Last month, ten founding companies and 50 forming companies announced the formation of the Entertainment Globalization Association to create a closer connection to the creative community to better facilitate the retelling of their stories for global audiences. Globalization is defined as dubbing, subtitling, and audio description services, which allow content to be consumed in languages other than the original version. The EGA’s ten founding companies are Audiomaster Candiani, Deluxe, Hiventy, Iyuno Media Group, Keywords Studios, Plint, SDI Media, Visual Data Media Services, VSI, and Zoo Digital. The additional 50 companies represent high caliber service providers from all around the world. Chris Fetner was named managing director of the association. Before joining the EGA, Fetner led Netflix's content localization vendor strategy for nearly a decade and is widely regarded as an industry transformer among entertainment localization companies. "I feel incredibly fortunate to be given the opportunity to work with these leaders in localization,” he said when the EGA formation was announced. “Every company in the association is an outstanding contributor to sharing stories globally, and I'm excited to see how we can all work together to help creatives share their stories more broadly." A few days after that initial announcement I spoke with Fetner by email to get a better picture of what the EGA is and what he and his members hope to accomplish.
Digital Cinema Report: To begin, what was the impetus for creating the EGA?
Chris Fetner: I had planned on retiring when I left Netflix, but in talking with some of my former vendor partners, it became clear that entertainment localization was on the verge of explosive growth and incredible stress that will accompany it and they were facing this without the benefit of a forum to collaborate. So, it seemed like a great way to stay involved and help organize collaboration and innovation with my experience and skills in strategy.
DCR: Why is now the right time for this organization?
CF: Streaming! There is so much growth in streaming and it's being accelerated by COVID-19. Studios that have seen huge losses in theatres are pulling streaming efforts forward. In order for these platforms to grow without completely eroding their other businesses they need to be global. You can't win customers in a material way without giving viewers content in their language and at a quality level that's consistent with the English version. It sounds cliched, but localization is an essential business for global streaming.
DCR: How do you define the terms globalization and localization?
CF: To me globalization is everything needed to enable commerce of international distribution, the meta-data, title translation, packaging, cover art, marketing material, etc. Localization is a piece of that, but not everything. Localization is very much a retelling of the story in a different language and culture. So it's very much about the content itself. It should be much closer to the creatives; they are both important, but one is about the commerce of the IP and the other is the IP for that region.
DCR: Can you quantify the impact that quality subtitles or dubbing can have on a film or television program’s bottom line?
CF: If you're clever with data and have a good understanding of engagement with regards to the original version, then yes. By looking at a combination of several data vectors, you can correlate the delta of engagement and attribute it to the quality of localized assets. It's not absolute, but is directionally relevant.
DCR: What impact has your experience at Netflix had on how you intend to manage the EGA?
CF: I have gained a huge insight into the importance of localization for streaming platforms and the stories they share globally. I hope to leverage this to the betterment of both the localization industry, but also to streamers that are preparing their businesses for international growth. Lastly, it all starts with great content, and supporting creative storytelling. This is something I think Netflix does exceptionally well. So starting and ending with storytelling will be a foundation for EGA.
DCR: The EGA started with sixty member companies around the world. Do you expect to add more companies to the association?
CF: We do and have.Today we are approaching 80 companies and expect that by Q1 any company that considers themselves a serious, professional supplier of localization for entertainment will be participating.
DCR: Where is the EGA headquartered?
CF: As you can imagine, we're all virtual presently, but we'll be looking at securing office space in Burbank in the near future. We are global in terms of members so we expect to do about half our of events on an annual basis internationally.
DCR: If a person or company is interested in joining the EGA, what should they do?
CF: Qualifying members can join on our website at https://www.egassociation.org/join-today
DCR: When the pandemic is over, will the EGA host conferences?
CF: We have a whole slate of proposed activities. It's doubtful in the immediate future we'd have our own conference, but rather participate in others where we see synergies. But we do have other outreach and seminars planned that would be targeted at member groups like the Producers Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America and organizations we feel will benefit from having more insights into localization.