April 4, 2024

By Stavroula Sokoli

Streaming platforms provide viewers the flexibility to watch shows in multiple languages. In this article we’ll look at the different subtitle types offered by Netflix, which depend on whether dubbing is also available.

Every title typically comes with subtitles in various languages, designed to be used with the original audio track. Let’s call them standard interlingual subtitles, as they offer ****a translation of the dialogue into the viewer's chosen language. The number of languages covered depends on the popularity of the show, and can be up to 35 (including Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese).

In many cases, Netflix also offers Closed Captions (also known as Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing - SDH) for accessibility purposes. They are intralingual, sometimes edited for readability, meant to be used without the audio and they include sound descriptions. We can refer to them as standard CC and they are available in the original audio language for all Netflix Originals, and many of the Catalogue titles as well.

Both standard subtitles and CC follow Netflix’s timed text style guides, publicly available for each language.

Many shows are also available with dubbed audio tracks in various languages, with the selection depending again on the show's anticipated popularity. Common languages for dubbing include Spanish, French, German, and Italian, though for some titles there can be as many as 16 different dubbed language options or even more—particularly for children's shows.

When dubbing is available, something interesting happens to the subtitle options.

But before we look at them, let’s examine the “problem”: Thanks to streaming platforms (and DVDs), viewers can now make different combinations of audio and subtitles, which sometimes aren’t meant to be used together. An increasing number of people wish to combine dubbing and subtitling including:

• viewers with ADHD;
• language learners;
• users who need to keep the volume low, or who need subtitles to fully understand the dialogue, sometimes due to actors mumbling or modern sound mixing which results in loud sound effects with low-volume dialogue (For more, watch “Why we all need subtitles now”);
• audiences who like to have subtitles on, especially young people (For more, read “Why more people use subtitles” ).

However, standard interlingual subtitles are created to align with the original audio through a distinct process by a different team. Using them with the dubbed audio track often leads to discrepancies in timing and translation, which is sometimes irritating for viewers (who turn to social media to complain). These audiences could benefit from the closed captions, as these are created from the dubbing script (sometimes edited for readability as we saw above), which means that they match with what is heard. But then again, these viewers do not always appreciate having to read the sound descriptions. After all, they are hearing audiences and CC are not created for them, but for people who don’t have access to the audio.

So Netflix has devised a special type of subtitles, which are only selectable with dubbing is on. They are basically the closed captions without the sound descriptions, and they practically replace the interlingual subtitles option. In other words, when we choose dubbing we do not have access to the standard subtitles, but only to these dubtitles, as we can call them. Of course, we can still select standard CC, as this option is still there. In other words, when CC is available, viewers have always two options, subtitles and CC, whether they are watching the dubbed or the original audio. It’s just that the set of “subtitles” shown changes depending on the audio. When the original audio is selected, we get standard interlingual subtitles. With dubbing, we get dubtitles.

An example of three types of subtitles (The 3 Body Problem, Episode 3, Minute 2)

That’s fantastic up to here, everybody is happy.

But what happens when there is dubbing for a language but no CC available? Netflix decided to use the dubbing script. It’s timed text, after all, delivered by the dubbing studios in the now standard TTAL format anyway, so it can be added without cost. We can call this type of subtitles “script-based dubtitles”. The issue is that this dialogue is not properly segmented for readability, and the timings do not take speaker pauses into account, so there is no proper synchronization. And since the text you read and the dialogue you hear do not match, it kind of defeats the purpose of its existence (a subtitlers’ association has issued a statement against this “new subtitles format”).

Here’s a flowchart describing these different types of subtitles:

Up to two options are selectable at each time depending on the audio track selected and the availability of CC.