egta spoke to Velimira Petrova, Sales Director, bTV Media Group to discuss bTV’s strategy to advance accessibility in advertisisng across their portfolio.
egta: Why has bTV decided to embrace accessibility? Are you seeing changes in your local market?
Velimira Petrova (VP): To us as a media group, accessibility is synonymous with diversity –we believe that content should be available to everyone, and we should select content titles that cater to a diverse audience. The first move to expanding accessibility by adding sign language to all our newscasts came as a natural development during the COVID pandemic, when it was critically important for all viewers to be able to follow the latest announcements. Sign language has since become a standard in our approach to accessible information and we feature it for various news segments and live broadcasts of national public interest.
Locally advertisers are starting to come around the idea as well, with P&G, being a frequent collaborator who has shown initiative and ongoing interest to take part in projects that highlight accessibility, and hopefully others will follow suit. For years their ads have been running with subtitles, and while it might take some time for other brands to adjust their creatives, we, as a media partner and host to their ads, are always open and happy to support and welcome these efforts. „As a national media group with large coverage, we not only raise awareness, but are also aware of what our audiences need and we are always pushing for innovation and growth across our local industry,” adds Velimira Petrova, Sales Director at bTV Media Group.
Velimira Petrova
Sales Director
bTV Media Group
egta: And what does your commitment to accessibility look like?
VP: When sign language was introduced across the newscasts, we observed a very positive reaction from the community of the hearing impaired. We often feature the daily routines of our sign language interpreters across our portfolio and in 2023 when egta introduced that WTVD will be dedicated to advertising accessibility, we took that as an opportunity to enhance the message of the annual video clip by adding sign language to it as well. On that day, P&G also ran all their ads without any voice over, which raised awareness and captured the viewers’ attention who kept thinking there was something going on with their devices.
What was even more amazing, again, was the response from the community – the campaign had reached the hearing impaired and they felt seen and heard. As we have a very solid ongoing relationship with our interpreters, they were also the highlight of a video segment in our morning show on Global Accessibility Awareness Day in May 2024. Each one of them has a personal story, related to a family member or a partner, which inspired them to learn sign language and become the communication link much needed for integration.
egta: What reasons do we have, as an industry, to be hopeful when it comes to accessibility?
VP: Small steps help form the bigger picture. The technology for sign language and subtitles is already in place in most markets, so it’s all a matter of decision-making on a brand level. The main challenge to a more continuous and broader change is brands’ creative and technical adjustments – i.e. adding subtitles/ closed captions and audio descriptions, which is a matter of resource and brand push.
We are in the process of actively exploring ideas and options to stimulate more brands to opt in such projects, and we will soon introduce a completely novel initiative for the industry in 2025.
Why this would be important – well, the more accessible the ad, the greater number of people will see it. Everyone is a consumer, everyone has interests and needs and there is no reason to exclude people with disabilities. This will lead to growth and market expansion, while at the same time contributing by integrating a large and usually underserved social group.