you already have. We are not going to claim to be a broadcast access-services house: that end of the market is dominated by Red Bee Media. Where we are useful is corporate, public sector, heritage and theatre work, which is a real and much less well served market.
granary.digital · 01243 884993 · studio@granary.digital · The Old Grainstore, Adsdean, Chichester, West Sussex, PO18 9DN · All prices exclude VAT