Does Viki re-subtitle already finished dramas?

I was curious if Viki re-subtitles dramas etc. Since some of the same dramas are on other platforms like Netflix, does Viki re-do them? I’m not going to go back and fort to check, so I thought I’d ask. lol

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Most of the dramas which can be found on both Viki and Netflix have first been bought off by Viki and translated by Viki’s volunteers. I know of only one case where it was vice versa.

The translation is different, of course. Both companies hold rights to their own translations and as far as I know don’t sell rights to each other.

Viki can sometimes get shows pre-translated (to English). However, those are often edited by volunteers to fit Viki’s standard of accuracy and completeness of translation.

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Thank you for the explanation. I became more curious because of ‘Run On’, when she has the chance to re-subtitle an older movie, because the lingo had changed so much. That was one of the first Korean dramas I watched, so I find it so interesting how a drama/movie might be translated differently and by different people too.

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Interesting question. Several years ago Netflix showed dramas in which Netflix apparently bought the viki volunteer’s subtitles. So on Netflix our team credits were shown, which was a nice touch compared to the pirate sites which strip out our credits. Alas, at some point Netflix stripped out the team credits and the OST but continued to show viki volunteer created subtitles. Now Netflix contracts out subbing – usually one subber per episode but the same subber may not work on all the episodes of a series. The quality of the subbing to English is very uneven, depending on the skill of the individual subtitler who worked on the episode. And apparently there is very little or no editing or quality control on Netflix English subtitles.

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Not sure if you’re a Cdrama watcher, but it’s done very often for Cdramas that are presegged and presubbed, i.e. the videos are uploaded with respective provider’s English subtitles. The respective Viki volunteer team would edit (TE/GE/CE) before the final output (per episode) is released to OL teams for their OL translation. However, not all such dramas are edited with a full suite of editors. There are some that are only edited for English (naming, spelling, grammar, etc.) and not for translation accuracy.

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The question was about re-subtitling dramas on one platform, which have already been translated on another.

I wouldn’t call editing an older drama re-subtitling, since you don’t start from scratch.

Maybe in 2011 or 2012 I watched a historical kdrama on Hulu and what did I see, a Viki logo in the Video :wink: I wrote Viki about it if they were aware of it and I think I have never received any reply! I didn’t know what to think of it… :thinking:

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Sorry to sidetrack, should we be worried that a drama with a very popular actor (Bo-Gum) in a very anticipated movie (Wonderland) goes to Netflix instead of Viki.? Is Netflix really that bad?
Reminds me, I had to watch Backstreet Rookie on YouTube. Everyone was so thankful. lol

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@funinthesunkauai_173
Netflix is outbidding viki. Rakuten, parent of Viki, grossed $13 billion in 2020. Netflix grossed $25 billion in 2020. Entertainment is just one subsidiary of Rakuten which includes e-commerce, retail banking, a mobile carrier, digital content and communications. Netflix’s sole business is entertainment. Need I say more?
There was a theory at the time Rakuten acquired viki for $270 million that Rakuten was working on software in which the viewer who saw a drama character using or wearing a product could click on the product and be linked to the e-commerce site to buy a knock-off.
By the way do you reside in Kauai or elsewhere in Hawaii, my home state?

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You caught that :palm_tree: I’m on Kauai, since '79. :hibiscus:

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You’re almost a kama’aina!