ESPN Leverages Disney’s Automated AI Captioning Tech to Enhance Viewer Experience

Disney and ESPN technologists worked together to bring highly accurate, real-time speech-to-text captioning to live programming

Disney’s Real-time Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) captioning technology was first used on ESPN+ live sports content, then extended to other parts of Disney (such as ABC News), and will continue to roll out across ESPN networks and other streaming platforms and networks across The Walt Disney Company within the next few years enabling more capabilities. In addition to Disney and ESPN technologists as well as programming and business teams at ESPN and ABC, other key contributors to the project include AWS, Microsoft, and Speechmatics.

On Global Accessibility Awareness Day, ESPN Front Row spoke with Dave Johnson, SVP, Technical Services, Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, about technological innovation that is enabling more accessible fan experiences with live sports: Real-time Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) captioning.

CLICK HERE for the full ESPN Front Row post.