The Secret Spice for Global Content: SpherexAI

How Spherex technologies assess your content's cultural fit for global audiences

Have you ever eaten something unique at a restaurant and wondered, and maybe even asked, what the chef did that made it so good?

Of course, you have.

Not surprisingly, if you asked, you learned that chefs rarely reveal their secrets. To them, it's better to whet your appetite and have you return to the restaurant rather than spill the beans. Movie tech is no different.

We've written before about how good Spherex greenlight™ is at preparing video titles or games for an international release. Since releasing it earlier this year, the industry's reaction to Spherexgreenlight™ has been remarkable. Their response has also provided insights into potential customers' questions about its underlying technology. Like a good chef, we'll share enough of the ingredients so you keep coming back.

First Ingredient: Find the spice

The effectiveness of any AI/ML product depends on the quality of the data upon which it is built. To create Spherexgreenlight™, Spherex mined thousands of policy manuals, historical literature, current affairs, and judiciary decisions on sensitive topics (LGBTQ, sexual violence, self-harm, blasphemy, etc.). This knowledge provided a deep, comprehensive library of data to facilitate curation accurately. Using that knowledge, we analyzed millions of titles for all relevant events, created a detailed, metadata-rich cultural database (what we call the Spherex Cultural Playbook), and used our combined knowledge to train the AI engine that powers Spherexgreenlight™.

Second Ingredient: A matter of degree

The intensity of events within titles occurs in a matter of degrees; how death is conveyed impacts how regulators or audiences respond to it. Is death the result of natural causes, an accident, or violence? Is it inferred to occur in the shadows or plain sight? Is it quick and painless, or drawn out and agonizing? Is it a one-off, or is it consistent? What about blood? Is there a little or a lot? If drugs are present, why are they being used, and how much? The degree to which these events occur significantly impacts age ratings.

Last Ingredient: The final cut

The critical component is the content itself, for it is the culmination of all the ingredients: the script, actors, locations, action, language, and music mixed and simmered together and delivered to the audience. Stories are not just a series of sentences. They are paragraphs made up of sentences that must be analyzed in full context. That is how regulators will view the content. The combination of millions of bits of this information provides the substance for an expert-in-the-loop title annotation.

Spherexgreenlight™ AI/ML analyzes the title and provides a second-by-second breakdown of events within it that regulators or audiences may find objectionable. It presents them as an easily viewable and clearly understood UI that informs directors and editors where issues may arise‚Äîall in seconds. To see how this works in real-time, watch this video.

Order's up: Delivering market intelligence

The successful preparation and distribution of your content drives monetization and largely determines whether you get to make another title. Knowing in advance how regulators or the audience will respond to different events in your title is tremendously important intelligence to have as you go from production to post-production to distribution.

If you're involved in film or TV production or distribution, you owe it to your content to discover how Spherexgreenlight™ can help you.

Spherex will be at American Film Market (AFM) November 1-6 in Santa Monica, and CTAM Think on November 3 at Convene in New York City, so if you are attending, please make a point to stop by and see it for yourself.

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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