About AMI-tv

AMI-tv

Overview

AMI-tv is a Canadian English-language specialty television channel devoted to programming for people who are blind, partially sighted, deaf or hard of hearing. It is owned and operated by Accessible Media Inc. (AMI), a not-for-profit media organization headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The channel's defining feature is its "open format": every program it broadcasts carries described video (DV) on the main audio track — a narrator's description of the visual action woven into the program — together with closed captioning. Because the description sits on the primary track rather than on a secondary audio feed that viewers must hunt for in their television settings, anyone who tunes in hears the accessible version automatically. AMI and the Rick Hansen Foundation have described AMI-tv as the only channel in the world to offer described video in an open format across all of its content.

The channel holds a privileged place in the Canadian broadcasting system. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) licenses AMI-tv as a discretionary service with mandatory distribution: every licensed digital cable, satellite and IPTV provider in Canada must carry it on its lowest tier of service. Its sister services are AMI-audio, an English-language audio reading and information service, and AMI-télé, a French-language counterpart launched in 2014. AMI-tv programming is also available on demand through AMI+, the company's free streaming platform.

History

AMI-tv's roots reach back to 1989, when a report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Disabled Persons, titled "No News is Bad News," concluded that Canadians with vision or print restrictions needed equal access to published news and information. The National Broadcast Reading Service (NBRS) was established that year to act on the recommendation. In 1990 the CRTC licensed its VoicePrint reading service, which launched on December 1, 1990, and in 1995 NBRS created AudioVision Canada to supply described video to film and television productions.

On March 27, 2007, the CRTC heard a dozen applications from services seeking mandatory distribution on the basic tier, among them NBRS's proposal for The Accessible Channel (TAC), a 24-hour English-language channel for blind and visually impaired viewers. NBRS argued that described programming made up only a small fraction — an estimated 3 percent — of Canadian television at the time, and that what little existed was hard to find because it was buried on secondary audio program (SAP) feeds that many providers delivered poorly and many viewers could not operate. In Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2007-246, issued July 24, 2007, the Commission approved the channel with mandatory distribution, finding that it complemented the Broadcasting Act's direction that the system make programming accessible as resources allow.

NBRS announced the service at a gala marking the United Nations' International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3, 2008, and The Accessible Channel launched on January 29, 2009. At launch the organization committed to captioning 100 percent of the schedule, exceeding the 90 percent captioning condition then standard for digital services. In its early years the channel relied mainly on programming sublicensed from other Canadian broadcasters — CBC, CTV, Citytv and others — re-presented in its open format; its licence limited any single supplier to no more than a third of the schedule.

The organization renamed itself Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) in 2010 to reflect its growth beyond the reading service. On January 30, 2012, The Accessible Channel became AMI-tv, and VoicePrint became AMI-audio that March, uniting the services under one brand. AMI launched its online DV Guide, a listings service flagging described programming across Canadian broadcasters, in June 2012, and an HD feed of the channel reached Manitoba's MTS service in December 2012. AMI applied for a French-language sister channel in 2013; the CRTC approved it on August 8, 2013, and AMI-télé launched on December 16, 2014. The CRTC renewed the AMI television and audio licences in 2013 and again in 2018. Through the 2010s and into the 2020s the channel's schedule shifted decisively from acquired programming toward original productions about disability and accessibility, a change helped along by a September 2019 CRTC requirement that large vertically integrated broadcasters offer described video across prime-time entertainment programming, which reduced the scarcity that had justified TAC's original acquired-programming model.

Programming and Content

Original series are now the bulk of the AMI-tv schedule. Its factual and entertainment catalogue has included the employment series Employable Me, the cooking program Four Senses, the disability sports magazine Level Playing Field hosted by Paralympian Greg Westlake, the travel series Postcards From…, the community profile series Our Community, and You Can't Ask That, produced with the CBC and Australia's ABC. More recent commissions include the satirical news comedy The Squeaky Wheel: Canada, the fishing series Get Hooked, produced with OUTtv, the stand-up anthology All Access Comedy and the interview series Game Changers, which debuted in May 2025 with host Dave Brown.

