In the past few years, the online streaming of movies and shows has become increasingly popular. As the leading global streaming service with 117.5 million subscribers globally (Statista3), and 0.5 million in Finland alone (Heyman 2015), and with yearly revenue of over 11 billion US dollars and expected to grow (Netflix4 2018), it would be expected that the quality of the service would follow and reach the acceptable level Netflix has announced they would pursue (Netflix5). Finland has a long tradition of subtitling foreign programs (Luova 2010), and while the commissioners seem to value quantity over quality in subtitling shows and movies, it would be recommended that the audience would become more eager to give feedback (both negative and positive) on the subtitling, so the commissioners would begin valuing quality (Heikkilä 2014). This is further enforced by Remael (2010:15) mentioning that the new and improved technology with the socioeconomic developments may enhance the production processes of audiovisual translations, but concurrently decrease the AV translators status as the focus from quality shifts to quality. It can be argued that once the AV translators receive the credit they are due (better pay and better working conditions), the quality of subtitling can only improve.
For this MA Thesis, I wanted to study the quality of Netflix subtitling through translation errors. As I had previously studied the translation errors in Netflix by using the subtitling in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as an example, and come to the conclusion that one of the defining factors of the series when streamed from Netflix is the plethora of translation errors found in the subtitling (Ponkala 2016), I wanted to extend the research by including Netflix Original content and its quality as an additional aspect. The reason for this was that I wanted to examine if the translation quality would be improved when taking the added investment and its purpose into account. Netflix Original content is one of the most notable ways Netflix attempts to retain its status as the world‟s leading streaming subscription service, the initial assumption was that the attempt would extend to subtitling in order to gain and retain global success. Furthermore, as Netflix has announced that it has worked towards improving the subtitling quality as a result of its global success (Netflix5), it is interesting to study if the level has been reached yet. As subtitling is an important factor of viewing experience for audiences viewing foreign content, it was assumed that when Netflix invests as largely as it does on Original content in order to gain global success, the viewers‟ needs and expectations on subtitling quality would have been taken into consideration and acted upon.
As was discovered, the critique Netflix has received has been considered and improvements
89 have been made within the service‟s internal guidelines and quality expectations. However, as even though the subtitling quality on Gilmore Girls revealed to be of higher quality than Buffy the Vampire Slayer when comparing the translation errors found in the subtitling, the overall quality of subtitling is still not at an acceptable level. Furthermore, the overall poor quality of subtitling extended to not only to the non-Original episodes, but to the Original episodes as well.
Even though some of the errors found in the subtitling might seem minor, and raise a question on whether the subtitling quality and viewing experience would even be affected by them, examining the errors in their context, as was done in the first part of the analysis (subsection 5.1) shows that when the erroneous translations are in conflict with the general purpose of audiovisual translation, conveying the essence of the original content in an accurate way (see, for example, Vertanen 2007b, Immonen 2005, discussed in subsection 2.1.). Furthermore, as subtitling could be deemed as a product produced for a purpose, the customers‟ satisfaction and expectations should be held at a high standard, by providing the customers with a product that is not only adequate, but serves it purpose well (Chiaro 2008:
250), by conveying the original content accurately and adhering to the demands set by long tradition and viewers‟ expectations. Additionally, whether the translation error is noticed by the viewer or not should not be deemed as the sole criterion for evaluating translation errors and their effect on quality, as the impact of a translation error goes beyond the viewer noticing that something was translated poorly (see, for example, Mäkelä 2016, Vehmas-Lehto 2005, discussed in section 2).
Instead of criticizing the individual translators as the sole culprits of the unacceptable quality, further investigation should be pointed towards the production process of subtitling. If the compensation AV translators receive from their work is as low as has been suggested (Mäkelä 2016), the status of AV translators is as low as claimed, and the production process remains similar to the production processes discussed in subsection 2.1.3., the results discovered in this study are not surprising. Therefore, in order to improve the aspects of the production processes that affect the AV translators‟ working conditions, the critique should be addressed to the entire production process, not just the individual translators.
To improve the quality of subtitling, one frequently mentioned means in the studies (including Heikkilä 2014, Vertanen 2007b) was feedback from viewers. As the customers of a service, the viewers should be able to expect the subtitling to be of good-quality, and therefore the customers‟ satisfaction to a service they pay for should be expressed. The feedback required from the viewers is not limited to complaining about
90 mistakes, however, but to expressing their satisfaction, too. As the commissioners appear to still value quantity over quality in subtitling, feedback from customers would be a good reminder that the quality of subtitling should not be forgotten (Heikkilä 2014). Therefore, Netflix announcing that it has listened to the critique it has received and made improvements shows that the viewers do have their place in the subtitling production process.
Improving the subtitling quality on Netflix is still an on-going process. Even though the subtitling would still not reach the acceptable level of quality discussed by O‟Brien (2012), Netflix announcing that the critique has been noted and improvements have been made shows promise. Furthermore, it should be noted that as the percentage of erroneous translations in the subtitling of Gilmore Girls was 7.1, the corresponding number in the subtitling of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was 38.8 (Ponkala 2016: 16), indicating that the improvements have not been insignificant. Therefore, examining how improvements made after the research material of this study, such as the HERMES test, affect the subtitling quality on Netflix could provide further information on both the evolvement of subtitling quality on Netflix, and how much broadcasting networks are able to impact on the quality of subtitling they receive from subtitling production companies.
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