Disruptive AVT workflows in the age of streaming: The Netflix equation

Serenella Massidda

Abstract

In the last decade, media industries have witnessed a shift in the way audiovisual content is localised, broadcast, and consumed by multifaceted audiences: from traditional linear TV to subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services. While this major shift has been well-documented by media studies scholars (Lotz 2014; Lobato 2017a, 2017b; Storstein Spilker and Colbjørnsen 2020), the overall effect it has had on audiovisual translation (AVT) is relatively under-researched within Translation Studies. Hence, this article aims to delve into the current state of the art of AVT within a mediascape dominated by non-linear over-the-top (OTT) platforms. Drawing on the impact that streaming solutions such as Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Netflix have had on the acceleration of AVT workflows worldwide as a way to localise a high volume of content created to reach global audiences, my analysis focuses on their impact on the way subtitling workflows are managed and turnaround times scheduled. This study focuses on the day-of-broadcast (DOB) model, the media release strategy intended to make audiovisual content available ‘now and everywhere’. The disruptive nature of DOB models in localisation workflows is investigated using a case study, the ad hoc subtitling workflow devised for Netflix’s Chelsea, and analysed using a qualitative research method. The aim is to unveil the practices behind the scenes of the first global talk show subtitled in twenty languages with a turnaround time of only fourteen hours.

Keywords:
Publication history
Table of contents

This article explores the new mediascape produced by the emergence of online streaming solutions. Drawing on the impact that subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services have had on the acceleration of AVT workflows worldwide, my analysis, based on documentary analysis, fundamentally qualitative in its nature, focuses on the disruptive force of streaming video content providers that are rapidly growing in popularity. The analytical method employed for the present research was selected as a way to examine pre-existing data and interpret documentary evidence in order to elicit meaning, gain understanding, and ultimately develop empirical and critical knowledge (Bowen 2009) on a topic that has been discussed in the field of Media Studies, yet is still relatively under-researched in Translation Studies. In the last decade, and particularly in 2020, a year characterised by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entertainment and localisation industries have witnessed and undergone ground-breaking transformations that have considerably affected media consumption.

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