Again, I’m learning about what goes on behind the scenes that I did not know before.
Bottom line, it’s tricky. I understand that, at its most basic, a subscription means only that a viewer does not have to sit through ads when watching shows.
However, paying for something does additionally suggest (rightly or wrongly) that a subscribing viewer will get something more than non-subscribing viewers get.
Now with “standard” and “premium” subscriptions, I think the suggestion is even stronger that, if you pay more, you get more.
I’d say 95 percent of the time, as I’ve watched stuff on Viki, subbing on everything (C-dramas, K-dramas, J-dramas, T-dramas, whatever) has been very, very good. (And I’m talking specifically English.)
And the speed with which things get done is amazing.
That’s why, when things don’t achieve that level of amazingness, it’s disconcerting.
I’m still not getting why the powers that be, whether paid or volunteer, don’t arrange things so that sufficient volunteer translators with sufficient language skills are confirmed as available and willing BEFORE a show is announced as a coming attraction and BEFORE episodes are put up on the website.
I guess I can understand it a little because there are “core shows” that the powers that be seem to concentrate their efforts on (because they have very high ratings or star a very popular celebrity and will bring in those viewers), and then there are fan channels.
Some fan channels have shows with English translations (again, English is my subtitle language of choice). Some do not. It’s pretty clear that, with fan channels, it is what it is.
But between the top-tier, everybody-wants-to-see-them kinds of shows and fan channels are lots of shows that are not WOW shows necessarily, but they are good and have good actors and are worth seeing–and subbing.
And it just seems to me that the powers that be would want a little more overall consistency for the sake of “brand reputation.”
As they say, just my two cents’ worth; your mileage may vary.
