Closed Captioning, Translation and Forced Narrative or Forced Subtitles

Preparing videos for broadcast distribution can be a long, complex process. Closed captioning is a legal requirement for broadcast productions, and there are numerous formats depending on which provider you intend to use for your content. Forced narrative or forced subtitles are often referred to when it comes to working with captioning multilingual videos, but what are they and why are they used?

What is a Forced Narrative or Forced Subtitles?

Have you ever watched a TV show which features a plot line where some characters speak in a different language? Regardless of whether or not captions are enabled, as there would be a predominant language in the video and a secondary language, where the second language is spoken, translated subtitles should still display. For example, if a viewer turns on captions, both English and foreign subtitles should display. Similarly, if a viewer turns off captions, the translated captions should still display to make the foreign speech accessible. Working with settings to ensure that translated subtitles are ‘forced’ onto the screen as captions, involves a process of creating a ‘forced narrative’.

Forced Narratives and Translation

As forced narratives are commonly requested where there is foreign dialogue and/or graphics within a film or programme, we are able to provide video translation services alongside captioning. Working with both translation and captioning as a fully inclusive package can save both time and money. It’s also a good way of ensuring that any changes required to translations or captioning can be put through under one company, avoiding any confusion as to where responsibilities may lie.

Capital captions work with forced narrative and caption translations in a huge range of languages including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, and many more… 

Broadcast Closed Captioning and Forced Subtitles

When working with closed captioning for broadcast, forced subtitles are a common requirement. At Capital Captions, we work with supplying forced narrative subtitles both within a standard caption file for Deaf and Hard of Hearing viewers, and as a separate file for broadcast use when subtitles are deactivated. We work with forced captioning in the below formats:

Broadcast SCC captions including forced narratives (both sidecar file and integrated into SDH)

Video on Demand and online STL captions including forced narratives (both sidecar file and integrated into SDH)

EBU-TT and EBU-TT-D captions typically used by the BBC, including forced narratives (both sidecar file and integrated into SDH)

DFXP and TTML captions including forced narratives (both sidecar file and integrated into SDH) 

So there you have it, if you are looking for Closed Captioning services, Translation services or forced subtitles to go with your videos then why not contact Capital Captions today to see what we can offer you. 

Just click the button below to get your free quote started. 

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