Post by yobo on May 14, 2004 23:07:03 GMT -5
I bet there are plenty of American tv shows that get subtitled and distributed all over the world, and are they really worth it? 
If Stateside viewers get enough of a taste of fine foreign shows, it would reach beyond the entertainment world and truly create a new bridge of cultural understanding that is so lacking in a world that has such an advanced communications technology. When will the Spanish-speaking stations get on the English subtitles bandwagon, for instance? I remember my late father back in the 60's and 70's used to watch European subtitled shows whenever they came on (not too often) on Channel 11 (educational tv) and our family all wondered what he saw in them. Wish they were still available now, so I could see for myself, but these Korean shows give me a good idea of what I was missing.
If Stateside viewers get enough of a taste of fine foreign shows, it would reach beyond the entertainment world and truly create a new bridge of cultural understanding that is so lacking in a world that has such an advanced communications technology. When will the Spanish-speaking stations get on the English subtitles bandwagon, for instance? I remember my late father back in the 60's and 70's used to watch European subtitled shows whenever they came on (not too often) on Channel 11 (educational tv) and our family all wondered what he saw in them. Wish they were still available now, so I could see for myself, but these Korean shows give me a good idea of what I was missing. 
A British journalist (part-time subtitlist) dwelling in Seoul, Korea, has informed me that Korean media companies are quite nervous about sending their jobs offshore. And the pay he receives for subtitling is <cough> <cough>. And the distribution/broadcasting rights of major programs are monopolized by KTE in the U.S. Which means they can play hardball with small Korean-American stations like one in Chicago. For example, if Drama A is being broadcasted in Korea, KTE probably has only a week delay in receiving the program from Korea. They make the video available via many local Korean video stores across the U.S., but KTE won't release the broadcast copies until the show's completely over or months behind. When the stations do air them later on, the viewership significantly drops since most of people have already seen it on video. This isn't true for English-speaking viewers of course. This probably only hits the tangent of the reason why there are many different versions of subtitles. I just think that it's relatively new, and small market and no one has decided to give a coordinated effort. The same Briton suggested something to this line, but he seems to be buried with workloads and I too am buried.. Someone just needs to give it a go.. a visionary perhaps.