With the growing video consumption all over the world, the localization industry has witnessed steady growth during the last decade. Nowadays, every company wishes to expand its business globally and reach new audiences who speak different languages. So, localized content is a must to tap into potential international markets.
Due to the growing need for localization, it is essential to be familiar with different options that are available to take your content to international audiences. One such tool is dubbing.
Dubbing is a process of translating foreign-language films into the language of the targeted audience. Its demand is rising because it helps organizations to reach a wider set of audience and release content in their native languages. Moreover, the recent explosion of OTT platforms, like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, etc., has opened a whole new chapter for dubbed content.
But how exactly has dubbing evolved? Let us find out!
Evolution of dubbing
Dubbing is the most common form of localization, which is used in the global distribution and consumption of visual content in many different languages. It involves recording voices that do not belong to the on-screen actors and are in a language different from that of the original dialogues.
The dubbing industry was founded in India due to the entertainment industry’s need to provide content from different markets in the country. Indians experienced the first dubbed content in 1998 when Discovery Channel started offering its programs in Hindi. In the early 90s, dubbing was confined to kid’s animation content by Disney. The dubbing industry took off when Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park was dubbed in three Indian languages, namely, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, in the early 1990s.
A few years ago, dubbing was used to translate the international content for the Indian market. This content was dubbed only in three languages – Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. But due to the infusion of more international content in India and the demand to watch it in native languages, the dubbing industry has flourished with many movies and shows being dubbed in many different Indian and foreign languages.
Dubbing as a necessity to survive in any business
Earlier, dubbing was introduced as a service to provide only the selected international content in the native languages of the target audience. But today, it is a necessity for businesses to thrive in this competitive world. Below are the main reasons for its rise:
• People often look for dubbed content as they tend to relate more to their languages and culture in dubbed movies and TV shows.
• The OTT platforms and streaming services, such as Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime, are spending a massive amount on localizing their content to access the global audience. This has increased the demand for dubbing artists for dubbed content.
• India is a vast country where the language changes every few kilometers. So, to make the content accessible to a broader audience and increase brand awareness, every business must release its content in the local languages of their audiences. Such content can be in any form, such as films, TV shows, commercials, documentaries, etc.
Future of dubbing
Since businesses create a lot of content every day to reach the international audience, the demand for dubbing is expected to grow exponentially. To stand apart from the crowd, businesses need to use cutting edge technology to provide accurate and timely dubbed content with fast turnaround times.
Moreover, many advanced technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI), can replace the services of dubbing artists. However, until the robots learn to replicate the emotions and feelings of the human voice, the dubbing artist jobs are not going anywhere. Overall, we are going to experience many such developments and challenges in the dubbing industry in the years ahead.
Look no further. Find the best partner for your all your voice-over and dubbing requirements – DUBnSUB. We are a dubbing company based in Gurgaon, India with branch offices in Berlin, Germany, Paris, France, and Boston, USA. We offer high-quality dubbing services at competitive costs in more than 70 languages through a mix of our own and extensive partner network of 200 dubbing studios and with our pool of more than 3,200 native dubbing artists.