FUTURE #2: GLOBAL BY DESIGN
Drop date: Monday, July 21, 2025
FUTURE #2: GLOBAL BY DESIGN
Drop date: Monday, July 21, 2025
Most “global” strategies are just American content with subtitles. And it shows.
Different regions don’t just need different dubs. They need different rhythms. Different cuts. Different expectations of pacing, character, voice, and stakes.
But most pipelines aren’t built to allow for that—until it’s too late. And then localization becomes a scramble.
It gets layered on after final creative is locked. After the marketing has shipped. After compliance starts flagging territory-specific issues. At that point, it’s not localization. It’s duct tape.
If you’re serious about global scale, “localization” isn’t a post process. It’s a design principle.
At MTV, we built global event coverage with same-day turnaround cutdowns for Europe, South America, and Asia. That only worked because the workflows were mapped before the first shot. We didn’t wait to “see what version we’d need.” We started with the assumption that no single version would be enough.
This isn't just about language. It’s about cultural translation. A cut that plays clean in São Paulo might feel flat in Seoul. A joke that lands in Johannesburg might fall apart in Berlin. Sound mix, pacing, even the ratio of spoken vs. visual storytelling—all of it shifts by market.
But instead of building pipelines that expect divergence, most teams pretend one size fits all, and then rush to retrofit when it clearly doesn’t.
When I see localization done well, it’s almost invisible. Because the system is set up to expect variation—culturally, structurally, and technically. It builds in space for that shift before a single frame is cut.
And when it fails? It fails in exactly the same places every time:
Subtitles delivered after the embargo lifts
Multiple VO passes stitched together mid-campaign
Platforms re-rendering locked cuts to meet local standards
Late-stage feedback from non-English reviewers with no time to implement
What This Looks Like in Practice
Netflix / Global Simultaneous Localization
Netflix preps 20–30+ language versions in parallel before launch. Dubbing, subtitles, and metadata are handled by region from day one.
(Source: Netflix Tech Blog)MTV / Multi-Territory Reversioning
Live and pre-taped content is delivered through a global format engine, with local editors adapting pacing, inserts, and language per market.
(Source: firsthand experience)EBU / Rai Modular Editing
Italian broadcaster Rai, working through the EBU’s Modular Content and Segmentation Group, is piloting modular workflows to re-cut live content for platform-specific distribution and youth audiences.
(Source: EBU Modular Content)
This isn’t a problem of complexity. It’s a problem of will. Localization doesn’t need to be slower or harder—it needs to be upstream.
Localization isn’t a service layer. It’s an operating system.
Next week: Immersive + Interactive Foundations.