The new accessibility feed accompanies live subtitles across every front-channel Premier League match, with distribution spanning Sky, NOW and Virgin Media platforms.
Sky Sports and Guinness have introduced live subtitles and Live Descriptive Audio Commentary for Premier League coverage, beginning with Manchester United vs Tottenham Hotspur on October 10 and Liverpool vs Manchester City on October 11.
The more distinctive audio addition is a dedicated descriptive-commentary feed for selected fixtures throughout the season. Sky says it was developed for supporters with sight loss and differs from conventional television audio description by providing a continuous account of match action rather than occasional explanatory inserts. According to Sky, the commentary covers the movement of play, key moments, atmosphere, off-pitch surroundings and on-pitch action as they unfold.
Sky says Live Subtitles will be available on every front-channel Premier League match it shows, delivering live commentary, analysis and on-screen dialogue in real time. Descriptive commentary, by contrast, will be limited to selected matches; Sky has not published a complete fixture schedule or total number of games receiving the feed in the supplied material.
The services are available on Sky+, Sky Q, Sky Glass, Sky Stream, NOW and Sky Sports on Virgin Media, according to Sky. Viewers can enable descriptive commentary with Sky Voice Control, through Settings > Accessibility or from a match’s on-screen options menu. Subtitles can be enabled through the options menu or device accessibility settings.
Sky also says viewers can identify descriptive-commentary availability in its TV Guide through an AD logo beside the programme title and a short audible indicator. The company says representative users, accessibility specialists, Sky Access Services and the RNIB provided feedback during development.
Sky describes the initiative, which extends Guinness’s Premier League sponsorship, as its largest accessibility rollout across Sky Sports platforms to date. The supplied announcements do not identify the commentators, production vendor or technical workflow behind the continuous commentary feed.
