7 January 2013
Almost a quarter (23 per cent) of UK internet users claim to access TV services over the internet every week with the average UK viewer watching 242 minutes of TV every single day.
UK consumers are embracing smart TVs with 15 per cent saying they own one.
Ofcom's seventh International Communications Market Report reported that UK leads the world in the take-up of catch-up and on-demand services delivered online.
The second place is occupied by the US followed closely by Spain in the third place.
Despite these figures, only three of the many online services are currently taking into account the needs of people with sight loss by delivering audio description on their programmes, BBC iPlayer, the Channel 4 player - 4oD, and Sky Anytime, the rest of the service providers have been non-committal about the delivery of audio description.
A recent survey by the Authority for Television On Demand (ATVOD) revealed extremely low levels of AD from service providers.
Of the 81 service providers invited to respond, only 17 did so.
Those 17 deliver 36 services between them and of these, 16 had no access services at all and only two, namely 4oD and Sky Anytime, provided AD.
Only six of the 34 services that do not currently provide AD stated that they had any plans to do so in future and only two, namely ITV and Channel 5, had firm plans with a timeline attached.
BBC iplayer provides audio description, but as it is not regulated by ATVOD it is not covered in the research or included in the numbers quoted.
Leen Petré, Principal Manager of the Media and Culture Department in RNIB, said: "This is the second year in a row that only a few services are providing AD and it's not good enough. These results show that simply 'encouraging' providers to make their On Demand programming more accessible to people with sight or hearing loss is not working."
RNIB hopes that ATVOD will soon be given real powers to enforce accessibility through a change in the communications act. Without this, on demand service providers will continue to ignore ATVOD's encouragement and blind and partially sighted people will find themselves unable to access the new and growing on-demand services that are provided to the rest of the population.
If you have any views on this topic, you can let us know by leaving a post on our Facebook page or if you follow us on twitter, then just tweet your opinions.