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Subtitle Localization & Media Translation

Timed, readable, broadcast-ready. Across subtitles, metadata, and the full content lifecycle.

 

Alafranga's media team handles subtitle localization, dubbing script adaptation, voice-over translation, SDH, and content catalogue metadata for streaming platforms, broadcast networks, distributors, and corporate video production.

Subtitle localization is not document translation with timestamps. Every line has a reading speed limit, a character constraint, and a synchronisation requirement and the translation still has to sound natural when read against moving image. A subtitle that is technically correct but reads awkwardly disrupts the viewing experience. A subtitle that flows naturally but mistimes the cut fails the brief.

 

More than a vendor. A language partner.
 
Every subtitle and dubbing project starts with the right people. We assign a lead subtitler or dubbing adapter, a subject-matter reviewer with domain knowledge in your content type, a project manager, and a technical QA specialist. For broadcast deadlines and high-volume media releases, additional specialists are brought in without compromising the review chain.


▮What We Handle

▮Timed Subtitles 
Subtitle files produced to broadcast and streaming specifications such as correct timing, reading speed within platform limits, character counts respected, natural-reading translation throughout. Delivered in SRT, STL, EBU-STL, TTML, WebVTT, and other formats on request.

▮Dubbing Scripts
Translated scripts adapted for lip-sync dubbing where the translation must fit the mouth movement patterns of the original performance. Requires a different approach from subtitle work and a translator with specific dubbing script experience.

▮Voice-Over Scripts
Translated scripts for voice-over narration such as corporate video, documentary, e-learning, and instructional content. Timed to the original audio where required, or delivered as clean translated script for independent recording.

▮SDH: Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Subtitles that include speaker identification, sound descriptions, and other accessibility elements required for SDH compliance on streaming and broadcast platforms.

▮Content Catalogue Metadata
Title and synopsis localization for streaming platform content libraries for short, medium, and full synopsis variants delivered against strict platform character limits. Series, season, and episode hierarchy consistency. Cast and crew metadata formatting. Romanization decisions for international discoverability. Bidirectional: localizing incoming international content for the Turkish market, and Turkish productions for international distribution catalogues.

▮Corporate & Training Video 
Internal communications, training video, product demonstrations, e-learning modules, webinars, and conference recordings. Turkish and 40+ languages. Fast turnaround available for time-sensitive productions.
 
 
Media · 2022 · Eight-month engagement
In 2022, through a global media localization partner, Alafranga’s subtitle and metadata teams ran an eight-month Turkish localization programme for Disney and Fox TV content. The work supported the Disney+ launch in Türkiye and, in the other direction, brought Turkish productions into Disney’s CEE-MENA distribution catalogue.
 
Three parallel streams
 
  • Subtitles (EN→TR). In a five-week sprint we delivered 647 episodes and films across 68 titles, about 333 hours of content. The package spanned Disney film classics, Disney Channel originals, Marvel and Star Wars titles, and Fox TV and FX comedy series. More than two dozen translators worked in parallel at peak. Every file went through three stages, translation, quality check and proofing, in the client-specified subtitling tool. Delivery then continued at lower volume through summer 2022.
  • Catalogue metadata (EN→TR). Across several batches totalling hundreds of thousands of words, we wrote Turkish titles, synopses and credits for the Disney+ Türkiye catalogue. Content came from Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Pixar, Disney+ originals, Disney Channel and the 20th Century film archive. Every title needed short, medium and full synopses within strict character limits. Series, season and episode entries also had to stay consistent with each other.
  • Turkish productions (TR→EN). We localized English metadata for more than 30 Turkish drama, comedy and lifestyle series under Disney’s Schedule E format. Each title needed a decision to keep, translate or romanize it. Credits were formatted to Disney’s standards, and synopses were rewritten for viewers outside Türkiye.
What made the work distinctive
The three streams fed one catalogue, so consistency had to hold between subtitles and metadata, between English-source and Turkish-source content, and across hundreds of titles delivered over months. The output went straight to the Disney+ interface, which meant every synopsis, name and credit had to be linguistically right and technically correct in the content system. The programme called for high-volume subtitle speed, metadata discipline and the cultural fluency to move content both into and out of Turkish. read for more..
 
▮Why a Dedicated Media Team 
The disciplines required for subtitle, dubbing, voice-over, and metadata work do not transfer from general translation. A document translator producing subtitles will write correctly but miss the reading-speed limit. A subtitler asked to write dubbing scripts will translate accurately but ignore lip movement constraints. A general translator asked to produce platform metadata will write a perfectly readable synopsis that exceeds the 220-character limit by forty characters and breaks the platform's content management import.

Each format has its own constraints, its own conventions, its own tooling, and its own quality criteria. Our media team works on these formats every day, against the platform-specific rules that govern them, with the project management infrastructure built for high-volume, deadline-driven media production. That is why we run this as a separate operation.