AMI announced its 2025-26 production slate in June 2025, with new titles such as the documentary series Breaking Boundaries, the short-form History in 60 with journalist John Loeppky, and a documentary following advocate April Hubbard's medical assistance in dying journey, alongside returning seasons of Game Changers, Underdog Inc., Got Game, Pretty Blind, Crip Trip, The Squeaky Wheel: Canada, Postcards From… and Our Community, which entered its tenth season in September 2025. That same month the new off-road racing series Desert Racers, starring paraplegic daredevil Bruce Cook, premiered. In September 2026 AMI-tv debuted Adapting, a six-part scripted drama about a teenager with cerebral palsy, produced with Big Time Decent's Bread & Better Films and drawn from the lived experience of its creators — an early move by the channel into scripted series. In children's programming, AMI has developed series such as Collar of Duty Kids, which premiered in June 2025, and How We Do It, which teaches young viewers about disability.

The channel has also used partnerships to make major live events accessible. With the CBC it simulcast described coverage of the 2011 royal wedding, the 2011 federal election and Canadian awards shows; it covered the 2012 London Paralympics alongside CTV and Rogers properties and the 2014 Sochi Paralympics with the Canadian Paralympic Committee and CBC Sports. In September 2012 it teamed with Sportsnet to air three Toronto Blue Jays baseball games with described commentary — an experiment Blue Jays president Paul Beeston described at the time as, to the club's knowledge, the first of its kind in professional sports — and the described Blue Jays broadcasts expanded the following season. Accessibility is built into production itself on many AMI originals through integrated described video, in which description is written into dialogue and narration from the start rather than added in post-production.

Audience and Reach

Because AMI-tv is a must-carry service, it is distributed on the basic tier of television providers across Canada rather than depending on subscribers opting in. AMI itself has put the channel's footprint at almost 10 million Canadian homes, a figure the company cited in 2026 trade coverage of its children's programming. At the channel's 2009 launch, the Canadian Communications Foundation's broadcasting history estimated that some 6.6 million Canadians lived with vision or hearing restrictions the service was designed to serve — a launch-era estimate that illustrates the size of the audience TAC was created for rather than a measured viewership. AMI does not publish ratings for the channel, and its importance in the system rests less on audience size than on its guarantee that a full schedule of described, captioned programming is available on every television platform in the country.

Digital Presence

AMI-tv content is available through AMI.ca, the organization's consolidated website, which also hosts schedules, a channel guide and the DV Guide listings of described programming across Canadian broadcasters. All AMI-tv originals are posted for free on-demand streaming on AMI+, which AMI launched on October 3, 2023, as a fully accessible streaming site with customizable accessibility settings for blind and partially sighted users; AMI+ arrived on Roku in 2024, again free and without a subscription or sign-in. Before AMI+, AMI had released iOS and tvOS apps in February 2018 carrying its original content with accessibility features such as bolded text and high-contrast layouts, and it earlier launched the AMI-player, which the company billed as the first fully accessible online media player in North America. AMI also maintains an active presence on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok and YouTube.

Ownership and Organisation

AMI-tv is owned by Accessible Media Inc., a not-for-profit organization governed as a non-profit and headquartered in Toronto. AMI is the successor to the National Broadcast Reading Service (est. 1989) and operates three broadcast services — AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French — plus the AMI+ streaming platform. AMI's media kit dated February 2026 names David Errington as the company's president and chief executive officer; Errington has led the organization since before the 2012 rebrand and has been a prominent national voice on media accessibility, including service on the National Screen Institute's board of directors. John Melville has served as vice-president of content development and operations for AMI-tv and AMI-audio. The company runs internship and apprenticeship programs intended to bring people with disabilities into media production, and its scholarship program awards two $5,000 bursaries annually to students with permanent disabilities, one from the English community and one from the French.

Contact and Availability

AMI-tv is carried on the basic service tier of digital cable, satellite and IPTV providers throughout Canada, in standard and high definition, and its original programming streams free on AMI+ through browsers and Roku. Schedules, channel numbers by provider and the DV Guide are published at AMI.ca. AMI's published general contact email is info@ami.ca; media inquiries listed on the company's 2025-26 releases are directed to Greg David, communications specialist, at Greg.David@ami.ca or 647-417-0631.