The home grown drama, Shortland Street, which airs with audio description from Monday 31 October, attracted an audience of 834,200, out-rating all other channels in its time zone.
"Shortland Street is the number one drama on television. Audiences can't get enough right now," said Jeff Latch, head of NZ channels TV ONE and TV2.
While Producer Steven Zanoski attributes the show’s ratings to a dedicated team effort, making it available with audio description has also broadened its audience to include people who are blind or vision impaired.
“It’s so frustrating watching the Kiwis race ahead with yet more audio description whilst we are still waiting to hear about the ABC trial of audio description in Australia,” said Media Access Australia CEO, Alex Varley.
While Australian TV has no audio description whatsoever, New Zealand television is flooded with audio described shows, including weekly hits such as Coronation Street and Winners and Losers.
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