Majority of Individuals Opt for Video Captions: Insights into Their Impact on Audience Engagement
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In the digital age, the importance of accessibility in video content cannot be overstated. One of the most effective ways to localize and improve the accessibility of videos is by adding translated subtitles.
A recent survey reveals that 80% of respondents in the 18-25 age group watch TV with subtitles on "some or most of the time," making them the most frequent users of this accessibility feature. This trend is not limited to traditional television, as the demand for subtitles is growing in the online video space as well.
Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, and OpenAI have been integrating advanced AI technologies for video-related tasks, including subtitle generation. For instance, Anthropic's Claude has been integrated into AWS Bedrock since 2023, aiming to enhance accessibility and user engagement. Although specific detailed results on subtitle experiments have not been explicitly mentioned in the sources, these efforts have undeniably made a significant impact.
The benefits of subtitles extend beyond accessibility. Captions not only increase views and watch time but also play a crucial role in determining which videos appear in search results on platforms like YouTube and Google. More than 70% of surveyed respondents use auto captions, with or without some level of manual editing.
Subtitles also provide crawlable metadata that search engines can index and analyse to match your content to search queries, further improving discoverability.
Poor audio quality is another reason why viewers turn to subtitles. A staggering 75% of viewers reported using subtitles due to the poor audio quality of videos. This issue is particularly prevalent on mobile devices, where 92% of viewers watch videos with the sound off. Interestingly, half of viewers prefer captions because they like watching videos with the sound off.
Subtitles also offer benefits for viewers in public places, with 69% of viewers watching video with the sound off when they're out and about. This trend is even more pronounced on social media platforms like Facebook, where 85% of all videos are watched with the sound off.
Subtitles can also help viewers concentrate better, with 42% of people citing this as a reason for using them. Furthermore, subtitles can increase view time on video ads by an average of 12%.
Despite these benefits, less than 5% of people cite SEO benefits as a reason to add captions to their videos. However, the industry average for AI-generated transcription and subtitling is a 10-15% Word Error Rate (WER), indicating room for improvement in this area.
Finally, it's worth noting that 61% of people who localize their video content translate their subtitles, making it an essential component of a comprehensive localization strategy.
In conclusion, the benefits of adding subtitles to video content are numerous and varied, from improved accessibility to increased viewer engagement and SEO benefits. As the demand for video content continues to grow, the importance of subtitles will undoubtedly become even more significant.
