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September 28, 2020
Streaming device maker Roku is taking another step to grow its user base beyond its hardware footprint: The company is launching a dedicated mobile app for the Roku Channel that will offer consumers access to thousands of free, ad-supported movies and TV shows as well as subscription video channels.
This move has the potential to further grow Roku's advertising revenue and pit it more directly against other ad-supported video services. However, it also shows how challenging it can be for a company that is still largely synonymous with streaming sticks and boxes to evolve its brand and widen its appeal to attract new audiences.
The new app, which is scheduled to launch in the coming weeks for iOS and Android, will allow people to stream ad-supported on-demand content without registering for a Roku account. The app will also offer free access to around 115 live and linear streaming channels. People who sign up for a premium add-on like HBO or Showtime through Roku's devices or website will be able to access it via the app as well. Roku isn't selling these subscriptions on mobile to avoid paying app store fees to Google and Apple.
The app is a notable expansion for the Roku Channel. However, it's not the first time for Roku to make this content available on mobile. Roku already integrated the Roku Channel into its mobile companion app in 2018.
That app has been popular among Roku users, but getting people who don't own a Roku device to download it has been challenging, admitted Roku VP Mark Ely. "Most people download the Roku app to use it as a remote control," he said.
Roku does have ways to grow the audience of the Roku Channel without having to rely on third-party platforms. On Monday, the company also announced two new streaming devices, including an ultracompact sound bar with integrated streaming device that will retail for just $130. In addition, Roku also continues to expand internationally. Just this month, it began selling its streaming adapters in Brazil.
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Janko Roettgers
Janko Roettgers (@jank0) is a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.
Politics
'Woke tech' and 'the new slave power': Conservatives gather for Vegas summit
An agenda for the event, hosted by the Claremont Institute, listed speakers including U.S. CTO Michael Kratsios and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The so-called "Digital Statecraft Summit" was organized by the Claremont Institute. The speakers include U.S. CTO Michael Kratsios and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, as well as a who's-who of far-right provocateurs.
Photo: David Vives/Unsplash
January 16, 2021
Emily Birnbaum ( @birnbaum_e) is a tech policy reporter with Protocol. Her coverage focuses on the U.S. government's attempts to regulate one of the most powerful industries in the world, with a focus on antitrust, privacy and politics. Previously, she worked as a tech policy reporter with The Hill after spending several months as a breaking news reporter. She is a Bethesda, Maryland native and proud Kenyon College alumna.
Issie Lapowsky (@issielapowsky) is a senior reporter at Protocol, covering the intersection of technology, politics, and national affairs. Previously, she was a senior writer at Wired, where she covered the 2016 election and the Facebook beat in its aftermath. Prior to that, Issie worked as a staff writer for Inc. magazine, writing about small business and entrepreneurship. She has also worked as an on-air contributor for CBS News and taught a graduate-level course at New York University’s Center for Publishing on how tech giants have affected publishing. Email Issie.
January 16, 2021
Conservative investors, political operatives, right-wing writers and Trump administration officials are quietly meeting in Las Vegas this weekend to discuss topics including China, "woke tech" and "the new slave power," according to four people who were invited to attend or speak at the event as well as a copy of the agenda obtained by Protocol.
The so-called "Digital Statecraft Summit" was organized by the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank that says its mission is to "restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life." A list of speakers for the event includes a combination of past and current government officials as well as a who's who of far-right provocateurs. One speaker, conservative legal scholar John Eastman, rallied the president's supporters at a White House event before the Capitol Hill riot earlier this month. Some others have been associated with racist ideologies.
