M+E Connections

London-based Titles-On started out as a developer of new solutions for distributing and repurposing existing subtitle assets, and has quickly grown into one of the more respected European localization houses, with access to some of the best editors and audio visual translators in the world.

Company CEO Bente Ottersen sat down with MESA to share how her company was well-prepared for the remote-work reality the pandemic has brought to the industry, the challenges both her company and the industry at large have had to overcome, and why localization providers need to make client trust their No. 1 priority to succeed going forward.

MESA: What does Titles-On do differently than other localization providers, what makes the company stand out against the competition?

Ottersen: It’s a combination of things … our company philosophy, perhaps. First of all, our boutique style customer service, understanding our customers’ needs and being available to them around the clock. We intend to keep this boutique approach even as we grow. We also focus on keeping a perfect balance between technologies as a tool and human expertise. We see ourselves as a people driven, technology enabled company.

But what truly sets us apart from our competition is our ability to find, train and retain skilled and motivated editors, audio-visual translators, voice artists and directors, which is reflected in the assets they create for our clients.

MESA: How has Titles-On adapted in recent months to the global pandemic, both within your facilities, and accommodating voice talent to work remotely, without sacrificing dubbing quality?

Ottersen: Long before the pandemic, we had made best practices for managing a remote workforce into an artform, and during the pandemic-lock down we were among those companies who managed to not only continue business as usual amid the chaos, but increase our productivity.

We are now providing dubbing services by using workflows that combine the best of native and cloud technology to meet the needs of end-users and stakeholders. Encryption in transit and robust infrastructure mean that our clients can rest assured that their content is kept confidential and secure. Clients can join our live recording or mixing sessions via broadcast quality multi point web audio conferencing. All they need is a stable internet connection.

And the audio quality is amazing!

MESA: What would you say are the challenges you’ve faced during the past six months?

Ottersen: The biggest challenge is not to find resources, but to find truly qualified people who meet our quality standards and who are willing to work for the rates the industry offers.
To attract and retain the bottom line of creative professionals who make the assets, we offer slightly higher rates than most other localization companies, we provide fringe benefits and other incentives, and we keep a close human connection/interaction with all members of our team, including all our freelancers around the world.

MESA: How much demand is Titles-On seeing for audio description (AD) services, and what is involved to provide this access to content for people with sensory impairments?

Ottersen: We have had less requests for audio description than we anticipated. Although there are approximately 1.3 billion people living with some form of vision impairment in the world (WHO), the industry has been slow to embrace the business potential of providing AD.

To make AD content really attractive to the target audience I think we must abandon the mechanical voices that actually detracts from the atmosphere of the film. Good voice-artists, great timing and economy of words seem to enhance the user experience, and after all good user experiences are what films are all about.

MESA: In what ways does Titles-On see localization services evolving going forward, what should everyone in the business prepare for?

Ottersen: I think we will face many challenges in the near future, some are related to Covid-19, others are challenges we would have regardless of this crisis.

• We will need to continue discussions about standards for subtitles and captions.

• With the increased demand for localized content, we see the emergence of rogue operators offering captions and subtitles at ridiculously low rates, driving prices down and delivering rubbish quality. Many operate on a “grab the money and run”- basis, and even if one company dies, another will pop up.

• To protect our reputation, keep an honest price level, retain quality translators and editors and protect content providers from being scammed.

COVID-19 has triggered a new age of remote working. As our industry finds ways of securing uninterrupted workflows and best practices, there is another issue emerging: the battle for workspace at home. When all members of the household work from home, conduct meetings and school sessions, many of our suppliers may suffer from not having their own dedicated professional workspace. Going forward, we may see new ways of organising remote work, such as local work-station hubs or “rent-a-desk” centres.

MESA: For the industry at large, what changes do you see on the horizon?

Ottersen: COVID-19 has impacted film roll-outs or forced teams to halt their current film and TV productions. At the same time there is a huge increase in online media consumption and demand for content. As a result we see a revival of library content, and for us that means an increase in requests for repurposing of existing subtitle assets. This service can be a minefield for anyone not familiar with its potential complexity and some clients’ expectation of near zero-costs for this service.

The biggest challenge may be to handle a painfully unpredictable market and our ability to generate predictable revenue. To quote Mark Howorth of SDI media, “We don’t have agreements, only price lists.” We as an industry could benefit from a common strategy to increase predictability. To do so, I believe we must understand how the value chain in our industry has changed.

Before the internet, local distributors had exclusive long term rights to market a film or a TV-program in a certain geographical area, often corresponding to a national market. These distributors had a profound knowledge of language and cultural preferences in their markets. They were responsible for cultural and linguistic versioning, and would make the needed investments and also take most of the financial risk associated with this. This meant that content owners based in, let’s say Hollywood, would not need to bother about language adaptation in foreign markets. They could just harvest their share of the revenues and leave the risk to local distributors.

With the internet the number of distributors and platforms has proliferated, and content providers now have the ability to access the consumers directly, bypassing third-party distribution links. Changing market demands have shaped licensing practices and today distribution licensing is seldom exclusive or long term.

There are considerable initial investments needed to make content available in multiple territories, among them the costs of language adaptation.

Where the old-time distributor looked at language adaptation as an investment that would yield profit, many of today’s market operators seem to think of it as an expensive commodity, and they focus on cutting costs rather than increasing their market reach.

A certain level of stability and predictability is key to deliver multiple projects predictably, on-time, and on-budget, a predictable income for AV translators, editors and voice artist is key to stop the bleeding of talent from the industry.

To increase predictability in our markets, clients must be able to trust that they are paying fair prices for good products. Since many operators today are fairly ignorant about the value of localising content as well as what the process involves, it leads them to keep shopping around for increasingly lower prices, undermining serious operators and threatening the sustainability of the entire industry.