The nonsense of trying to access live TV with audio description in the UK...

Interesting but not very impressive that they have spent all this time and all we get is a weak promise of better things to come. Assuming HBO Max has AD when it launches in the UK and that the app is accessible then any vague interest in anything Sky has to offer will be gone. It does feel like Sky's day is done.

The only thing I wanted to watch on Sky in recent memory that wasn't HBO was a Chris McCausland programme but I forget what it was now.

I think Sky got way too big for its boots so I would be happy to see that particular empire crumble. I was a subscriber for many, many years and they just bump the bill up and up and up and if you want a good deal you have to fight your way through the call centre and then threaten to cancel. I can't be doing with that. I used to love watching the football but it's not much good if you can't see anything.

I just find them an arrogant company who don't; seem to value their existing customers that much. Not that they are unique in that regard I suppose.

Anyway, having said all that and just to immediately contradict myself, if all Sky Originals content had AD on streaming I might be tempted to subscribe for a month or two but not long-term.

HBO Max can't come soon enough though - I'm really quite excited.

Hi everyone. With fire TV sticks, I think lots of blind people benefit from it accessibility, but one thing that really annoys me is the fact that there is no physical button or setting to enable audio description for any third-party app, because in the settings section of the fire TV stick, there is a section in accessibility for audio description and then prime video, but that’s basically it. Especially for ITV and BBC iPlayer where you basically have no way to turn on audio description because I was struggling with that. If Amazon can just add a physical button or a setting in the setting section in team up with some other companies, that would be great. Especially on ITV because you cannot find the setting to enable audio description for when you’re watching live TV. Instead, you have to go on your television that does not even have any screen reader and you have to manually turn it on. It’s a pain.

Although there is no unified way to turn on AD, you can do it for each service. At least, for BBC iPlayer you definitely can. Start watching something, then pause it. If you go up, then move right you should find an option. I can't remember what it is called but it mentions Subtitles at least. Press the enter/select button in the middle of the d-pad and move down. There should be an option to enable AD here if the show supports it. A little while ago they also made this sticky so it should remember the next time.

This was on my Fire Cube but I presume it is the same for the stick.

I don't know about itv though. If not similar to bbc, there might be a list of audio tracks (different languages or whatnot) before you start. At least I think that's how Netflix does it.

I'm not personally that keen on this sort of thing being on the remote. my Freesat remote control has an AD button but I have absolutely no chance of finding it as there are millions of buttons. I like the Fire remote's simplicity. But it would be nice if the system AD option persisted everywhere.

I was having a fight TV stick I also have an Apple TV 4K third generation. What strikes me the most is the fact that act developers do not care about audio descriptions when they care about app design. Yes I know it is time consuming to get a person to describe the audio and I know that you may have to pay for stuff, Booked big companies like BBC and ITV should be able to do this. It doesn’t make sense why they cannot do this.

It’s dictation playing up on my iPhone.

To be fair to the BBC, pretty much everything they do has AD these days as far as I am aware, and it is all available on catch-up. There used to be a problem where the AD AD could take a little while to appear - so if you were watching a show on the date it was broadcast, the AD might not be available on iPlayer for a week. I'm not sure if this is still the case.

I think the quality of the AD isn't as good as some services. Sometimes it can be a bit too sparse. And it's not surround.

A little while ago they released every episode of Dr Who, right down to the old black and white versions. And apparently every episode had AD which was impressive. However, some other older shows wont have it.

I am really looking forward to this.

Am I right in thinking that this is owned by Warner Bros so is part of the Netflix deal if that goes ahead? I hope this doesn't scupper the UK launch.

A really interesting development I saw for the first time last Saturday: ITV had audiodescription for the Six Nations rugby match between England and wales. What's the point of that, you might ask? after all, it's on the radio as well, ain't it? You'd be right, but there are several advantages to having audiodescription on the telly:
1. Mrs Bingo is fully sighted and having this commentary meant I could get the richness of detail I wanted while she could watch it, all without having to go through the sometimes complex business of making sure the TV and radio commentary aligned - you know what I mean, all that pausing and unpausing and 'have they thrown into the line-out on the TV yet?' 'Hang on, you're ahead of me...I didn't know they scored a try there.' if we'd had a gathering of friends aroudn for the Six Nations it would have been great for us to all watch together.
2. It meant that I could avoid all that nonsense on 5 Live where chris posh boy Jones is interrupted for a quick update on Bournemouth v Newcastle or whatever. I mean, bloody hell! I tune into the rugby to listen to the rugby! I can catch up with the football later - even by listening to the whole game if I want to! Does anyone else find that really annoying? Likewise, missing part of the game because the welsh summariser (Rob Jones, was it?) is going on about how sad it will be to lose a Welsh franchise team etc. etc. some very important moments of a game have been missed that way.
3. ITV audiodescription do tend to give you important detail that the radio doesn't. For example, more precise descriptions of infringements at the ruck, more frequently telling viewers where the ball is. In rugby, that's extremely important info which the boys on 5 Live don't give you quite as often as they should.