<p>Government officials listed on the agenda include United States Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading a multi-state antitrust lawsuit against Google and is currently <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/11/17/texas-ken-paxton-fbi/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">under federal investigation</a>. A source familiar with Kratsios' planned remarks said he intended to speak about artificial intelligence and China. Also on the agenda: Josh Steinman, the White House National Security Council's recently departed senior director for cyber, who now describes himself as the founder of a "stealth startup" on LinkedIn. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="1">
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</div></p><p>Newly confirmed FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington was also listed on the agenda, but he told Protocol he did not end up attending. "Despite initial plans to do so, I did not attend or otherwise participate in the Claremont event this weekend, and I did not prepare or submit remarks," Simington said. </p><p>The event is happening as Las Vegas <a href="https://lasvegassun.com/news/2021/jan/13/las-vegas-hospital-capacity-crisis-covid-19-soar/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">experiences a spike in COVID cases</a>.</p><p>Claremont Institute President Ryan Williams refused to answer Protocol's questions about "the new slave power" panel, what COVID-19 safety protocols are in place during the in-person gathering or the range of speaker backgrounds on the agenda.</p><p>"The Claremont Institute has been a leading voice against political censorship by the Big Tech oligarchs, and we have no interest in commenting on an obvious hatchet job by a publication so clearly beholden to the pieties of Silicon Valley," Williams said in an email to Protocol. "Your questions are riddled with false premises, but we welcome the fire."</p><p>The list of speakers included several people with controversial pedigrees. One speaker, blogger Curtis Yarvin, otherwise known as Mencius Moldbug, has written that there is "no question that biological differences made Africans better slaves than indigenous Americans" because they were less susceptible to tropical diseases. He also once <a href="https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2007/11/why-i-am-not-white-nationalist/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wrote</a> in a blog post, "although I am not a white nationalist, I am not exactly allergic to the stuff." Yarvin was listed to speak on the panel about "the new slave power," along with Michael Anton, former deputy national security adviser under President Trump, who recently wrote an essay in Claremont's The American Mind publication suggesting that Democrats were "openly talking about staging a coup." </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="2">
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</div></p><p>Another speaker on the agenda, Adam Candeub, is the current acting head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Previously, as a lawyer, he <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/05/trumps-commerce-department-just-hired-a-lawyer-with-ties-to-white-nationalists/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">represented</a> white nationalist Jared Taylor in a lawsuit against Twitter. Eastman recently retired from his position as a law professor at Chapman University amid an <a href="https://www.ocregister.com/2021/01/13/controversial-law-professor-john-eastman-retires-from-chapman-university/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">uproar</a> over a speech he gave alleging election fraud at the pro-Trump rally preceding the Capitol attack on Jan. 6.</p><p>One of the final speakers listed on the agenda, Soylent founder Rob Rhinehart, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/technology/politics-tech-start-ups-culture-war.html?" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">made waves earlier this summer</a> with a 5,300-word blog post about why he <a href="https://www.robrhinehart.com/why-i-am-voting-for-kanye-west/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">supported hip-hop artist Kanye West</a> for president. "I am so sick of politics. Politics are suddenly everywhere," he wrote, before jumping into a lengthy post about Joe Biden, why the media is "actually evil" and the importance of biofuels. </p><p>One attendee said they had not been given any information on who would be speaking as of midday Friday, hours before the event was set to kick off, and Claremont Institute did not appear to be promoting the event on social media Saturday as the first panels began. "Maybe they're trying to keep it under wraps," the attendee said. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="3">
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</div></p><p>The attendee said they understood that the tenor of the weekend would be "very critical of tech, very pro some type of intervention."</p><p>"There's going to be some discrepancy and debate around what intervention looks like," the attendee said.</p><p>The other topics on the agenda include a panel on "restoring law" and a fireside chat titled, "What happened?" The summit takes place 10 days after a violent mob of Trump supporters breached the Capitol Hill complex, resulting in five deaths and forcing a reckoning within the Republican Party over its alignment with Trump and right-wing conspiracy theorists.</p>
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Emily Birnbaum ( @birnbaum_e) is a tech policy reporter with Protocol. Her coverage focuses on the U.S. government's attempts to regulate one of the most powerful industries in the world, with a focus on antitrust, privacy and politics. Previously, she worked as a tech policy reporter with The Hill after spending several months as a breaking news reporter. She is a Bethesda, Maryland native and proud Kenyon College alumna.
Power
What TV remotes tell us about power struggles in streaming
TV remote controls are a major battlefield in the TV wars, which are fought one branded button at a time.
LG's 2021 smart TV remote control features a total of three buttons for voice control.
Image: LG
January 13, 2021
Janko Roettgers (@jank0) is a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.
January 13, 2021
Don't touch that dial: As TV manufacturers are unveiling their 2021 models at this year's virtual CES, they're also giving us a first look at the remote controls that will be shipping with those big, shiny and smart TV sets.
There were a few surprises. LG's remotes come with built-in NFC to transfer videos from mobile devices to the TV, and Samsung's remotes incorporate solar cells that are meant to reduce battery waste. The new crop of 2021 TV remotes also perfectly encapsulates the conflicts and power struggles in the TV industry, from streaming services vying for attention to voice assistant platforms' fierce competition.
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There are more branded buttons on this year's TVs than ever, giving us a taste of the conflicts behind the scenes.
