NEW YORK—Even though a majority of people now watch TV with the captions turned on, a new study found that just 10% of global TV ads include accessibility features such as closed captions or audio descriptions.
As a result most TV ads remain inaccessible, which indicates brands are losing reach and excluding audiences with disabilities, representing $8 trillion in spending power, according to the new “2025 Global Accessibility Maturity Index & Trends Report” from XR.
The study also stressed that the problem extends beyond audiences with disabilities because watching TV with captions is becoming a mainstream trend. Recent studies show that over 50% of adults, and more than 75% of millennials and Gen Z, regularly have closed captioning enabled, even when content is in their native language, XR reported. Research indicates that adding captions improves ad performance, contributing to an 8% lift in recall and an 18% increase in brand linkage.
“Our report reveals a significant gap between viewer preferences and execution—but the brands, broadcasters and publishers that close it will gain an edge in reach, loyalty and performance across every channel, from linear to CTV,” said John Batter, CEO at XR. “Millions of impressions are lost when people can’t understand video content. Accessible advertising ensures every impression can connect, whether audiences have disabilities, are watching in public or simply prefer to keep captioning turned on."
Commending on the findings, Paul Gallagher, global brand accessibility leader at Procter & Gamble added that “at P&G, we know that superior reach and communication lead to a superior shopping and product usage experience. That is why, together with the industry, we work with partners like XR who champion accessibility standards and help expand reach. We’re working to make sure everyone can access our ads, so we can better reach all our consumers.”
Now in its second year, the global report evaluates market maturity of accessible TV advertising across three core dimensions—brand adoption, broadcaster enablement and market-level enablers such as regulation and policy guidance. Key findings included:
- Accessible advertising can expand reach: Only 9% of TV ads in 2024 included closed captions, and just 1% included audio description — despite over 1.3 billion people globally living with a disability and a significant portion of viewers often watching with captions.
- Brand adoption lags behind broadcaster readiness: While broadcaster readiness ranges from 30–100%, brand adoption of accessibility features still lags below 30% in most markets—revealing a clear gap between platform capability and brand usage.
- CTV ads are still far behind: Adoption of accessibility features on connected TV remains negligible, with less than 1% of streaming ads including captions or audio description.
- Audio description is still in its infancy: Only 4 markets featured in the report saw audio description adoption rise above 1% in 2024.
- Accessibility maturity remains low in most markets: The global average Accessibility Maturity Index across 15 markets featured in the report is 2.3, placing most countries in the “Emerging” or “Developing” stage.
- XR's analysis includes 650,000 creative video assets and nearly 12 million ad deliveries across over 100 countries, providing a comprehensive assessment of the state of accessibility in TV advertising.
XR has enabled closed captioning and audio description for hundreds of thousands of creative video assets, helping advertisers embed accessibility features across campaigns running on linear and streaming platforms.
The full 2025 Global Accessibility Maturity Index & Trends Report is available here.
