ZOO Digital becomes founding member of Entertainment Globalization Association
ZOO Digital today becomes one of ten founding companies to proudly establish the Entertainment Globalization Association. Focused on creating localization standards and building connections between service providers, creatives and content owners, the EGA will bring together the thoughts and experiences of a wealth of industry insiders.
Leading the future of media localization is at the forefront what we do at ZOO. Keeping on top of cutting-edge technology and understanding everything there is to understand about media localization.
To help us achieve these goals, ZOO will sit as a founding member of the EGA, working with leading service providers from around the world, to drive positive change in the media localization industry.
Read the full announcement below.
Sixty companies form the industry-first globalization association
Today ten founding companies and fifty forming companies have announced their collaboration to form the entertainment industry’s first association focused specifically on entertainment globalization. The founding companies of the association are; Audio Masters Candiani, Deluxe, Hiventy, IYUNO Media Group, Keywords Studios, PLINT, SDI Media, Visual Data Media Services, VSI, ZOO Digital.
The additional fifty companies represent high-caliber service providers from all around the world. The Entertainment Globalization Association has been formed to create a closer connection to the creative community to improve the “retelling” of their stories for global audiences.
The association is primarily focused on creating educational resources, localization standards, and generating consumer impact research for localization. Chris Fetner has been named as the managing director of the association. Before this role, Fetner led Netflix’s content localization vendor strategy for nearly a decade and is widely regarded as an industry transformer among entertainment localization companies.
Every company in the association is an outstanding contributor to sharing stories globally, and I’m excited to see how we can all work together to help creatives share their stories more broadly.
Chris Fetner, managing director, EGA
Fetner said, “I feel incredibly fortunate to be given the opportunity to work with all of these leaders in localization, every company in the association is an outstanding contributor to sharing stories globally, and I’m excited to see how we can all work together to help creatives share their stories more broadly.”
The association is already the largest of its kind and is currently open to new members that work as individuals or companies providing globalization services in gaming, episodic television, feature film or access services. The association will begin forming committees in December and commence activities in early 2021. Among some of the early planned activities is the establishment of the first truly global awards ceremony in 2022 to celebrate excellence in the localization of entertainment.
Additionally, there is a full slate of standards to be established as well as educational outreach plans starting in Q1 of 2021. Given the huge industry support with 60 of the leading globalization companies already signed up and at least 60 more expected to join in the next few months, there appears to be deep support in the vision of the organization.
The initial support of this group has been overwhelming, every single member is excited about the work they do re-telling stories for the creative community.
Fetner added, “The initial support of this group has been overwhelming, every single member is excited about the work they do re-telling stories for the creative community and this is a signal to that community saying we’re here to support you and help you tell your stories globally in what will no doubt be an unprecedented time of growth and opportunity to entertain the world.”
The entertainment industry will experience incredible growth over the next five years which will largely be driven by expanding streaming platforms moving outside of their domestic offerings into international markets. Entertainment globalization plays a significant role in this expansion by extending Intellectual Properties into new languages and experiences by providing audio localization (dubbing), subtitling, and audio description. This work has largely been behind the scenes and well after the original show’s creatives have moved on to other projects.
However, the stakes have gotten much higher for creative talent and their stories must travel across languages to be successful on global platforms. The importance of which has never been more critical to their careers.
Understanding and being involved in the retelling of their stories across languages and cultures is a skill in which talent needs to build creative muscles to ensure their stories are finding audiences on global platforms. The EGA will give them a resource to build their competency around globalization, and a set of motivated partners to help them entertain audiences all over the world.
ZOO Digital President, Gordon Doran, has joined the Entertainment Globalization Association as a board member.
Gordon added:
“We’re proud to play an important part in this association. Enabling content owners to tell their stories worldwide and supporting industry-wide collaboration are principles that we align with completely, so it’s important that we support the ambitions of the group. We’re looking forward to elevating the profile of localization and steering the next big steps for the industry.”