</p><h3>Money and power: The branded button</h3><p>
It's been 10 years since <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2011-01-04-netflix-one-click-remotes-coming-to-nearly-every-device-it-str.html" target="_blank">Netflix first partnered</a> with makers of streaming devices and smart TVs to add a dedicated Netflix button to their remote controls. Fast forward a decade, and those shortcut buttons are ubiquitous — and multiplying.<br>
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Take Hisense for example. The Chinese smart TV maker ships some of its 2021 TVs with a remote that has six branded buttons for streaming services, including not only Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube, but also free streaming service Tubi as well as relative newcomers Disney+ and Peacock.
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Branded buttons like these have long been paid product placements, with streaming services paying around $1 per remote to put their brand closer to a consumer's fingertips. However, as streaming services grow, these buttons have also become part of numerous turf wars. Netflix, for instance, has for years forced device makers to include a branded button in order to get access to its app, according to industry insiders.
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And while TV makers were long happy to just take the extra revenue, they're increasingly looking to compete with their own streaming services. Remotes from both LG and Samsung feature dedicated buttons for their respective ad-supported streaming services, with Samsung notably only giving branded buttons to two other streaming services (Netflix and Prime Video).
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Not every company is that constrained, though. Including a button for its own collection of free streaming channels, Vizio's 2021 remote features a whopping seven branded shortcut buttons.
</p><h3>Disputed territory: Smart TV platform remotes</h3><p>
While companies like LG and Samsung have long designed TV remote controls to their own liking, TV makers that license smart TV operating systems have much less freedom. TVs that run Roku's operating system need to ship with a Roku remote, whereas TVs using Amazon's smart TV OS tend to include remotes that look just like those that come with the company's own streaming devices.
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Google has given TV and streaming device makers more liberties in the past, resulting in a range of different remotes. Now, the company apparently seems to institute stricter requirements. Google has developed its own reference remote, and is said to "strongly recommend" that manufacturers adopt it, <a href="https://twitter.com/androidtv_rumor/status/1348632021749407744" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to</a> the usually well-informed Android TV Guide Twitter account.
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This new mandate coincides with Google's switch to its new branded user interface, which emphasizes Google-selected content recommendations over individual apps. As part of that strategy change, Google is also imploring TV and streaming device makers to include a dedicated button for its Watchlist feature, which is essentially a bookmarking service for individual shows and movies across desktop, mobile and TV.
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There's only one problem: Netflix is not on board with platforms disaggregating its catalog, and instead prefers that viewers fire up the Netflix app to discover new titles. As a result, <a href="https://www.techhive.com/article/3599868/netflix-drags-streaming-tv-backward-cord-cutters-take-note.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Netflix has forced Google</a> to disable the Watchlist feature for Netflix originals on TV-connected devices. Users can still add Netflix tiles to their Google Watchlist on the web, but they can't edit that list or even rate Netflix titles on Android TV devices — making the Watchlist button effectively a shortcut to disputed territory.
</p><h3>The final frontier: Voice assistants</h3><p>
The microphone button has quickly become one of the most coveted properties on TV remote controls. Google has made its own Google Assistant the default voice platform for Android TV devices, and Amazon is relying on its Alexa assistant for TVs running Fire TV OS. On third-party devices, the two companies are increasingly butting heads.
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For example, South Korean electronics giant LG is using its own webOS as the software platform for its smart TVs, but began adding support for third-party voice assistants a few years ago — a process that hasn't always gone smoothly.
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In 2020, LG let consumers access the Google Assistant via its main voice search button, effectively making it the default voice engine for its TVs. The company also had a partnership with Amazon to integrate Alexa, but Google rejected the idea of sharing the mic button, forcing LG to institute a less than intuitive workaround: People who preferred to use Amazon's voice assistant were instructed to forgo the mic button altogether and long-press the Prime Video button to trigger Alexa.
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This time around, LG decided to give Amazon's voice assistant a slightly more prominent placement in the form of a dedicated Alexa button. To keep all things equal, it also added a dedicated Google Assistant button to its 2021 remote control. And because LG's webOS does offer some basic voice commands to change channels or open apps, the company also kept the default microphone button on its remote.
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The result: three separate voice assistant buttons on a single remote control.
</p><h3>Why those buttons won't disappear anytime soon</h3><p>
Consumers may have mixed feelings about all those branded buttons; some even try to figure out how to <a href="https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/10/30/shield-tv-remote-remap-netflix/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reprogram their remote controls</a>. However, people do also like cheap TVs, and with the average purchase price of a TV set <a href="https://www.protocol.com/tcl-roku-tv-profit-smartphone" target="_self">declining by 60% between 2014 and 2019</a>, manufacturers have to find new ways to monetize their products. A few dollars here and there can make a real difference in a business with razor-thin margins, and Samsung and Roku have demonstrated that <a href="https://www.protocol.com/samsung-tv-plus-on-phones" target="_self">there's real money to be made</a> in running and heavily promoting their own ad-supported streaming services.