That leads me nicely on to HBO Max: the big deal for me is they're subsuming TNT Sports. Does anyone know if I can still watch TNT sports on Sky after the changes? I'm hoping so as I have a subscription and don't want to be reduced to watching in the HBO Max app.

That's really interesting. I remember when the Women's Euros were on, because England were doing quite well, we both wanted to watch it. When the BBC were showing a game, we could use the red button to choose Radio 5 Live commentary so I knew what was going on and Mrs Grieves could see it. However, when it came to itv we were stuck. So I'd go into one room and stick it on the Radio and Mrs Grieves would watch it on the TV. In this case, what would happen is I'd hear "YES!!!!!" coming from the next room. Two minutes later, England would score a goal. It was a bit unsatisfactory.

And I could not agree more about the frustrations of 5 live commentaries. I'm a Liverpool fan (something I would have felt happier admitting to last season than this one) and I listen to all the commentaries. And there have often been games where about 10 minutes into the game they still have not referred to what's going on in the actual game they claim to be commentating on. It is unbelievably frustrating. They just assume that because I am listening to one game I am interested in literally every sport going on right now. They have often cut away for a few minutes for coverage of some athletics event going on, all the while I've no idea how the game is going.

It's a shame because I quite like the commentators they gave. When they talk about the game it is pretty good. But because of the interruptions I tend to avoid BBC commentary except as a last resort. Fortunately, Liverpool run their own commentaries for all games. Interesting they always shout out the blind and partially sighted fans, I think because this is effectively the AD you get at the ground. But even so they still can't label all the buttons on the web player so you have to guess which one is play. Anyway it's hardly a balanced commentary but at least I get to find out what is happening in the game.

Sorry I've been bottling this one up a bit. (Although Mrs Grieves might not agree about that.)

sara Orchard is a particular recidivist in this regard. all right, when she was doing the hockey at the Olympics I assumed it was because she didn't know much about hockey and therefore was trying to commentate on as little of it as possible, a bit like when 5 Live had supposedly special coverage of Teddy Riner's gold medal bout at the Paris olympics last year - they spent it chatting, but I could excuse that on the basis that presumably the commentators didn't understand judo. But when Sara Orchard does it in rugby as well? similarly we had Jonathan what's-his-face spending the boxing a couple of weekends ago telling us all about Djokovic v alcaras the following morning. The ITV audiodescription commentary is at least decent and focuses exclusively on what's going on in the game, both on and off the ball, rather than gossip. Try it for the football world cup, where I believe they are also having it.

sara Orchard is a particular recidivist in this regard. all right, when she was doing the hockey at the Olympics I assumed it was because she didn't know much about hockey and therefore was trying to commentate on as little of it as possible, a bit like when 5 Live had supposedly special coverage of Teddy Riner's gold medal bout at the Paris olympics last year - they spent it chatting, but I could excuse that on the basis that presumably the commentators didn't understand judo. But when Sara Orchard does it in rugby as well? similarly we had Jonathan what's-his-face spending the boxing a couple of weekends ago telling us all about Djokovic v alcaras the following morning. The ITV audiodescription commentary is at least decent and focuses exclusively on what's going on in the game, both on and off the ball, rather than gossip. Try it for the football world cup, where I believe they are also having it.

I don't know if it's available if you watch on ITVX. It seemed to decide to come on with our telly because we have audiodescription enabled on the skyQ box. Well worth giving it a go though. Yes, sometimes listening on BBC Sport can work better and you avoid all the football, racing, tennis digressions; but it doesn't always work like that I'm afraid. Of course, if you're Scottish or Welsh you can listen to uninterrupted biased commentary on Radio Scotland or Radio Wales, but there is no English equivalent. Ditto Radio Ulster if you're an Ireland fan.

And, the six Nations is the best sporting tournament in the world, in any sport! What makes it so is the fear of losing. A loss means your Welsh etc. mates have the bragging rights over you for the next twelve months and won't let you forget it. Plus it helps to have three of the best teams in the world in the Six Nations.

Hang on, Bingo, what about the Ashes? That's a series, not a tournament.

Hang on, what about the World Cup? In any sport that's special, but there's not the non-stop intensity and week after week rivalry of the Six Nations.