Challenges in Global Film and TV Releases

If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

If you're one of the approximately 460,000 production companies on the IMDB Pro active COMPANYmeter looking to release a title that will attract an audience among the world's 7.7 billion people living in 200+ countries and territories, then you have your work cut out for you. Besides having to write a well-told, engaging story, you must decide where among the world's 300+ streaming platforms and 25,000+ linear channels to release it.

At a high level, it seems pretty easy to narrow it down. "All" you have to do is identify the most lucrative markets, see what languages they speak, and target them, right? Toss in some subtitles and dubbing, and everything's good.

If only it were that simple.

Choosing Is Easy-ish

According to the latest estimates , the most spoken languages in the world are English (1.5B), Chinese (1.1B), and Hindi (592M). That doesn't include the other 2B people who speak Spanish, Arabic, Russian, French, German, and Japanese, among all the rest of them. While those are not the "most spoken," each of those six languages is spoken in the top ten movie markets worldwide.

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Table 1 Most Spoken Languages in the World, Ethnologue

Choo sing your target countries and languages is just the beginning. If your title is to be successful, the path forward is evident. Although audiences may understand the language, regional and societal differences may change their understanding of the story. You have to ensure your story is appropriately translated using cultural references that the audience understands and that it complies with local regulations.

No Title Is Immune From Censorship or Criticism

Getting this wrong has serious consequences. For example, eight out of ten of 2022's most successful titles at the box office were banned in several of the world's largest markets for cultural issues. Each of the last seven Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) titles was banned in China and the Middle East for the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters. The Netflix series "Squid Game" received much criticism for mistranslations, inaccurate subtitles, and dubs that left out some of the most important cultural aspects of the series. Most of the flak came from audience members!

The best way to approach this challenge is to determine, as far advance as possible, using the best data, which markets most clearly align with your content. Doing so allows you to target them in a way that reduces title and brand risk, minimizes post-production costs, and speeds time to market.

A Cultural Playbook

Over the past decade, Spherex has worked to develop the IP and technologies necessary to provide the tools the media and entertainment (M&E) industry needs to make informed content and compliance decisions that impact markets and revenue. The company has reviewed thousands of policy manuals, jurisdictional film and TV ratings classifications, legal decisions, and public consumer complaints to create the industry's first cultural playbook. The result is a proprietary capability that detects and analyzes approximately 1,000 scene attributes across 8.3 million combinations that impact ratings in nearly every market worldwide.

This playbook provides unmatched intelligence and specific guidance that can be applied to any form of video content, from film to television shows to video games. No other platform comes close to providing the accuracy and depth of Spherex AI. From a single review of any title, it gives both a customized and highly specific roadmap for localizing and culturalizing any title and delivering valid age ratings for any country or territory where release is desired.

If you're interested in learning more, Spherex AI/ML technology is discussed in the October 2022 edition of " Reteller Magazine ." We encourage you to check it out!

Related Insights

Spherex Classification Tool Now Approved for Home Entertainment Content in Australia

Spherex

Regulation

Classification

The Albanese Government has updated the Spherex Classification Tool approval to include ratings for theatrical releases, home entertainment, and streaming content in Australia. Spherex was previously approved to classify online films.

The update underscores the Australian Classification Board’s confidence in Spherex as a tool to help Australian viewers make informed choices about the content they consume. This means Australians can now access a range of new films sooner than they might across all formats and windows.

Spherex has a longstanding relationship with the Australian Classification Board. Since 2020, Spherex has collaborated closely with the Australian Government to ensure its technology reliably generates classification decisions that meet Australian standards and viewers' expectations.

As the world’s only commercial provider of local age ratings, Spherex has successfully produced classification decisions for high volumes of online content in over 100 countries. Since 2018, Spherex has issued over one million age ratings for digital content, including films, TV shows, and trailers, distributed by its clients worldwide.

Spherex customers, including Umbrella Entertainment, Madman Entertainment, and Sugoi Co., rely on its AI-based platform to obtain local age ratings in Australia and significantly improve efficiency, cost reduction, and market reach.

Discover how Spherex's cutting-edge AI-based platform can streamline your content classification process and enhance your market reach while reducing costs.

Visit spherex.com today and see how we can support your content distribution needs.

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nScreenNoise - Interview Spherex: Avoiding the cultural dead zone

Spherex

Culture

One of the conundrums of streaming is that although a service can deliver content globally, it is not guaranteed to be acceptable in a particular local market. Netflix found this out when it announced global availability in 2016 at CES and was quickly banned in markets like Indonesia, where some of the content was deemed too violent or sexual. In 2016, without boots on the ground in a local market, it wasn’t easy to assess whether a show or movie would be culturally acceptable.

Today, global media companies are acutely aware of the importance of their content’s cultural fit. Moreover, they have a company like Spherex to help them prepare their content to ensure it fits with any country of interest. I interviewed Teresa Phillips, the Co-Founder and CEO of Spherex, at the recent OTT.X Summit in Los Angeles. She explained how the company is leveraging AI and its massive cultural profiling database to help companies prepare content for target markets. She also explained how, in the near future, AI would aid the company in measuring a movie or show’s cultural distance from a regional market and help it avoid falling into the failure zone between cultural fit and novelty interest.

Listen to the full interview here.

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Spherex Featured in the DPP's IBC 2024: Demand versus Supply Report

Spherex

Industry

Spherex was featured in the DPP’s IBC 2024: Demand versus Supply Report, a comprehensive look at how the M&E industry is meeting key customer demands. The report focuses on the topics of empowering creators, understanding audiences, engaging users, and innovating the newsroom. It also highlights many of the technical innovations seen at the recent IBC Show.

An article by Spherex’s CEO Teresa Phillips titled "Navigating Cultural Resonance in Global Media: The Art and Science of Culture Mixing" was featured in the report, exploring how Spherex is pioneering the future of culturally informed content.

Teresa shares how cultural mixing has become a critical strategy for creating content that appeals to diverse audiences in today's global media landscape. This phenomenon involves blending elements from different cultures to craft films and television shows that resonate globally while adhering to local regulations.

However, the process of culture mixing is fraught with risks. Superficial or stereotypical representations can lead to accusations of cultural appropriation or insensitivity, alienating audiences and damaging a company's reputation. For example, imposing Western concepts on Eastern content without proper context can feel inauthentic and jarring to local viewers. These missteps highlight the need for a nuanced understanding of cultural elements to ensure that content is respectful and engaging.

To address these challenges, M&E companies are increasingly turning to data-driven solutions. Platforms like SpherexAI utilize artificial intelligence to analyze visual, audio, and textual elements, providing insights into how well content aligns with cultural and regulatory standards across over 200 countries and territories. This approach helps media companies understand the "cultural distance" between a title's origin and its target market, enabling them to make informed decisions about global distribution.

By leveraging these advanced tools, M&E companies can go beyond traditional content localization. They can create media that actively engages and resonates with diverse audiences. As the industry continues to evolve, those companies that embrace culturally informed, data-driven approaches will be better positioned to succeed, fostering cross-cultural understanding and trust while delivering globally appealing content.

Download the report here.

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