per video minute rate Spanish to English Thread poster: Alisa Warshay
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Alisa Warshay
United States
Local time: 17:45
Spanish to English
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Hi everyone,
I'm new to subtitling. I have a potential project where I will receive the following:
source and the MT .srt files.
Would we receive a script? No, you’ll only receive the subtitles.
the are using MTPE so I’ll have the source subtitles and the MT translated ones.
They are offering $3/minute. Is this awful? Is it standard?
I understand that it depends on my speed--I honestly have no idea how fast I'd do these. Is doin... See more Hi everyone,
I'm new to subtitling. I have a potential project where I will receive the following:
source and the MT .srt files.
Would we receive a script? No, you’ll only receive the subtitles.
the are using MTPE so I’ll have the source subtitles and the MT translated ones.
They are offering $3/minute. Is this awful? Is it standard?
I understand that it depends on my speed--I honestly have no idea how fast I'd do these. Is doing 6 minutes of audio in 1 hour slow, medium fast?
How about 10? You get the idea.
What rates do you suggest for subtitling Spanish to English? Please provide different scenarios.
Thanks! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Content and speed | Aug 29, 2018 |
Your speed will largely depend on the content. Typical subtitling will have about 10 subtitles per minute. If you give yourself about a minute per subtitle, you could do 6 minutes of programming per labor hour, or one hour of programming per 10 hours of labor. At $3.00 per minute, you would make $18 per labor hour before taxes.
When you are starting out and/or if there is more dialogue or more difficult dialogue than is typical, you likely will be able to do less programming, so yo... See more Your speed will largely depend on the content. Typical subtitling will have about 10 subtitles per minute. If you give yourself about a minute per subtitle, you could do 6 minutes of programming per labor hour, or one hour of programming per 10 hours of labor. At $3.00 per minute, you would make $18 per labor hour before taxes.
When you are starting out and/or if there is more dialogue or more difficult dialogue than is typical, you likely will be able to do less programming, so you will earn less than that $18 per labor hour. Sixty seconds per subtitle may seem like a lot, but you will inevitably have to do some research for certain subtitles, and that research can, for example, take 5 minutes for a single title, which then increases the average of all other titles.
Netflix's published 2016 rate card paid subtitle vendors $12.00 per minute for translating Latin American Spanish into English. I think experienced subtitle translators should insist on receiving at least half of that rate for their translation work (leaving the other half for the review work, the creation of the spotting template, general management of the project, etc.), so you should likely aim for $6.00 per minute at a minimum, if we assume Netflix's "market rates" are indeed fair market rates. (They claimed to have set those rates by doing market rate research and then adding 10% on top of it. But they did so at a time when the market rates had already been aggressively depressed by major movie studios.)
If you have no experience in the field, it may seem attractive to accept lower rates in order to gain experience, but just be forewarned that the general trend in subtitling has been that the rates paid for translation have steadily been reduced, part of which is caused by so many translators willing to accept low rates. So by the time you acquire the experience from doing low-paid jobs, well-paid jobs may pay the same as low-paid jobs pay now. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alisa Warshay
United States
Local time: 17:45
Spanish to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Content and Speed | Aug 30, 2018 |
Thank you. Very useful response.
| | | | Robert Forstag 
United States
Local time: 17:45
Spanish to English
+ ...
subtitleinsider wrote:
Your speed will largely depend on the content. Typical subtitling will have about 10 subtitles per minute. If you give yourself about a minute per subtitle, you could do 6 minutes of programming per labor hour, or one hour of programming per 10 hours of labor. At $3.00 per minute, you would make $18 per labor hour before taxes.
When you are starting out and/or if there is more dialogue or more difficult dialogue than is typical, you likely will be able to do less programming, so you will earn less than that $18 per labor hour. Sixty seconds per subtitle may seem like a lot, but you will inevitably have to do some research for certain subtitles, and that research can, for example, take 5 minutes for a single title, which then increases the average of all other titles.
