Subtitling and captioning are essential services in the production of multilingual and accessible video content.
The media localization sector, sized at nearly USD 3bn in 2022, has provided consistent growth in demand for subtitling and captioning across various types of media and entertainment — full-length movies, episodic content for streaming platforms, and live broadcast events, to name a few.
At the same time — from short-form social media content to corporate videos and online meetings — demand for subtitles and captions is increasing as the use of video proliferates across an expanding range of settings, in particular for business and education purposes.
The Slator Pro Guide: Subtitling and Captioning is a deep dive into the speech-to-text services of subtitling and captioning.
The guide features 10 use cases that gather actionable insights into the production of subtitles and captions. Presented in a handy one-page format, the use cases are designed to help providers and buyers of subtitling and captioning understand how these services can be leveraged to increase viewer engagement, augment viewership, and comply with regulations.
Slator Pro Guide: Subtitling and Captioning
Pro Guide for buyers and LSPs on how to leverage captions and subtitles for video content to grow viewership and improve engagement. Features 10 x 1-page use cases.
Send us an email or connect via chat if you prefer to purchase the report via invoice.
The one-pagers outline how to deliver subtitles and captions for a rapidly expanding range of sectors, settings, and buyers — from real-time captioning for live broadcasts, multilingual subtitles for live events, multilingual subtitles for streaming platforms, live translated captions for video meetings, and more.
The guide serves as a practical resource, offering language service providers (LSPs) an up-to-date perspective on subtitling and captioning, which will support their business development efforts in targeting buyers of subtitling and captioning. It will give buyers insights into the latest production workflows, combining human linguistic skills and advances in technology.
It also discusses sector-agnostic trends such as improvements in technology (which lower the costs associated with these services), regulatory drivers (which mandate enhanced accessibility), and evolving viewer preferences (whereby it is becoming commonplace for viewers to watch videos without sound).
With growing demand, the landscape of service providers for subtitling and captioning is also evolving. We present the key supplier groups involved in the production of subtitles and captions, ranging from media localization, access services, and language services providers, to AI agencies and multilingual meeting platforms.
As these services are increasingly supported by technology, big tech, specialist tech providers, and AI startups are playing a growing role in the production of subtitles and captions. The guide demonstrates how technologies such as automatic speech recognition (ASR) and machine translation (MT) are becoming more widely used in professional subtitling and captioning workflows. It also addresses the question of how large language models (LLMs) may impact subtitling.
Table of Contents
| Executive Summary | 5 |
| Introduction | 6 |
| Services | 7 |
| Buyer Types | 11 |
| Demand Drivers | 12 |
| Applications | 14 |
| Providers | 15 |
| Technology | 16 |
| The Role of Linguists | 20 |
| Use Cases | 21 |
| 1) Real-Time Closed Captioning (CC) for Live Television Broadcast | 22 |
| 2) Multilingual Subtitles for Live Broadcast Events | 23 |
| 3) SDH for Documentaries | 24 |
| 4) Live Captions for Conferences | 25 |
| 5) Automated Captions for Short-Form Content | 26 |
| 6) Automated Live Translated Captions for Remote Video Meetings | 27 |
| 7) Non-SDH for Pre-Recorded Live Corporate Videos | 28 |
| 8) Multilingual Subtitles for Streaming Platform Content | 29 |
| 9) Non-SDH for Live International Public-Facing Announcements | 30 |
| 10) SDH for e-learning and Training Videos | 31 |
| Glossary | 32 |
How to Use This Report
Slator’s easy-to-digest Pro Guide: Subtitling and Captioning offers the very latest industry and data analysis, providing language service providers and end clients the confidence to make informed and time-critical decisions. It is a cost-effective, credible resource for busy professionals.