Screen Time: What You Need to Know About Multimedia Localization

Businesses are communicating through video more often than ever, and production is increasing each year. Between our global pivot to digital mediums, mobile-first video, and the emergence of AI, there’s a lot of content filling our screens and more coming every day.

We’re talking big numbers. Global spending on entertainment and media was $3.5 trillion in 2025 and is projected to reach $4.2 trillion by 2030, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. YouTube alone gets 500 hours of new video uploaded every minute.

On the business side, U.S. companies are set to spend more than $80 billion on digital video advertising in 2026, up 11% year over year and outpacing growth in the overall ad market, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Grand View Research sizes the broader enterprise streaming media market—what companies spend on corporate video platforms, digital asset management, and the like—at $38.3 billion in 2024, headed toward $71.5 billion by 2030.

If there’s more multimedia, it stands to reason that more multimedia localization is needed as companies feed demand for multilingual content. E-learning, for example, is a big part of multimedia localization, and the demand is rising. Coursera’s AI translation reaches nearly 3 million learners across more than 5,000 courses in 25 languages, and the company has added AI-dubbed versions of more than 100 of its most popular courses.

Audiences are also watching more across languages. Netflix’s non-English titles now account for more than a third of all viewing hours on the platform. Disney plans to roughly triple its local-language original series on Disney+ over the next three years to reach international audiences.

Reaching those audiences depends on localization. Subtitles and dubbing are what let a series made in one language reach viewers who speak another.

Why This Matters to Your Business

Your company’s content works the same way. A training video, a product launch, or a podcast reaches only the people who speak its language.

Multimedia localization makes content understandable in every language the audience speaks, without recreating it from scratch for each market. Captions and audio description also make content accessible to viewers who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or have low vision, so the same content reaches an even wider audience.

A well-made video can explain a complex concept in seconds, and a localized version multiplies this across every market you sell to. Localization also reaches new audiences. Some people will skim past a product sheet but watch a two-minute video to the end, especially one in their own language.

How Localization Supports Accessibility

Multimedia localization already does much of the work accessibility demands. The two jobs, translating for a new language and adapting for a disability, often call for similar solutions.

Take captions. A subtitler translating dialogue into another language writes out what’s said and times it to the speaker. Add speaker names and cues for music and sound effects, and the same file serves a viewer who is deaf or hard of hearing.

Audio description works the same way. It’s a narrated script, timed into gaps in the dialogue, that describes what’s happening on the screen for viewers who are blind or have low vision. Writing, translating, timing, and voicing that script is much the same work as producing a voice-over in a new language.

Accessibility can also be a regulatory requirement. But compliance isn’t the only reason to plan for it. Localization and accessibility have the same goal: making content usable for people who can’t use it as it is. Planning for both from the start means the work can be shared instead of done twice.

Options for Multimedia Localization

Localizing a document means translating text. Localizing a video means translating text, voice, on-screen graphics, and sometimes music. Each of those elements has its own options, and most projects combine more than one. Our multimedia localization services cover all of them, so a project can use whatever mix it needs.

Video gets most of the attention in multimedia localization, but it isn’t the only format. Podcasts and audiobooks need localization too, and so do livestreamed events and live conferences, which can use real-time interpretation or captioning so every attendee can follow along.

Subtitles

Subtitles are usually the fastest, least expensive way to localize a video since they don’t require recording a new voice for each language. Translated, timed text is laid over the original audio, so viewers still hear the original performance. When there’s no script, AI transcription can create one, which a language specialist reviews before translation starts. The tradeoff is that viewers have to read while they watch, which can lose some viewers depending on the content and the market.

Voice and Dubbing

Dubbing replaces a video’s original audio with a new recording in another language. The translated script has to be accurate and also fit the timing and rhythm of what’s happening on screen. AI lip-sync can now adjust the speaker’s mouth movements to match the new audio.

The voice itself can come from three places. Professional voice actors are the choice when tone and performance matter, such as an emotional scene or a brand spokesperson. AI-generated voice works for much of the rest, at a lower cost than booking talent for every language, especially at volume. A language specialist checks the audio before it ships. With the speaker’s approval, voice cloning recreates a specific person’s voice in another language, so an executive or trainer sounds like themselves across markets.

Visual and On-Screen Localization

Not all the words in a video are spoken. On-screen graphics, screenshots, and embedded text all need translating and rebuilding in the new language, and animated titles and motion graphics need adjusting to fit the new text’s length and timing. Sometimes a market is better served by a new video than an adapted one. AI tools can now produce original training or marketing videos built for a specific market.