Netflix's published 2016 rate card paid subtitle vendors $12.00 per minute for translating Latin American Spanish into English. I think experienced subtitle translators should insist on receiving at least half of that rate for their translation work (leaving the other half for the review work, the creation of the spotting template, general management of the project, etc.), so you should likely aim for $6.00 per minute at a minimum, if we assume Netflix's "market rates" are indeed fair market rates. (They claimed to have set those rates by doing market rate research and then adding 10% on top of it. But they did so at a time when the market rates had already been aggressively depressed by major movie studios.)
If you have no experience in the field, it may seem attractive to accept lower rates in order to gain experience, but just be forewarned that the general trend in subtitling has been that the rates paid for translation have steadily been reduced, part of which is caused by so many translators willing to accept low rates. So by the time you acquire the experience from doing low-paid jobs, well-paid jobs may pay the same as low-paid jobs pay now.
If the above truly reflects what is on offer for subtitling work (i.e. 18 bucks an hour for seasoned subtitlers who work fast and don’t have to do a lot of research, and a good deal less than that “optimal” rate for those still learning the craft) it is hard to understand why so many experienced translators living in advanced countries seem to find such work appealing.
I do not do subtitling work myself, but it strikes me that something is not quite right here....
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Robert Forstag wrote:
If the above truly reflects what is on offer for subtitling work (i.e. 18 bucks an hour for seasoned subtitlers who work fast and don’t have to do a lot of research, and a good deal less than that “optimal” rate for those still learning the craft) it is hard to understand why so many experienced translators living in advanced countries seem to find such work appealing.
I do not do subtitling work myself, but it strikes me that something is not quite right here....
I was offered $7.20 by one of the Netflix vendors and, after a quick calculation, I turned it down... living in poverty doesn't appeal to me much... 
| | | | Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 17:45
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Incomplete information was provided | Sep 1, 2018 |
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote: Robert Forstag wrote:
If the above truly reflects what is on offer for subtitling work (i.e. 18 bucks an hour for seasoned subtitlers who work fast and don’t have to do a lot of research, and a good deal less than that “optimal” rate for those still learning the craft) it is hard to understand why so many experienced translators living in advanced countries seem to find such work appealing.
I do not do subtitling work myself, but it strikes me that something is not quite right here.... I was offered $7.20 by one of the Netflix vendors and, after a quick calculation, I turned it down... living in poverty doesn't appeal to me much...
So the $5 to $18/hour range would seem to be at the very lowest end of rates offered for subtitling. This is not surprising, given the state of affairs in the translation industry as a whole.
The problem I had with the post of "subtitleinsider" (another of those site users with an empty profile) is that he (she?) presented his (her?) information as if it were somehow *typical* of rates offered. I knew this could not be true. Otherwise no one outside of developing countries would be interested in such work. In addition, subtitling work seems to often require proficiency in expensive software programs (which take time to learn, and probably also cost money to update from time to time). Then one has to consider that such work is by no means straightforward (i.e., given that one has to work within maximum character limits for each segment).
It strains credulity that highly qualified translators in developed countries would invest so much time and money in cultivating such a speciality if no more than $18/hour were at stake.
It is unfortunate that a better answer was not provided to Alisa's question.
[Edited at 2018-09-01 13:38 GMT]
| | | | | Not surprising... | Sep 1, 2018 |
Robert Forstag wrote:
So the $5 to $18/hour range would seem to be at the very lowest end of rates offered for subtitling. This is not surprising, given the state of affairs in the translation industry as a whole.
The problem I had with the post of "subtitleinsider" (another of those site users with an empty profile) is that he (she?) presented his (her?) information as if it were somehow *typical* of rates offered. I knew this could not be true. Otherwise no one outside of developing countries would be interested in such work. In addition, subtitling work seems to often require proficiency in expensive software programs (which take time to learn, and probably also cost money to update from time to time). Then one has to consider that such work is by no means straightforward (i.e., given that one has to work within maximum character limits for each segment).
It strains credulity that highly qualified translators in developed countries would invest so much time and money in cultivating such a speciality if no more than $18/hour were at stake.
It is unfortunate that a better answer was not provided to Alisa's question.
