The Background
As the No.1 Advertiser in Ireland, Diageo will never settle until the Irish media landscape is representative of our modern & diverse society. A crucial part of this commitment is making the Irish media landscape more accessible to all, giving people an equal opportunity to “see, hear and experience” content. This means ensuring that media channels and formats don’t just reach audiences but can be consumed, understood and enjoyed by all.
To achieve this, PHD Media first needed to remedy our their ignorance. But to their dismay, there was no comprehensive research on accessibility in the Irish media landscape, leaving over 500,000 individuals who are blind, visually impaired, or deaf in the shadows. Undeterred, Diageo & PHD launched a research project to uncover the barriers to accessibility and explore what changes are needed to improve the experience for people with disabilities.
With these findings, the ambition is to leverage Diageo’s scale to ignite actions that will make the Irish media landscape more accessible. Starting with one of the biggest TV events of the year – the Guinness Six Nations. Guinness worked with PHD and Virgin Media Television to ensure that the 2025 Guinness Six Nations coverage was the most accessible yet.
This campaign won the award for Best Use of Innovation at the 2025 TAMI Awards
The Challenge
The most recent census (2022) shows that 233,420 people have a hearing-related disability and 296,601 people have a sight related-disability. With over half a million people affected, PHD recognised the urgent need to assess accessibility in Irish media, understanding that we cannot effect change without first grasping the obstacles involved. Engaging directly with those experiencing these disabilities was crucial to fully comprehend the barriers in accessing media. Their findings showed that Ireland has significant room for improvement when it comes to accessibility generally, but particularly in media and advertising. Certain environments are inaccessible simply by design, there were challenges with navigation, quality of subtitles, lack of Irish Sign Language and audio description. This was particularly evident in the AV environment, where users were forced to get content from international players versus indigenous broadcasters. Only 6.6% of TV programming is audio described or features a sign language interpreter. Advert breaks are even less inclusive with next-to-no brands integrating accessibility into their media.
These insights prompted a series of workshops, engaging Diageo’s marketing team, agency partners, and key media suppliers to devise a tangible action plan for change.The team acknowledged that change wouldn’t happen overnight but recognised the need to take the first step, setting their sights on one of the most-watched sporting events: the Guinness Six Nations. In Ireland, the Six Nations represents a significant cultural moment, and fandom shouldn’t be limited by disability –
yet 100% of live sporting broadcasts were inaccessible to many Irish fans. As title sponsors of the Six Nations, Guinness was poised to lead this credible change, pledging to make the 2025 Guinness Six Nations coverage the most accessible yet. In an industry first, they partnered with Virgin Media to set a new standard in media accessibility. The plan: deliver the very first fully accessible live match broadcast, where every fan would be able to experience every aspect and thrill of the match in real time, from the live commentary, studio analysis and even the adbreak. And, what better place to kick-off than during arguably the most celebrated fixture in our social and sporting
calendars: the highly anticipated clash between Ireland and England. The two-pronged strategy involved:
1) Facilitate: Make the broadcasts fully accessible by providing audio descriptive commentary and Irish Sign language throughout the match and studio analysis. Create the first fully accessible studio ad break– where all ads would be delivered with Audio description and Subtitles.
2) Impact: Use the power of the broadcasts to announce the challenge that over *500,000 Irish people are excluded from these key cultural moments, encouraging other media owners to follow suit.
Although conceptually straightforward, executing this plan involved complex technical challenges and was unprecedented in Ireland. The Ireland v England match could potentially be the highest viewing moment of Virgin Media’s year, so any risk to quality of the broadcast was not an option, and not a quick fix. Virgin Media were dedicated to this innovative vision, collaborating closely with us to realise this groundbreaking initiative.
The Strategy
This partnership marked a historic moment for live sports broadcasting in Ireland, introducing features that set a new standard during the highly anticipated Ireland V’s England and Ireland V’s Wales fixtures of the 2025 Guinness Six Nations.
Facilitate: Make the broadcasts fully accessible
• During the facilitation phase, the team aimed to deliver Ireland’s first fully accessible Guinness Six Nations broadcast. For the first time, viewers on Virgin Media television could access audio descriptive commentary through a simulcast alongside the main broadcast. Former Ireland player Ian McKinley, who has a visual impairment, and seasoned commentator Stuart McAvoy provided a detailed, audio-described play-by-play of both matches. This innovative approach significantly enhanced the experience for viewers with visual impairments, ensuring that all Irish rugby fans could enjoy the thrill of the championship in real time.
• Additionally, an Irish Sign Language pop-up channel was integrated into the service, providing interpretation for both the live matches and studio analysis during halftime, as well as pre- and post-match segments. To ensure best practices, PHD consulted with the Deaf Society and recruited four signers – two hearing interpreters to communicate the match happenings to another two interpreters that were deaf, who would then interpret on screen. This element of the broadcast required detailed planning, with separate studio costs and dedicated sound engineering and floor management to ensure a seamless experience.
Impact: Raising Awareness and Promoting Accessibility
• The team leveraged the power of these broadcasts and the accessibility initiative to highlight the fact that over 500,000 Irish people are excluded from key cultural moments due to accessibility issues. Extensive pre-promotion of the accessibility features was executed across popular shows such as Ireland AM and the Six O’Clock Show, with Ian McKinley acting as an ambassador. On-air promotions ran across Virgin Media’s network, directing viewers on how to access these features through live mentions during sporting content, supplemented by on-screen pop-up banners.
