Today, there’s a whole spectrum of various language services to navigate as a media business: AI dubbing, voice-over, transcribing, translation, and subtitle creation, to name a few.
Increasingly, viewers are looking for foreign programming to enjoy in their own language; consumption of non-English language content is skyrocketing, when shows like "Squid Game" and "Money Heist" achieve universal success. Aligning with the demand, streaming platforms and media content distributors alike are focusing on ideal solution partners for localization success. This way, their audio and video content can achieve global expansion. To speed up the process and target the content to viewers, streaming platforms, media content producers and distributors are focusing on AI dubbing.
Benefits of AI-Powered Media Content Localization:
- Fast market entry and business scalability. Covers massive non-English-speaking audiences, such as China or Latin America.
- Increasing accessibility and building trust. Tools like subtitles and closed captions help understand any video, and audiences trust content that matches their needs.
- Low barriers and simplicity of AI dubbing. There’s no need to manage lots of vendors: the processes are automated and the results are enjoyable. Moreover, AI localization in media reduces the turnaround time.
- Industry leaders have made their call. Major players like Netflix and Disney are already applying innovations such as AI-generated subtitles and closed captions.
Key Criteria to Consider When Selecting Partners
1. Balancing Linguistic Excellence & Stack
Your localization partner must be an expert at core translation competences, but also experienced in video localization and hold subject matter expertise. A partner’s business needs to be run by professionals capable of evaluating and enhancing their localization results. This subtle localization knowledge is embedded in cutting-edge technology, from AI mixing to lip-synching, that allows for natural-sounding and authentic content.
Undoubtedly, your industry will have its unique domain requirements, for which there are no universal solutions. Reliable dubbing businesses will explicitly outline the sectors they are experienced in, be it media and entertainment or education.
2. Market & Viewership Insights
Your preferred localization partner needs to offer astute, research-based insights into target market trends and audience preferences. Understanding the preferences of diverse markets, such as their inclination for dubbing vs. subtitles, can significantly impact the success or failure of your investment. For instance, French and Spanish audiences generally prefer dubbing, while in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, subtitles are more widely accepted as the localization method. Tailoring your approach according to the preferences of your target audience ensures that your content flourishes across various markets.
3. Understanding Robust Nuance
Your localization partner needs to come with more than linguistic expertise. They need to also be able to fine-tune the product to suit cultural and linguistic nuances. The expertise may come from trained native speakers of the language or skilled linguists who understand cultural norms and subtle semantic shifts offered by intonation or word choice. This way, translations deliver the meaning of the original and capture the context as well, with properly delivered tone, meaning, and nuance.
Inaccuracies and cultural insensitivities in content gain a lot of attention online through reposts and discussions, creating very bad publicity indeed. Partnering with a localization provider like Dubformer ensures that your content engages with your audiences on a deep level.
4. Quality Assurance
Building trust with algorithms is an essential goal in the era of GenAI. This implies that established quality assurance processes are a key component of a successful localization solution that can be trusted. One component of assuring high-quality results is having transparent processes with multiple review rounds that all but guarantee accuracy. The other is established feedback loops, meaning that your localization partner makes it a priority to improve their systems whenever possible.
5. Scalability
Whether or not your business is considering scaling up the operation at this stage, consider whether a given localization provider is set up for scaling in content volume or format. What if you decide to widen the selection of languages you offer or expand the TV series menu? Partner with a company that understands how fast content businesses evolve and how localization unlocks new growth models. That way, you will be set for success and can extend the partnership at all stages of your business growth.
6. Synergy Between AI and Human Quality Control
At this stage in GenAI development, the translation and localization accuracy is ensured by an algorithm-human partnership. All AI-generated content needs to be checked and reviewed by humans for ultimate results. The professional teams tend to include native speakers, proof-readers, linguists, and proof-listeners – so make sure you investigate whether your target solution comes with human curation.
7. Turnaround Time
It should be noted that timing is a crucial element of content delivery. Does your potential partner deliver on tight deadlines and is their work still meeting your quality standards? Investing time in reviewing their case studies could be one way to investigate their practices on the ground.
8. Transparent AI Dubbing Pipeline
When selecting your localization partner, review their technology, but don’t miss out on understanding their pipeline, the clarity of their localization delivery processes and synchronization checkpoints with the client. Ask those questions in advance to avoid disappointment.
Choose Dubformer for Your Localization Partner