[Edited at 2018-09-01 13:38 GMT]
It's very common knowledge that many colleagues love subtitling because they love films and think it's a cool job, albeit badly paid... the demand is big, so the rates are low. Same think for being a literary translator in Italy. The rates are appalling but lots of people do it because it's a "passion"....
but passion only doesn't feed me... 
| | | | | This is the key problem | Sep 1, 2018 |
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote: It's very common knowledge that many colleagues love subtitling because they love films and think it's a cool job, albeit badly paid... the demand is big, so the rates are low. Same think for being a literary translator in Italy. The rates are appalling but lots of people do it because it's a "passion".... but passion only doesn't feed me...
I've had to translate (for subtitling and/or for dubbing) more than my share of pretty dull - when not blatantly disgusting - flicks, so I seek pleasure elsewhere. However there are too many people willing to do it just for the pleasure of watching a movie with the dialogue under a magnifying glass, for free. These are called fansubbers.
So why don't studios/distributors/networks/VOD providers/etc. use this free labor?
IMHO an explanation may be found on another front, I expected that the asymptotic evolution of free online machine translation to its current stage would sweep bottom feeders and their cheap vendors from the marketplace. It didn't. Mulling over the reasons, the only one that occurred to me is that bottom feeders cannot BLAME a free online service for its low translation quality. They need a human being to take BLAME, and they strive to hire such scapegoats for the cheapest price possible.
When fansubbers are given a chance to get some cash - no matter how little - to do what they did for free as a hobby, they grab it! This is how they enter the marketplace with abysmally low rates.
Broadcasters don't care much about translation quality. They get paid by either advertisers or subscribers. Some translators developed the habit of e-mailing them complaints with lists of appallingly bad translations they saw onscreen, yet the broadcasters couldn't care less.
Let's consider commercial TV channels, supported by commercial ads during intermissions. IMHO only when media agreements with sponsors stipulate that the advertiser is entitled to a hefty discount in case the translation is bad, they'll care.
It would make sense! A spectator decides to watch an award-winning foreign movie. The sponsor has paid a bundle their ad to be aired four times during the show. The spectator watches it up to the first intermission and, since the translation is too bad, s/he can't figure what's going on there, decides that watching it through will be a waste of time, and switches to another channel. Bottom line: this spectator will miss 3 out of the 4 ads on account of poor translation so, in all fairness, that sponsor should be entitled to a 75% discount on what they paid to have these ads aired. Isn't this right?
Evidence of amateur subtitling is a kind of post I often see on translators' social media, it usually goes like this:
Hello colleagues!
I've been HIRED (sic! - my emphasis here, because it's a fait accompli) to subtitle some videos. I have two questions:
a) Can you suggest any software that will DO IT FOR ME (ditto!), preferably freeware?
b) How much should I charge for it?
So they want software that will "do it for them", and their major concern is how much money they are gonna make from it. From their stance, knowledge and skills are not issues here.
The result, we'll see on our TV screens.
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Robert Forstag wrote:
The problem I had with the post of "subtitleinsider" (another of those site users with an empty profile) is that he (she?) presented his (her?) information as if it were somehow *typical* of rates offered. I knew this could not be true. Otherwise no one outside of developing countries would be interested in such work.
My calculations were based on the $3.00 rate offered to Alisa. Sadly, that rate likely is not all that uncommon. In the two decades that I have been involved in the subtitle industry, rates paid to translation contractors have depreciated by as much as 80%, in no small part due to the allure of doing subtitles ("I am part of Hollywood now!") causing many contractors to accept below-market rates for subtitling.
[It strains credulity that highly qualified translators in developed countries would invest so much time and money in cultivating such a speciality if no more than $18/hour were at stake.]
I have seen many veteran subtitle translators across all languages simply walk away from subtitling altogether because of the ever-decreasing rates. Where they used to enjoy both the work and the pay, they now often cannot enjoy either.
| | | | Lian Pang
Netherlands
Local time: 23:45
Member (2018)
English to Chinese
+ ...
3 dollars ? If you convert it to hourly wage you'll see it's even lower than McDonald minimum wage.
