Sure, you should get your hearing tested at least once every two years, which, fortunately for people in the UK, is covered by our wonderful NHS, and appointments can also be made with larger pharmacists and opticians - often for FREE! According to WHO, 1.5 billion people globally are living with hearing loss, which is expected to rise to 2.5 billion by 2050. But delving deeper into why TV dialogue seems to be getting harder to hear reveals no definitive answer - in fact, it's a rather complex problem. Some believe it's been made worse by the audio compression used on streaming services.

At least one streaming service is attempting to address the issue, with Amazon Prime announcing today a new accessibility feature called Dialogue Boost. Initially launched on select Amazon Originals worldwide, Dialogue Boost lets you increase the volume of dialogue relative to background music and effects, "creating a more comfortable and accessible viewing experience that cannot be found on any other global streaming service".

Amazon says that while Dialogue Boost was "built with the needs of customers who are hard of hearing in mind, anyone can use the feature to suit their personal listening preferences".

Raf Soltanovich, VP of Technology at Prime Video and Amazon Studios, told StereoNET:

At Prime Video, we are committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and enjoyable streaming experience for all our customers. Our library of captioned and audio described content continues to grow, and by leveraging our technological capabilities to create industry-first innovations like Dialogue Boost, we are taking another step to create a more accessible streaming experience.

Dialogue Boost analyses the original audio in a movie or series and intelligently identifies points where dialogue may be hard to hear above background music and effects. Then, speech patterns are isolated, and audio is enhanced to make the dialogue clearer. This AI-based approach delivers a targeted enhancement to portions of spoken dialogue instead of a general amplification at the centre channel in a home cinema system.

Dialogue Boost is available across all devices that support Prime Video. Amazon Originals featuring Dialogue Boost include Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Harlem, as well as movies including The Big Sick, Beautiful Boy, and Being the Ricardos. Amazon says the feature will become available on additional titles this year.

To access the feature during playback, select the level of Dialogue Boost via the audio and subtitles drop-down menu. The audio tracks are labelled "English Dialogue Boost: Medium" and "English Dialogue Boost: High."

For more information visit Prime Video