Localization Prioritized by a New Consortium, EGA
As high demand for content continues globally, hundreds of new streaming platforms compete for audiences’ attention. As a result, the demand for localized content continues to grow and businesses offering subtitling, dubbing, compliance editing, audio descriptions, and other specialized localization services are seeing rapid growth.
On November 17, 2020, the newly formed Entertainment Globalization Association (EGA) was announced with the goal of helping support this fast-growing segment. Based in Los Angeles, the 60-company consortium is billed as the first M&E association centered on content globalization in media. In a press release, the association stated they are “primarily focused on creating educational resources, localization standards and generating consumer impact research of localization.”
Localization is growing in complexity and so organizations dedicated to standardization and education play an important role in streamlining these operations. This summer, we wrote about the nuances of different language versions of a given piece of media, exploring the Language Metadata Table (LMT), created by a working group at the Media and Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA). The LMT standard was created to provide a unified source of reference for language codes for use throughout the media and entertainment industries. The LMT and the formation of the EGA are examples of the extensive challenges of localization and the industry coming together to create efficiencies.
“The new understanding,” the EGA press release reads, “is that globalization is less of a science and more of an art form that needs to be incorporated into the production process to ensure that stories are resonating with their global audiences.”
Secure, fast, and seamless content exchange is key to a global strategy
We were excited to hear of the EGA’s formation, especially as Signiant software is used by a many of the group’s founding members. Signiant has seen massive growth on its SaaS platform — both in Media Shuttle and Jet — as the industry works to deliver more content to more platforms and across more borders.
With the growth of localization, the challenges of global collaboration between companies of all sizes has grown as well. Often, in-country expertise is required to ensure quality translations and compliance with local laws. Media Shuttle is widely used to enable individuals — wherever they are — to have easy, fast, and secure access to the media assets required to do this important work.
According to SMPTE, a motion picture can have over 100 different versions over its life cycle. Suffice to say, the amount of content in play requires a small army of people scattered around the globe, working on the project. Media Shuttle makes it easy to onboard these users, give them access to only the assets they require, and ensures fast, reliable and secure delivery.
For companies with routine exchanges between their locations, Signiant Jet enables simple “hot folder” workflows to automate content exchange. Jet also offers a mechanism to better support these inter-company transfers, whereby two companies that each have Jet can set-up an exchange with a simple handshake in the cloud. The simplicity at the heart of these innovations is the perfect antidote for the complicated process of localization, allowing businesses around the world to confidently and securely navigate their workflows.
Today, Signiant’s SaaS platform connects more than 50,000 media companies worldwide, moving petabytes of high-value content. That massive footprint gives Signiant a unique lens into localization and the media supply chain as a whole. Supported by the EGA’s establishment, that lens shows that the supply chain is more global and more complex than ever, with localized content being a significant driver and that doesn’t appear to be slowing any time soon.
