𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘹 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦: 7 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘴🕒
As many as 80% of 18 – 25-year-old TV viewers said they use subtitles ‘all of part of the time’, according to Stagetext figures.
It feels like you see subtitles everywhere now. But how did they originate?
Subtitles are the written representation of the audio in any form of moving picture, from a Hollywood blockbuster to a YouTube video on how to replace your spark plugs.
They were originally used in the 1900s in the first cinematic films; the silent nature of these movies meant that filmmakers needed to add a little explanation of the action to keep the audience engaged.
Once audio became possible in film and television, subtitles became a tool for accessibility, allowing those with hearing difficulties to understand the on-screen action. (From our experience in hundreds of subtitling projects, this is our favourite bit when we get to make content more inclusive.)
While this is still the primary function of subtitles, the explosion in the number of screens we use (as well as the amount of video content we now absorb) has seen subtitles become more frequently-used than ever, for a whole host of reasons. Indeed, 80% of 18 – 25-year-old TV viewers said they use subtitles ‘all of part of the time’, according to Stagetext figures.
If you are creating video content of any type, adding subtitles is certainly something to consider. It can boost the accessibility of your content, the attention your audience pays to it and even how much Google likes it. Read on to find out everything you need to know about adding subtitles to your video content.
Different types of subtitles
There are three main types of video subtitling services: open caption, closed caption and SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing). The type you choose will depend on the purpose of your videos and your intended audience. We’ll expand more on this later, but first we’ll quickly define each type of subtitling.
Open caption subtitling
This is when the subtitles you create are permanently ‘burned in’ to your video, i.e. they can’t be turned off. In most cases, this is a decision you’ll make at the design stage of the filmmaking process, as you may need to leave space on screen for the words. (They aren’t always positioned at the bottom of the screen).
This video below from the BBC, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer talks about caring for his late brother, is a good example of this:
https://x.com/BBCNews/status/1941001776838414799/video/1
Closed caption subtitling
Typically offered as an option on DVDs, and more recently streaming services such as Netflix and BBC iPlayer, closed caption subtitles are the kind you’ll probably be most familiar with. These are the subtitles that can be turned on or off, and will almost always appear in one or two lines of text at the bottom of the screen.
SDH subtitles
These subtitles are similar to closed caption subtitling in that they are optional, and will usually appear at the bottom of the screen. The difference is that they have been created specifically with a deaf or hard of hearing audience in mind, and so will describe other audible details as well as the words, in order to help the audience understand the action or mood of the scene. For example, an SDH subtitle might read ‘sad music plays’, or ‘indistinct chatter’. This type of subtitling is most common on films, where action other than the words is important.
AI subtitles
This is a quicker and cheaper way to get your subtitles.
The big bonus point is that it makes media accessibility, more accessible and easier than ever.
That being said, not every project is suited to automation, we’ll always advise where professional human subtitling may be the best option.
For example, if accuracy is paramount in a video, then it’s best to avoid AI subtitles. In our experience, accuracy rates can vary between 70 – 85%, depending on the accent and audio quality.
But if you want to make light-hearted social media explainer videos more accessible, AI subtitles could be a great option here.
How is subtitling done?
With human subtitles, the first step in the subtitling process is to transcribe the audio from the video. This simply means writing it out word for word. Once this document has been created, a subtitler will consider how best to use this text to create the most effective subtitles possible.
Importantly, this isn’t always about copying the text word for word into subtitles. There are some fairly strict limitations with regards to character limit and the time a subtitle must remain on screen (more on these later), and so a subtitler’s role is often to represent the words in the most accurate way, while cutting it down to meet the restrictions. This requires a high degree of linguistic skill, and it is why we would always recommend working with a human subtitling agency over any subtitling software.
If the video is to be viewed in other languages, then the final stage is to translate the subtitles into these languages.
Again, the benefits of the human touch at this stage cannot be overestimated; translation software might give a literal, word for word translation, but will miss the nuances such as humour, or the meaning of any idioms that might appear in the text. This ‘localisation’ of your subtitles that a skilled translator will add will enable your videos to really engage your overseas audiences.
Why use subtitles?
Whether the purpose of your video is to entertain, inform or sell your product (or indeed all three!) there are good reasons for adding captions. Four of the most common are:
Accessibility
The first, and perhaps most important reason for subtitling is still to make your content accessible for those who are deaf and hard of heading. Indeed, if you are making content for television you may well find subtitles are a legal requirement (Netflix were sued back in 2011 for not providing adequate subtitling on their content).
More than 18 million adults in the UK are deaf, having hearing loss or tinnitus. That’s nearly one in four people. You could be ignoring a chunk of your audience if you don’t provide subtitling.
SEO
SEO, or search engine optimisation is the name given to the process of helping your website or online content to achieve a high ranking in search engines. Including video content on your website is a great way to boost your SEO, because it increases dwell time, raises click-through rates and increases user engagement. Also, including a transcript gives the search engines more to read.
Audiences agree: a survey by HubSpot found that 72% of customers would rather watch a video than read text on a screen.
Use a few well-placed keywords within your subtitles and you’re helping Google, Bing and the like recognise you as a key player in your field.
Engagement
Subtitling notably increases the engagement with your videos.
For example, captioned videos on Discovery Digital Networks’ YouTube videos found that videos that were captioned had an overall increase in views by ~7.32% in views compared with un-captioned ones, data from 3Play Media suggests.
If you think about social media videos, it could be a person watching on the go, and subtitles enables them to consume the content without earphones or turning on the volume.
And on Facebook, nearly three in four consumers (74%) watch videos on Facebook with no sound, research shows.
International reach
Of course, a major reason for subtitling is to deliver your message to an audience who don’t speak your language. It can be easy for English speakers to assume that the world, and the Internet all understand English. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, less than 400 million people worldwide have English as their first language. Combine that with the fact that 76% of online consumers prefer to buy in their native language, then it becomes clear why subtitling translation is such an important marketing tool.
If you are looking to reach an international audience, then you may well need translation and subtitling services. Just as we wouldn’t recommend using auto-subtitling features, we would advise businesses to steer clear from the auto-translate plugins you can get such as srt translator, as they can miss the nuances of language. To really make sure your message gets across, you need subtitling and translation with localisation, which is the process of adapting language to make sure it fits the target culture.
Which type of subtitling does my content require?
While there are no hard and fast rules for this, generally speaking you will want to use open caption subtitling for social media videos, to make sure that the words are always seen (AI subtitles works for some social media videos). If your videos are intended for YouTube video, closed captioning is the better option, as users can turn them on and off as required, and you can include multilingual subtitle options on a single video.
If you know that your content is for an audience with hearing impairments, then you will need to follow guidelines for SDH subtitling.
If you are hosting a live event, you may require live captioning services.
Conclusion
We hope this guide has proved a useful introduction to subtitling, and has answered some of your questions around why your videos may need captions, as well as the process you might go through to achieve this.
At VoiceBox, we offer professional captioning and subtitling translation services in over 220 languages. If you’d like to find out more about how we could help your company add subtitles to your video content, get in touch and speak to one of our team or explore our subtitling services in more detail.