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Some of those extra buttons could be avoided if tech companies just played nice. Amazon, for instance, has long advocated for voice interoperability, which would allow companies like LG to add just a single microphone button to its TV remotes that could offer access to a multitude of voice assistants.
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Google has been steadfast in rejecting such proposals, all but guaranteeing that future TVs will continue to have a whole lot of button bloat.</p>
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Janko Roettgers (@jank0) is a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.
Power
Roku is becoming the most powerful company in streaming
A growing user base will give it even more power in content negotiations.
Roku's emerging as one of the streaming war's biggest winners.
Photo: Luke Sharrett/Getty Images
January 11, 2021
Janko Roettgers (@jank0) is a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.
January 8, 2021
Roku's bet on smart TVs is paying off: Seven years after the company first began licensing its operating system to TV manufacturers, it has become a market leader in North America. Roku and its hardware partners sold more smart TVs in the U.S. in 2020 than competitors like Samsung, LG and Vizio, according to data from the NPD Group released by Roku on Friday.
Roku TVs had a 38% market share in the U.S. and a 31% market share in Canada, according to NPD's data. Roku also announced earlier this week that it had ended 2020 with 51.2 million active accounts, adding around 14 million accounts over the past 12 months. Altogether, consumers streamed 58.7 billion hours of entertainment through their Roku devices in 2020, according to a news release.
<p>Both data points demonstrate how much of a force the company has become in North America, giving it even more power in negotiations with media companies looking to run their services on Roku streaming sticks and TVs. However, they also highlight how much Roku's business has been solely focused on the TV space, giving competitors a chance to dominate other smart device categories.</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="1">
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</div></p><p>After first making a name for itself with its streaming boxes, Roku began licensing its operating system to TV manufacturers in 2014, with one of its early licensing partners including China's TCL, <a href="https://www.protocol.com/tcl-roku-tv-profit-smartphone" target="_self">then virtually unknown in North America</a>. With affordable TV sets and a UI that emphasized simplicity over fancy new features, TCL and Roku managed to grow their market share year after year; at the end of 2019, every third smart TV sold in the U.S. was running Roku's operating system.</p><p>The growing popularity of Roku TVs and streaming devices has helped the company grow its advertising business and negotiate more favorable contracts with media companies looking to launch their apps on its platform. Roku is not only demanding revenue and ad-sharing agreements for any app that runs on its platform, but is also increasingly pressing media companies to make parts of their catalog available via its own free Roku Channel streaming service. Last year, negotiations between AT&T and Roku broke down, resulting in HBO Max not being available in Roku devices for six months.</p><p>Roku's expansion into other hardware categories has been more of a mixed bag. The company has made its own wireless speakers that work only with Roku TVs and streaming devices, but listings on various ecommerce websites suggest only modest demand. Roku's wireless bookshelf speakers were ranked No. 2,850 on Amazon.com's sales charts for consumer electronics devices at the time of writing. For comparison, Amazon's own Echo Dot speaker ranked No. 1, with other Amazon speakers and smart displays following closely behind.</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="2">
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</div></p><p>At one point, Roku developed a dedicated Wi-Fi product <a href="https://www.techhive.com/article/3445378/a-fix-for-your-wi-fi-problems-from-roku.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">called Roku Relay</a> that was supposed to optimize wireless connectivity for Roku streaming devices. The company tested Relay with a small number of consumers, but ultimately decided to not bring it to market.</p><p>Roku has been making some headway in cooperating with third-party companies in the audio space with a licensing program for third-party sound bars and speakers. Participating companies can market their devices as Roku TV Ready and integrate software to simplify setup. Roku TV Ready partners include TCL, Hisense, Enclave, Sound United and Bose, with Element scheduled to launch its own Roku TV Ready products this month. On Friday, Roku also announced that TCL would launch the first Roku TV Ready wireless sound bar in the coming months.</p>
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Janko Roettgers (@jank0) is a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.
Power
LG has acquired TV ad tech startup Alphonso
Alphonso could help LG build out its smart TV advertising business.
Alphonso could help LG monetize its TVs with ads.
Photo: LG
January 11, 2021
Janko Roettgers (@jank0) is a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.
January 5, 2021
Korean consumer electronics giant LG has acquired a controlling stake in TV advertising measurement startup Alphonso, investing more than $80 million in the company. LG announced the acquisition Wednesday, a day after Protocol first reported that a deal was imminent. With the acquisition, LG is looking to beef up the advertising business on its smart TV platform and better compete with companies like Samsung, Roku, Amazon and Vizio.
