NextUp Comedy

NextUp, the video service making live comedy more accessible

A subscription video service for live comedy, NextUp produces live streams from the best venues and festivals in the UK, bringing them to fans’ homes worldwide. Their catalogue consists of over 300 specials from both famous and up-and-coming comedians.

To continue driving inclusivity, NextUp is planning to use the funding and support from the Innovate UK Inclusive Innovation Award to develop live captioned live-streams. This is so that those who are deaf or hard of hearing can also have access to their live content, rather than having to rely on their on-demand services entirely.

NextUp was launched by Sarah Henley and fellow comedy lovers because they thought the comedy that was already on TV wasn’t inclusive enough.

“There was so much incredible comedy out there that wasn’t getting a shot. We also thought that live comedy wasn’t itself accessible or inclusive – often difficult to access and not disabled friendly, limited by ticket price, availability and location.”

“We wanted to make comedy accessible to everyone and because of that, NextUp was born,” says Sarah.