S2 Ep1915: Audio is King - Jonathan Penny, Access Services Manager, Channel 4

At a conference at the RNIB’s Grimaldi building in London on Thursday 10 October 2026 the RNIB launched a new report titled ‘Audio is King: television beyond the screen’ looking into whether establishing a secondary audience for audio description could help to make the case for greater investment in AD.

The conference brought together broadcasters, AD producers, journalists, sight loss sector stakeholders and many visually impaired people to discuss the findings of the report, build momentum for the wider adoption of audio description and support the business case for the growth of AD within the audio landscape.

RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey was there and caught up with Jonathan Penny, Access Services Manager at Channel 4, firstly for a snapshot of the level of AD on the channel and then his thoughts around widening AD to a larger audience including sighted people.

There is more about the ‘audio is King: television beyond the screen’ report on the following pages of the RNIB website - https://www.rnib.org.uk/professionals/research-and-data/reports-and-insight/audio-is-king-television-beyond-the-screen/

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