Do not waste your time on this.
| | | | Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 17:45
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Truly surprising | Sep 9, 2018 |
subtitleinsider wrote: Robert Forstag wrote:
The problem I had with the post of "subtitleinsider" (another of those site users with an empty profile) is that he (she?) presented his (her?) information as if it were somehow *typical* of rates offered. I knew this could not be true. Otherwise no one outside of developing countries would be interested in such work. My calculations were based on the $3.00 rate offered to Alisa. Sadly, that rate likely is not all that uncommon. In the two decades that I have been involved in the subtitle industry, rates paid to translation contractors have depreciated by as much as 80%, in no small part due to the allure of doing subtitles ("I am part of Hollywood now!") causing many contractors to accept below-market rates for subtitling. [It strains credulity that highly qualified translators in developed countries would invest so much time and money in cultivating such a speciality if no more than $18/hour were at stake.] I have seen many veteran subtitle translators across all languages simply walk away from subtitling altogether because of the ever-decreasing rates. Where they used to enjoy both the work and the pay, they now often cannot enjoy either.
So there really are professional translators who accept 18 bucks an hour in exchange for the fantasy of “being part of Hollywood?”
Wow!
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Robert Forstag wrote:
So there really are professional translators who accept 18 bucks an hour in exchange for the fantasy of “being part of Hollywood?”
Wow!
you'll find... wow indeed!
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MK2010
United States
Local time: 17:45
French to English
+ ...
| 18 dollars an hour... | Sep 9, 2018 |
...is what doctors make in many countries. It may not be considered a good rate for a lot of us translators, but for a very large percentage of the working world, it is a very good rate. Even in the West.
Robert Forstag wrote:
So there really are professional translators who accept 18 bucks an hour in exchange for the fantasy of “being part of Hollywood?”
Wow!
| | | | | Too many variables have been overlooked here | Sep 9, 2018 |
Robert Forstag wrote:
... in no small part due to the allure of doing subtitles ("I am part of Hollywood now!") causing many contractors to accept below-market rates for subtitling.
...
So there really are professional translators who accept 18 bucks an hour in exchange for the fantasy of “being part of Hollywood?”
People ask about "rates for subtitling", as if they were as easy to state as the price per liter/gallon of potable water. Even that may vary, depending on the location/logistics involved.
My specialty is "corporate video". In other words, training, institutional, product launch, etc. The typical client is the local subsidiary of a foreign company which is NOT in any way connected to video production. Their WHQ outsources it to their ad/PR agency, which in turn outsources to a video producer. They usually have no access to script, raw footage (without onscreen text), nothing beyond the finished video.
Bottom line is that my local client has only one thing: the video in a foreign language. Many times it reached me as a copy-protected DVD. They need just one thing: the video subtitled in the local language. They know nothing about video, can't answer technical questions. I have to fulfill their need on my own. Quality is paramount, as the client's image (especially in the case of institutional videos) will be at stake.
On the other extreme, you have subtitling studios, that provide you with a "template". It's a pre-split, pre-timed transcript of the audio track in its original language. They usually provide the video too, in lo-res (to prevent illegal distribution). From the results I've seen, some translators don't even bother to watch the video. They just shove that template through a CAT tool, usually Trados, and deliver.
Of course, there is a significant difference between one and another. In the gray area thus created, there are other types of players, including, but not limited to...
a) Small video producers who have been requested to deliver videos subtitled in other languages. They just need the concise translation, as their staff will take care of time-spotting and burning them.
b) YouTubers who need subtitles translated and time-spotted to upload to their videos on YouTube, no burning required.
c) Old-fashioned subtitling firms and networks that demand specific subtitle formats, exclusive to subtitling software having a USD 4-digit price tag.
d) Subtitling firms/networks that use online templates for translation.
So, when talking about "subtitling rates", several points must be taken into account:
- Translating from video only, no script available?
- Translating from video with the final production script?
- Translating on pre-timed, transcribed templates
- Is time-spotting required "from scratch"?
- If using templates, are timing adjustments required/allowed?
- Is burning subtitles required? If yes, what frame size (SD/HD/FHD)?
- Any specific software required? Is it provided for free? If not, how much does its license cost?
All these can cause considerable variation in per-minute rates, in addition to normal differences caused by offer/demand in various language pairs, complexity of subject matter, etc.
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