Delivering content through digital platforms is now part of any content owner’s strategy. In the kids’ entertainment sector, the past two years have seen tremendous changes in the marketplace: a number of interesting mergers & acquisitions; certain SVOD platforms have implemented bespoke children’s channels, a growing popularity of YouTube Kids and increased investment by major TV networks in original content destined for audiences under the age of twelve. At present, all eyes are on the kids’ entertainment industry, some stating that “children’s programming is the glue” that keeps many homes subscribed to a particular service.
Statistics show that today linear TV is still the primary consumption medium for kids’ entertainment. However, having an on-demand platform or branded YouTube channel and being able to deliver that content to any mobile device is now a complimentary must in order to survive. Oli Hyatt, Chair of Animation UK and owner of Blue-Zoo Production, recently stated in an interview with MIPCOM that “some brands are breaking through now with no TV platform whatsoever, so the power is beginning to shift.”
Who knows what the future holds. Will digital platforms overtake the main TV channels? One thing is for sure – the rise of streaming media allows content to be delivered to a global audience fast. In light of this, here are some recommendations for localizing children’s entertainment while making it more accessible and discoverable online:
Translation isn’t enough
The power of storytelling and the ability to fully capture the child’s attention and imagination is the magic behind the most successful animations. If the storyline is lost in translation, your creation will fail to win the hearts of this young audience. In the localization process, once the audio component is transcribed into the foreign language script, it then needs to be adapted (or “trans-created”) to ensure that it is locally accurate. Each country and region have its own cultural, moral and belief system. Hence, it is of paramount importance that your localization partner has the local knowledge and experience required to adapt and adjust where necessary the original script so that it corresponds to the culture, values, and customs in your target region.
Good dubbing is indispensable
For audiences under the age of twelve, subtitling alone is not possible unless you expect parents to sit beside their child and repeat what’s being said on-screen… We think not! Apart from the fact that dubbing gives children the independence they need to watch and fully enjoy their show on their own; it is also the recommended, if not required, norm for kids’ content across the globe. It is essential to understand that dubbing animation is far more complex than dubbing content for adults. For kids’ content, the choice of voice talent is significant – only an experienced voice actor will be able to animate each character, convey its personality and create the illusion that the character is indeed talking!
Subtitling and closed captioning are a necessary option
Adding subtitles and closed captioning as an option to viewers will enable your video to reach a wider audience, including children in the higher age bracket who can read, as well as those who are deaf and hard of hearing. The most recent statistics from the World Health Organization state that over 5% of the world’s population – 360 million people – has disabling hearing loss, of which 32 million are children. Closed captioning your video will make it accessible to those deaf and hard of hearing children. Adding the option of closed captions to your online video will not only give you a competitive advantage, but will also ensure that your content conforms to the increasingly stringent disability laws that vary per region. In the years to come, these laws will inevitably be applied to online media too.
Consider timing & screen space for each platform
The number of screens, platforms and file formats continue to increase year on year with an explosion in the number of kids using mobile technology. In fact, a study undertaken in 2015 reports that 75% of children under age 8 use mobile devices. Kids want to watch their favorite shows on-demand and on any available screen – be it TV, tablet or smartphone, and will certainly not be content in waiting until the scheduled broadcast time.
If you are adding subtitles, closed captions or audio descriptions to your video it is crucial that your localization partner can shorten the text to fit the given space within each individual screen and that they can support a wide range of output formats such as CAP (Cheetah), Scenarist Closed Captions (SCC), MCC CEA-708 (MCC) TTML, QuickText (for QuickTime), WebVTT (for HTML5), RealText (for Real Media), SMTPE-TT (XML), EBU.STL, to name a few.
Metadata translation for online discovery
Online it is extremely hard to get your content in front of the eyeballs of the right audience. Given the number of videos uploaded to the Internet each second, it is of paramount importance that each video is accurately described, tagged and that the metadata is complete so that it can be easily discovered. When working with your localization partner, make sure that they translate the original metadata into each target foreign language using appropriate words and the most common search terms in that language.
Pay attention to censorship compliance and parental values
Almost all countries have their own recommended television ratings in place, especially when it comes to content addressed to kids. What some countries consider as acceptable may be out-ruled in another country as being overly violent, for example. Additionally, some broadcasters may request editions that they feel are necessary to match the expectations and desires of their unique audience. You also need to be fully aware of parenting values in each of your target regions which are often radically different depending on cultural and religious values.