Multimedia Engineering

Multimedia localization used to rely on manual hand-offs—files exported to a translator, then a voice team, then a reviewer, and someone reassembling the localized pieces at the end. Multimedia engineering cuts out many of those hand-offs with automated file parsing, media preparation, and integration with translation management systems, so subtitles, voice, and visual text stay consistent no matter how many languages a project covers.

Where AI Fits in Multimedia Localization

AI is most useful for the high-volume, repetitive parts of multimedia localization, like transcribing hours of audio or producing voice tracks for a large training library. People are still needed where judgment matters, such as deciding whether a performance sounds sincere or whether a subtitle can be read in time. Most projects use AI and people together, and the real decision is where each one works best.

In visual localization, for example, translating the text in images and graphics used to mean copying it out of each file by hand and pasting the translation back in. MosAIQ ImVisio, part of our MosAIQ suite, uses AI to find and translate that text within the image or graphic. Language specialists then check that each translation fits the space and reads correctly. This cuts visual localization timelines by 40-60%.

Use Cases for Multimedia Localization

Multimedia localization is different depending on what the content is for. Here’s how it works for three common content types.

Training and Compliance Videos

Training and compliance content has higher stakes than a marketing video. When a course teaches machine operators how to avoid an injury or records that employees received required safety training, precision matters.

One example is our work with a global healthcare nonprofit that teaches emergency care, including CPR and stroke response. Since 2021, we’ve localized its training videos with voice-over and closed captions, along with its manuals and certification tests, translating more than 5 million words across 442 projects. Linguists with medical expertise translate the content, and the client’s subject matter experts review the videos with us on a shared platform.

We also recommended a more efficient tool for preparing video source files, which cut rendering time and sped up the workflow. Now in its sixth year, the partnership covers more than 30 categories of videos, catalogs, books, and training courses.

Marketing, Product, and Executive Videos

Marketing and product videos often use subtitles and voice-over together. Subtitles show the message on screen for viewers with sound off, which is common on social platforms. Voice-over gives a product launch energy, and for an executive speaking to employees, voice cloning keeps the message in the executive’s own voice.

For a Silicon Valley tech company, we transcribed and subtitled 4 hours of video into 16 languages in under two weeks, including its headline presentation in just 48 hours. Each translator was paired with a reviewer who specialized in either IT or marketing content.

Entertainment and Streaming Videos

Entertainment localization happens in layers. A single title often combines subtitles and dubbing with localized on-screen text, using professional voice talent for performance-heavy scenes and AI-generated voice for more straightforward content. Streaming adds one more layer: platform localization, which covers the content around the video, such as menus, search, and synopsis text.

What to Look for in a Language Services Partner

Choosing a localization partner comes down to checking a few things before signing a contract.

First, see how well a partner fits into your existing operations. For multimedia, that means working with the formats and systems you already use. A good partner can deliver subtitles in the format your video player or learning management platform needs, such as SRT or VTT, and connect to your translation management system (TMS) so files transfer automatically. Your reviewers should also be able to comment directly in the video timeline from a browser, so feedback stays attached to the exact moment it refers to.

Next, ask how the partner uses AI. A provider should be able to tell you which steps AI handles and where a language specialist checks the work. If you plan to use voice cloning, ask how the partner gets approval from the person whose voice is being cloned. With compliance-sensitive content, you may need to show an auditor who reviewed a file and when, so the partner should keep a record of each review.

If you’re localizing training and compliance content, where every language has to use the exact same terminology, look for a controlled glossary, linguists with experience in the subject, and a review process that includes your own subject matter experts.

Finally, pricing should reflect what a project involves. A subtitle-only video takes less effort than one that also needs dubbing and on-screen text. A credible quote names those specific requirements instead of applying the same per-word rate to every job. For online training provider Circus Street, we built a custom calculator so it could plan its budget for each project.

Putting the Pieces Together

A single multimedia project might need translated subtitles, a new voice track, and localized graphics, each made by a different specialist. Then someone has to put the pieces back together, in every language.

A global healthcare company based in Switzerland asked us to do exactly that. Its e-learning courses on medicines and eye care devices needed translation, voice-over, subtitles, and localized graphics. We worked with linguists who have medical expertise, a dubbing studio, our own multimedia team, and an outside multimedia agency, then combined everything into finished courses for the client’s experts to approve. Pleased with the results, the client made us its partner of choice for all its e-learning content.

The best compliment localized content can get is that nobody notices it was localized. That only happens when every piece fits. When viewers feel the video or course was made for them, they’re more likely to trust the message.

Curious how Argos Multilingual can help your business localize multimedia content? Contact us to learn more.

Share this post