Zoo Digital has won a major contract to provide a new subtitling and captioning system for the BBC.
Using cloud-based software, the Sheffield-based company will provide a system to manage and repurpose all BBC subtitling and captioning assets.
BBC Worldwide teams across the globe will use the system to access, repurpose and download the localised materials for local broadcast and digital distribution.
Zoo Digital’s Stuart Green
Zoo’s system will be used to turn subtitles and captions into various English versions, such as British, American, Australian and New Zealand, and then into multi-language ones.
All subtitles and captions shown on the BBC’s four UK terrestrial channels will be added to the system shortly after broadcast.
Zoo’s chief executive Stuart Green said that the various English speaking territories have different spelling and grammatical conventions, and therefore needed territory-specific captions.
“This deal is important because working for an organisation like the BBC, which has so much content, is really challenging,” said Dr Green.
“They need to get all the current programmes and the back catalogue available.”
Demand for Zoo’s cloud-based subtitling service helped it to report a 47% jump in revenue for the six months to September, with sales up to £4.4m.
