It really comes down to cost. Dubbing isn't super expensive, a few dollars a minute. But the cost varies wildly depending on the language. Dubbing Spanish to English or French to German is relatively cheap, because there are a lot of people available. But the pool of people able to dub South Korean into Norwegian is much smaller, so it's more expensive.
Netflix has taken the attitude that they'll spend the money because it's the best way to get people to watch global programming. There will often be a dozen different audio dub options, which is expensive.
One interesting sidenote is that both Netflix and Prime Video are now dubbing programs into multiple languages for India, which is new for both of them. But it's a big selling point to having a TV show in a local dialect.
Thank you! I am always surprised when shows aren’t dubbed into English. It seems an obvious choice, especially given that English is such a widely used language or second language.
Can you explain the logic behind when shows are/are not dubbed in English? What decision structure do Prime/Netflix use in making this decision?
It really comes down to cost. Dubbing isn't super expensive, a few dollars a minute. But the cost varies wildly depending on the language. Dubbing Spanish to English or French to German is relatively cheap, because there are a lot of people available. But the pool of people able to dub South Korean into Norwegian is much smaller, so it's more expensive.
Netflix has taken the attitude that they'll spend the money because it's the best way to get people to watch global programming. There will often be a dozen different audio dub options, which is expensive.
One interesting sidenote is that both Netflix and Prime Video are now dubbing programs into multiple languages for India, which is new for both of them. But it's a big selling point to having a TV show in a local dialect.
Thank you! I am always surprised when shows aren’t dubbed into English. It seems an obvious choice, especially given that English is such a widely used language or second language.