Each year, Ofcom reviews the audience share and revenue of television stations in the UK, and determines an appropriate level of access as set out in the ‘Ofcom Code on Television Access Services’. Most stations which have been broadcasting for ten years, and are required to provide the highest level of access, must broadcast 80% of their programs with captions (called subtitles in the UK), 10% with audio description and 5% with signing. However, some stations have voluntarily increased their levels. These include Channel 4 and Sky, which have committed to providing audio description on 20% of programs.
This year’s review found that 76 channels will be required to provide access services in 2014 – six more than in 2013. The new channels are Sky Arts1, Sky Sports F1, 4Seven, Discovery Real Time, Baby TV, Nick, Jr 2 and Nicktoons. One channel which was required to provide access, MTV Hits, will not have to in 2014.
The complete list of stations and their access levels [PDF 74 KB] can be downloaded.
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