Content...But People Everywhere Want Localized Content from Everywhere

  "I know the Dewey Decimal System, Library of Congress, research paper orthodoxy, web searching. I can set up an RSS feed..." – The Librarian: "Quest for the Spear," TNT, 2004

Every so often, back in "the old" pay TV days, we'd get in the family room first and get the TV remote control ... not real often, but sometimes

That meant we could search through the hundreds of obscure channels that were there seemingly to make us think we were getting a helluva' deal ... 500 channels for only $100.

There were rare times when we struck gold with a Godzilla movie from the â??50s.

The big lumbering dude had a really bad case of psoriasis or shingles. Was never quite certain.

But we enjoyed it because it wasn't the same stuff we saw from Hollywood, but a film created and produced by professionals outside the US with a unique perspective.

Yeah, the dubbing sucked with the lip movement and words being many seconds apart; but hey, it was Godzilla.

Yeah, but we've always thought the best way to understand that we're all different but the same was to see the films/shows the way they were locally produced and mentally stumbling/translating what was said.

Streaming has taken a lot of that fun out of our earlier endless search for a good foreign film because they've increased their production/acquisition of content from other countries.

Now they're ... everywhere!

Lots of folks like to say that the rise in global content is because of the dual strikes (WGA/SAG–AFTRA) in the US last year.

Yes, the disagreement did bring the creative machine in the Americas to a halt.

 Drop–off – Content creation in the Americas came to a sudden halt during the dual strikes as studios/networks looked outside for fresh, new content.

In fact, it cost the industry and economy an estimated $6B and 45,000 jobs in addition to setting project delivery back at least six months.

But even before the temporary output vacuum, the major streamers – Netflix, Amazon, Disney, WBD, Apple, others – were making major content development investments around the globe.

Constantly chipping away at the pay TV motherlode, they had reached the tipping point where more than 80+ percent of the households in the Americas had one or more streaming video services.

According to Hub Research, the average number of streaming services in a household was six and folks were staying within their entertainment budget by simply adding/dropping services based on the available "new" content.

At the same time, folks in the Americas sounded the death toll for the cable bundle industry or what FX's John Landgraf, has been forecasting for several years the shrinkage of what he named peak TV.

He boldly predicted the peak TV demise back in 2016 saying that it had begun when Netflix first offered its infant streaming video service to folks without ads for $8/mo.

While the former red envelope company initially built up its viewing library with acquisitions and licensed content from all of the major studios, it was the release of their first major "gotta see" series House of Cards that really set the cord cutting wheels in motion.

That followed by shows such as Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Mad Men accelerated the number of households that dropped – often with a lot of pushbacks from cable services – their bundles for lower–cost any screen, anytime, anywhere entertainment.

Studios and network parent companies rushed to get in on the action of taking back their content and rushed to build their subscriber base as rapidly as possible regardless of cost.

That was not only tough because the network and streaming services often bid against each other as to which one got the budget for new projects to launch new shows/movies in their respective services.

Source - Simpsons, Fox

Increasingly, the streaming service got the budget/project.

In many instances, that even resulted in straight to streaming for films or theatrical windows so the parent corporation could show Wall Street a steady rise in subscriptions despite significant red ink on the bottom–line.

That wasn't an either/or situation that the tech streamers (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple) really had to make, even though they often did set aside token theatrical windows. But that was only to meet the arcane film award rules that said a movie isn't really a movie worthy of being considered for a statue unless it appeared first in theaters.

It's true, Amazon and Apple don't show how much profit – or loss – they have with their streaming service; but as long as they keep developing and acquiring stellar projects like The Burial, Air, CODA, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, Emancipation and more; if they're happy ... we're happy.

But Netflix has clearly been the streaming service most in sync with their audience's entertainment wants/needs ... often even before they know themselves.

They, and the other globally focused streaming services, also knew or quickly realized that to be an entertainment service of choice around the world, they needed to really be global with more non–US films/shows (and subscribers).

They had saturated the streaming market in the Americas with more than 80+ percent of the households reporting they had at least one subscription service.

They were simply fighting each other for the attention of the same people, which was expensive and, in many ways, counterproductive.

To acquire viewers in the other 194 countries, the first hurdle is to abide by the countries rules just as they do in their home country.

Whether it's an old–fashioned cable or today's growing streaming service, that means you have to produce 30 +/– percent of the content locally because all of the countries want to develop and nurture their own creative content creation/production industry.

It is true that the US is the oldest and largest film/show production/consumption industry in the world. According to IMAC Group, it was estimated to be worth $193B last year and growing to nearly $503B by 2032.

But the global market is estimated to be worth $304B plus this year, according to BRC, and is expected to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 13.5 percent through 2030.

