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Posted:
May 20, 2022

How Content Culturalization Reduces Localization Headaches

During Netflix Q4 2021 earnings call, COO and Chief Product Officer Greg Peters revealed the company “subtitled 7 million run-time minutes in '21 and dubbed 5 million run-time minutes” of content to reach their 222 million subscribers worldwide. That’s 116,666 hours of subtitles and 83,333 hours of dubs they produced before releasing titles anywhere across their 192-territory footprint. That’s a massive undertaking.

Those familiar with the process know “subs and dubs” are done by separate teams of people simultaneously. Those teams include translators, editors, proofreaders, managers, producers, quality control, and others responsible for ensuring stories are translated accurately in various languages and are appropriate in as many diverse cultures worldwide as possible.

Kudos to Netflix for investing in the content that requires localization and for taking on the challenge of preparing it for global markets. But as we have shown, linguistic skills are only part of the equation. Familiarity with local culture is crucial when conveying scene or dialogue nuance in the final product. Still, not everyone has that knowledge, and it’s not always caught before a title is released.

Netflix’s remake of “Perfect Strangers” is an excellent example of how being aware of cultural or contextual issues can affect audience acceptance of a title. Released in the Middle East on January 20, the film immediately drew fire from many in the region. Because it included a gay character, some claimed critics felt the film promoted homosexuality and “moral degradation.” One critic on Twitter said Netflix “has an agenda to spread ‘deviant ideas’ to ‘normalize false ideas.’” It’s such a serious issue that lawyers in Egypt have called for an outright ban of the film or face a lawsuit against the country’s Culture Ministry. In its story on the controversy, the Hollywood Reporter said, “few would have anticipated the immediate wave of controversy it would provoke.”

Given the history of cultural sensitivities and censorship in the region to LGTBQ+ and promiscuous sexual references, the controversy should have been anticipated. Awareness of these concerns in this and other markets is not as widespread as it needs to be. Improvements must be made to incorporate what we call “culturalization” into the localization process.

Incorporating Spherex services and technologies into post-production localization efforts, culturalization offers a proven solution for preventing these types of problems. Based on the analysis of millions of titles, Spherexgreenlight™ will flag potential issues, including sexuality, morality, violence, and cultural sensitivity. Hence, the producer or localization service provider knows precisely which scene may cause problems in any market worldwide.

Netflix now must deal with the negative press and reputational hit. Indeed, some in the region think of them as a company “that spreads poisons.” Who knows what this means for future titles Netflix wants to release in the region and the willingness of regulators to allow them to exhibit? From both a legal and marketing context, it’s better to know when problems may arise before they happen.

Unfamiliarity with local culture and customs may have been what Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann alluded to when he said during their earnings call, “Entertainment is still fundamentally pretty local around the world. So, it's global and local, and we need to figure that out.” The good news is that tools and techniques are available to make localization more accurate, culturally respectful, and appropriate. It is easier to avoid being hit by the proverbial bus when you know the route it takes.

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Spherex Expands AI Product to Power Contextual Advertising

Spherex, which offers video content compliance and analysis for the media and entertainment industry, has expanded its flagship product, SpherexAI, to power contextual advertising.

The new feature enables advertisers to target audiences more precisely based on the cultural and emotional context surrounding the content they are viewing to maximize campaign effectiveness, according to Spherex.

SpherexAI’s multimodal platform analyzes streaming video by evaluating thousands of visual, audio, dialogue, and on-screen text signals to generate scene-level metadata. This scene-level intelligence helps advertisers match ads at the right moment based on the mood, theme, and tone of the content to strengthen connections with audiences, according to Spherex.

SpherexAI further allows advertisers to deliver more relevant ads within content, ensuring cultural sensitivity and brand safety, according to the company.

“Leveraging its patented Cultural Knowledge Graph, SpherexAI helps advertisers tailor campaigns for audiences in any market, ensuring they align with local market regulations and cultural norms across more than 200 countries and territories,” according to a Spherex press release. “Spherex’s deep understanding of regional values and local sensitivities enables advertisers to convey culturally relevant messages while avoiding ad placements in potentially controversial or offensive scenes, reducing the risk of backlash that could harm a brand’s reputation.”

According to the company, SpherexAI uniquely enables advertisers to:

  • Ensure Strategic Ad Placement: Scene-level intelligence understands key moments within scenes, enabling ads to be positioned precisely when viewers are most emotionally receptive, increasing engagement and effectiveness.
  • Boost Engagement and Recall: By identifying context at the scene level before the break, ads seamlessly integrate into the storytelling experience, reinforcing brand messages rather than disrupting them.
  • Scale Across Global Markets: SpherexAI is the only platform with global cultural intelligence to accurately predict how local audiences perceive video content in more than 200 countries and territories, aligning with local values, norms, and cultural expectations.
  • Enhance Brand Safety: SpherexAI prevents ad placement in contexts that may be inappropriate, offensive, or conflict with brand values or cultural sensitivities.

“Spherex is leveraging its expertise in video compliance to help advertisers navigate the complexities of brand safety and monetization,” Teresa Phillips, CEO of Spherex, said in a statement. “SpherexAI is the only solution that blends scene-level intelligence with deep cultural and emotional insights, giving advertisers a powerful tool to ensure strategic ad placement and engagement.”

Spherex will demo SpherexAI at Booth W1456 at NAB 2025 in Las Vegas. To book a meeting and demonstration at NAB, visit the Spherex Booking page.

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