Netflix’s bet on English dubbing. Turning quantity into quality?

The new forms of audiovisual consumption coupled with the ease of access to localised content and the relative freedom consumers have in deciding what, when and where to view have put VoD platforms such as Netflix on top of the list of transnational distributors. Now that local contents seem to be hitting the numbers, attention is being turned to dubbing in countries accustomed to watching foreign productions with subtitles (Chaume, 2018). Figures evidence that consumption of dubbed versions in these regions has grown really quickly in the last couple of years. In fact, English-speaking viewers show a marked preference for consuming non-English-language shows with dubbing and become more engaged than if they had watched the same shows with subtitles (Newbould, 2019). However, the downside to this preference is related to the “dubby” effect audiences are complaining about (Goldsmith, 2019), described as a type of dialogue which sounds rather awkward, unconvincing, and distracting. As this may well be a matter of poor quality, the audience coming from a non-dubbing background might have something to do with this as well, finding it difficult to keep their ears open to the prefabricated orality typifying dubbed speech. Whatever the case may be, there is little doubt that dubbing is becoming a challenge in these new markets and Netflix has decided to make it work.

The aim of this presentation is to identify the features characterising English dubbese and the potential shortcomings that might be reducing quality standards, which will be discussed within the context of some of the most popular non-English shows watched on Netflix, namely Money Heist (Spanish) or Dark (German). Following a descriptive empirical methodology, this study will deal with some emerging norms in the English dubs of foreign shows and several examples will be used to highlight potential linguistic and translational issues. Some figures on users’ preferences will be presented and the streaming giant’s big move to solve these localisation problems will also be elucidated.