The movie industries around the globe are each identified by their own unique names – Dhallywood (Bangladesh), Follywood (Sri Lanka), Lollywood (Pakistan), Ghollywood (Ghana), Nollywood (Nigeria) Swahiliwood (Tanzania), Riverwood (Kenya), Chinawood (China), Chollywood (Peru), Aussiewood (Australia), Hallyuwood (South Korea) and more.

It should come as no surprise that the creatives want to have their films/shows seen/enjoyed by local and neighboring country folks.

But they also want their creative work seen by people in the larger content consumption countries – (in descending order) – the US, China, Japan, India, the UK and beyond.

Streaming video services have not only made that possible but have produced a growing consumer interest in watching more non–English/foreign–language content.

Netflix, with a solid footing in 192 countries and relationships with some of the best creative/production organizations, has been able to tap into these sources for local, regional and international distribution.

The same is true of Amazon with presence in 190 countries, Disney+ and Apple TV+ are available in nearly every country and the other major services are ... working on it.

Netflix found that while globally, people signed up for the streaming service to watch their shows/films on laptops, desktops and smartphones, most spent the majority of their viewing time in front of a TV set.

Yes, bigger is better!

But the key has always been (and will always be) the content – show, movie.

In the US market, it was a simple matter for a network to acquire a foreign project and subtitle or dub the project in English.

Fine, but the US audience isn't all Caucasian (actually, a shrinking minority) and English while most commonly used is not the native tongue of many citizens.

And when it comes to distributing content created in the Americas, English definitely isn't the native tongue.

"James Cameron ensured that the blockbuster Avatar: The Way of Water, could be viewed and enjoyed by everyone on the planet, by having the film tailored and localized with 1,065 versions including dubbing the film in the local language," said Allan McLennan, President of 2G Digital Post.

"Even though it was a tremendous undertaking with some of the AI tools. Without that integration, it could have been budget prohibitive (both time and costs) if each aspect was done manually with detailed facial manipulation and local vocal actors. Integrating in certain aspects of AI enabled the film to run an initial look and feel. Then original content using the human touch provided a look and feel as though it had been created locally whether people were watching it in India, Germany, Italy, Ghana, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea or in England or Australia (their version of English is a little different)."

Streaming has shown that people – regardless of the country – have a voracious viewing appetite for first–run or recently released titles and according to Parrot Analytics, 67 percent of Gen Z/millennials want to watch foreign language films.

Bong Joon Ho's Oscar winning Parasite showed that people had gotten past the perceived "one–inch barrier" and that good/great content appealed to international audiences regardless of where it was produced or the original language.

Netflix validated the viewer demand with foreign language productions includingem Squid Game, Money Heist and All Quiet on the Western Front.

McLennan noted that each had subtitles and audio dubs and still garnered record–breaking audiences.

Source – EndersAnalyisis

 Local Plus – While the largest share of video content viewed in the Americas was produced in the US and Canada, Netflix and others were able to economically offer diverse messages from other countries.

A recent Parrot Analytics viewer behavior analysis found that 8 out of 10 Netflix shows were foreign language titles and that foreign title viewing has surged on Disney+ and Apple TV+.

"Foreign titles have not only help fill the content gap caused by the Hollywood strikes," McLennan commented, "as there was a pent–up demand to watch great content regardless of its country of origin or year produced."

"And the interest continues to grow," he continued. "The last time I looked at their library more than half (52.6 percent) were foreign language productions and it's increasingly becoming the norm for all of the major streaming video services.

"It could be a continuing trend," he added. "Because the creative and production quality is equally high, and can be easily and economically localized, and streamers/studios are realizing that the content production cost can be potentially lower than the same project produced in Hollywood.

"But that doesn't mean that content production will fall off in the Americas, because the film/show production/distribution pipeline flows in both directions," McLennan emphasized. "People in other countries are just as anxious to see video stories produced in the Americas as we are to see the work they have produced.

"AI localization tools have helped made it somewhat faster, easier and initially economic for the streaming services to help meet the global demand," he concluded.

According to Statista, film/TV content spending will surpass $247B this year and there appears to be no end in sight.

Nearly every production studio/set is booked solid for the next two years and there are new facilities under construction across the US, Canada, UK and Europe.

As Stan Lee, famed former head of Marvel Comics and co–creator of a treasure trove of superheroes, said, "Entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Without it, they might go off the deep end."

That's a fact! And as Flynn Carson said as he searched the library for great content, "I don't get facts wrong! It's everything else I screw up."

The genre of shows/films we may want to watch may differ, but people around the globe need good/great video entertainment.

It's important to us.
 

Andy Marken – andy@markencom.com – is an author of more than 800 articles on management, marketing, communications, industry trends in media & entertainment, consumer electronics, software, and applications. An internationally recognized marketing/communications consultant with a broad range of technical and industry expertise especially in storage, storage management and film/video production fields; he has an extended range of relationships with business, industry trade press, online media, and industry analysts/consultants.