Audio description on TV: who must offer it, what TVs must do, and the FCC's expansion in 2027

Audio description adds narration that describes what is happening on screen. The Federal Communications Commission defines it as the insertion of narrated descriptions of a program's key visual elements into natural pauses between the dialogue, and it exists so that people who are blind or visually impaired can follow a show. FCC rules require it on the big broadcast networks' local stations in the largest markets and on the most-watched cable networks, and the list of markets grows every January. The next step comes on January 1, 2027.

Who must provide it

That adds up to 87.5 hours a quarter, the figure the FCC itself uses. A program can count toward the total no more than twice on a channel, and once a covered station or pay-TV system has aired a program with audio description on a channel, later airings there must include it too, unless the technology used for it is being used for another purpose related to the program that would conflict with it. Prime time runs from 8 to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 to 11 p.m. on Sunday, an hour earlier in the Central time zone.

Ten more markets every January

The broadcast requirement covers the top 90 designated market areas (DMAs), as ranked by Nielsen on January 1, 2023, and extends to the next 10 on January 1 each year until 2035. Markets 111 to 120 joined on January 1, 2026, so by our count the rule now reaches the 120 largest, and markets 201 to 210 joining in 2035 will bring it to 210.

The top five cable networks

The cable list is set by prime-time audience share among networks that reach at least half of pay-TV households and carry at least 50 hours a quarter of prime-time programming that is not live or near-live, and it is updated every three years. For the update that took effect on July 1, 2024, Nielsen's top ten for the 2022-23 ratings year were Fox News, ESPN, MSNBC, HGTV, Hallmark, TLC, TNT, TBS, Discovery and History. The FCC's Media Bureau exempted Fox News, ESPN and MSNBC, finding that each averages less than 50 hours a quarter of prime-time programming that is not live or near-live. That left HGTV, Hallmark, TLC, TNT and TBS. Updates under the rule began in 2015 and recur at three-year intervals, so by our reckoning the next falls on July 1, 2027.

What your TV must do

Audio description has to be easy to switch on. Since December 20, 2016, makers of TVs and other digital apparatus with built-in audio description capability must let users activate it through a mechanism reasonably comparable to a button, key or icon, under 47 CFR 79.109(a)(2). The rule covers the device and the video players installed in it before sale or that the maker tells buyers to install, including third-party apps. It excludes navigation devices as the FCC defines them in 47 CFR 76.1200; the section's paragraph on those devices deals only with closed captions. Our guide to closed caption settings covers the FCC's newer rule on caption menus.

Emergency information, and the 2026 proposal

A related FCC rule serves the same viewers. When emergency information appears on screen during programming other than a newscast, it must also be conveyed aurally on a secondary audio stream, a requirement known as the Audible Crawl Rule, with a compliance deadline of May 26, 2015. Text can be read out by text-to-speech software, but the FCC tentatively concluded that there is no technical way yet to describe a weather radar map or other graphic automatically, while asking whether one vendor's AI tool with human review could do it. Its Media Bureau has waived that part of the rule seven times. The current waiver runs until November 29, 2027, or until the FCC rules on a petition from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), whichever comes first.

In a notice published on May 15, 2026, the FCC granted NAB's petition for rulemaking and proposed that, for graphics, the rule is met if a text crawl carries emergency information duplicative of or equivalent to the graphic and the crawl is also read aloud. The record shows both views. The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and the American Council of the Blind (ACB) supported earlier waivers, but in 2023 opposed a further extension, citing a lack of effort on a technical solution, and asked that any extension require an interim manual solution. Every comment on NAB's 2024 petition supported it, as long as blind and visually impaired viewers get the same critical details as sighted viewers. In that record, AFB and ACB noted that the rule does not specifically require automation and urged NAB to keep looking for solutions as artificial intelligence advances. NAB told the FCC that “numerous large television station groups have ceased the display” of radar maps and similar images when an earlier waiver lapsed. Reply comments were due on June 29, 2026, and our search of the Federal Register on November 13, 2026 found no final rule.

Under the rule, viewers who think a station or pay-TV system is falling short can complain to the FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau by letter, phone, email, Braille or another reasonable means. A complaint must include a certification that the viewer first tried in good faith to resolve the problem with the station or provider. The FCC forwards a complaint that meets the rule's requirements to the station or provider, which must respond, generally within 30 days. The rule gives no private right to sue.