Global content sets off race for accurate subtitles

Future. International film and TV has become so popular on streaming services that the divisions in charge of subtitling and dubbing content can’t keep up with the output. But with streamers positioning themselves as global companies (where language isn’t supposed to be a barrier to accessing great stories), these divisions may need to be brought on to projects even earlier so that no audience is left behind.

What’s your translation?
The streaming age moves fast… maybe too fast to accurately subtitle and dub international movies and TV shows.

• Squid Game and Lupin were such international hits that Netflix’s subtitling and dubbing division didn’t have them ready for Italian and Portuguese markets, respectively.
• To combat getting left behind in the hype, the division is now trying to work “upstream” with creatives — “evaluating subtitling and/or dubbing needs” earlier on in the production process.
• It’s also doing this to better accommodate for unique cultural differences in language customs, such as subtitling/dubbing projects from Asia for English-speaking audiences.
  • For example, elders aren’t addressed in a direct way in Korean.
• Also, having subtitling/dubbing completely accounted for in advance ensures that deaf and visually-impaired communities aren’t left out of the equation.

If the amount of content pouring in from around the world is too much to handle, streamers could try turning to AI-powered services such as Deepdub. However, deeper cultural considerations would still probably need to be reviewed by an actual human.