• In a first for the Irish market, clients across OMG (PHD’s media network) collaborated to create a fully accessible ad break. As viewers tuned in before kick-off for both matches, they were met with compelling statistics about the 500,000+ Irish individuals who are blind, visually impaired or deaf,underscoring the need for increased accessibility in live sports. The broadcast made sure to reiterate the available accessibility features. Funded by Guinness, PHD partnered with AdText to adapt and audio-describe creatives from brands such as Dr. Oetker, National Dairy Council, Gas Networks Ireland, and Virgin, ensuring that subtitles accompanied the ads throughout. This initiative allowed other OMG network clients to participate in a meaningful way, promoting the idea of investing in accessibility in paid media.
This activation represented a powerful innovation and a significant learning curve for all involved. Providing this technology and engaging other brands was no small feat. The teamwork amongst all parties exemplified the commitment to delivering on an ambitious vision through effective information sharing across disciplines. PHD leant on their network contacts to put Virgin Media in touch with ITV UK who advised on the technology required to facilitate the simulcast live AD commentary. PHD planning and TV teams worked closely alongside Virgin to approach other brands who would be willing to sign up to an initiative with Guinness at the helm. Virgin Media’s dedication was evident as they orchestrated a bespoke commercial break, shortening the allotted time to ensure all participating ads were fully accessible—a challenging task during one of the year’s most commercially valuable advertising slots. The collaborative effort ensured success in not just providing an inclusive broadcasting experience but also in raising awareness around accessibility issues in Irish media
The Results
Change will not happen overnight; however, this innovative activation was a successful first step in making Irish media more inclusive and accessible to all. PHD achieved the ambition in making the Guinness Six Nations coverage the most accessible yet. Irish Six Nations matches always draw viewers, and this year was no different, with Ireland vs England averaging 849k individuals, and Wales vs Ireland pulling in 732k, averaging 68.5% share across both matches. With 9% of the Irish population being blind, visually impaired or deaf, although the team cannot pull out the specific AD simulcast viewership, they provided a substantial percentage of the audience with a new opportunity to experience rugby that they didn’t have before.
Taking advantage of new technology introduced across PLAY in the form of the ISL Pop-Up channel however allowed PHD to see the impact this feature had in terms of viewership for deaf and hard of hearing fans. Over 11,000 people watched ISL coverage live across both matches. Ireland vs England pulled the best numbers, at 5,650 streams, over 4 times more than the best performing day across Virgin Christmas Pop-Up channel across all of December.
However, the results that matter the most was hearing from those all too often affected by the lack of media accessibility. Accessibility influencer Sarah B McGowan who is visually impaired uploaded a video to her TikTok following the Ireland vs England match about the audio description, saying: “Whoever is working with Irish Rugby and the Six Nations to make it more accessible for me, and for other blind and visually impaired people across Ireland, I just want to say thank you so, so much. It means the world and I am so grateful.” Positive feedback poured into the VMTinfo@virginmedia.ie address and across social media: “My name is Craig, I just wanted to say thank you for the idea of having an ISL interpreter on the Guinness 6 Nation. It’s amazing to have inclusivity. My girlfriend has been deaf since 15 and loves the rugby and now she can finally keep up with the game. Thank you so much from me and my girlfriend.” Another stated on X: “Great too that we have ISL on VM Play. It’s rare we get audio description and ISL together but hopefully it becomes much more common in the future. Bring on accessibility!”
This final quote captures the aspiration for Diageo and PHD into the future, driving awareness of the lack of features of this kind within the market, and using their scale to collaborate with broadcasters like Virgin Media to have a positive impact. PHD have worked with Virgin Media again to emulate these features for the Women’s Six Nations across all three Ireland matches they are broadcasting, with the hope that this is an initiative that will extend across all rugby and other sporting content for
the foreseeable. This is just the beginning of this journey, and the team never settle until the Irish media landscape becomes accessible to all.
“We are proud to partner with PHD and Virgin Media Television to enhance the accessibility of this year’s Guinness Six Nations. We believe everyone should have the opportunity to experience the passion and excitement as some of the world’s best rugby teams come together. By providing live Audio Description and Irish Sign Language for this year’s fixtures aired on Virgin Media, we are taking a significant step towards a more inclusive and representative viewing experience.”
Marketing Director, Guinness, Alan McAleenan
“Broadcasting live matches is how most of us experience the game, but for those who are blind, visually impaired, or deaf, enjoying live sports in the same way is often impossible. This partnership between Guinness, Virgin Media, and PHD represents a groundbreaking initiative in Ireland to make rugby truly inclusive. From the start of our conversations with the Virgin Media and PHD teams, their passion for creating inclusive experiences and using this as a learning opportunity for future broadcasts was evident. Through this, we have made rugby more accessible to 500,000 people across Ireland, allowing them to experience the magic of match days in their own culture, preferred language, and fitted to their preferred experience”
Damien Dineen, Head of Brand, Marketing and PR,National Broadband Ireland
Credits
Brand:
Diageo-Guinness
Media Agency:
PHD Media
Supporting agencies/teams:
Virgin Media Television
Award:
TAMI Awards Winner of Best Tactical Use of Innovation at the 2025 TAMI Awards