"Our investment in Alphonso is a key component of our digital transformation strategy focusing on AI, big data and cloud to fundamentally change how consumers interact with their devices," said LG Home Entertainment President Park Hyoung-sei. "With Alphonso's TV data analysis capabilities, LG will be able to provide even more customized services and content to consumers and we are proud to welcome Alphonso to the LG family."
<p><span></span>The two companies began exploring a deal as early as last summer, according to an industry insider.<br></p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="1">
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Founded in 2012, Alphonso has raised around $6 million in funding. The company has been building technology to measure advertising on traditional television in a more granular fashion, and give advertisers similar insights to those available from digital ad campaigns. Alphonso also promises advertisers to bridge the gap between TV viewing and the internet, allowing them to target viewers on both TV and mobile screens.
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LG's acquisition of Alphonso is part of a bigger trend of TV manufacturers and smart TV platform operators chasing ad dollars. As consumers cut the cord by the millions, ad-supported streaming services have become a real money-maker for TV brands like Samsung and LG, allowing them to transition from a business purely focused on unit sales to one with recurring revenue streams.
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While some of these companies relied on third-party technology to build their advertising businesses, many are looking for ways to maximize their revenue and cut out any middlemen. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/22/roku-buys-ad-tech-platform-dataxu-for-150-million/" target="_blank">Roku acquired</a> ad tech startup Dataxu for $150 million in late 2019, and Vizio recently reorganized its advertising business to <a href="https://www.adexchanger.com/tv-2/vizio-reorgs-around-its-data-biz-with-the-full-integration-of-inscape/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">bring its subsidiary Inscape back into the fold</a>.</p><p>
In addition to selling ad inventory for apps on their platforms, smart TV makers also run their own free, ad-supported streaming services. Samsung Electronics SVP Sang Kim <a href="https://www.protocol.com/samsung-tv-plus-on-phones" target="_blank">recently told Protocol</a> that the company is streaming "billions of minutes every month" on its free TV Plus service, which emulates the look and feel of traditional linear television. LG began adding a similar set of streaming channels to its smart TVs in 2016.
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</div></p><p><em><strong>Update:</strong> This article was updated throughout following LG's announcement.</em></p>
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Janko Roettgers (@jank0) is a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.
Deepdub uses AI to dub movies in the voice of famous actors
Fresh out of stealth, the startup is using artificial intelligence to automate the localization process for global streaming.
Deepdub promises AI dubbing at the click of a button.
Image: Deepdub
December 21, 2020
Janko Roettgers (@jank0) is a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.
December 16, 2020
The streaming wars aren't just about domestic viewers anymore: Netflix, Disney, HBO Max and the like increasingly compete around the world. Around a third of Disney+ subscribers, for instance, are based in India, and the company is looking to further grow its international audience in Europe and Latin America.
Tel Aviv-based startup Deepdub wants to help streaming services accelerate this kind of international rollout by using artificial intelligence for their localization needs. Deepdub, which came out of stealth on Wednesday, has built technology that can translate a voice track to a different language, all while staying true to the voice of the talent. This makes it possible to have someone like Morgan Freeman narrate a movie in French, Italian or Russian without losing what makes Freeman's voice special and recognizable.
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Deepdub was founded in late 2019, and has been in conversations with a number of potential Hollywood clients, according to Deepdub CMO Oz Krakowski. "People's jaws are dropping to the floor," he said, adding that industry insiders especially value the ability to adjust the voice of an AI-generated dubbing track. "We call it voice design," he explained.
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Deepdub has published <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcOOPxs1lsQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an impressive demo video</a> on YouTube. Krakowski recently gave me some more context on how the company's technology works:
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<li>Deepdub currently can dub videos into six different languages, including French, German and Spanish. The company aims to double that number in the next few months, and ultimately wants to be able to localize videos into 60 languages.</li>
<li>The technology is designed to fully automate the dubbing process, but Krakowski admitted that higher-end projects still require a bit of manual intervention for things like local idioms and brands. For instance, the convenience store chain 7-Eleven doesn't exist in many countries, so employees may have to help the system find an adequate replacement.</li>
<li>However, this kind of intervention only has to happen once, and it benefits all future projects. "The system keeps learning," Krakowski said. "The amount of manual work decreases over time."</li>
<li>Deepdub can work with a variety of source materials. This includes complete video files with mixed-down audio tracks from which the system is able to remove and replace individual voices. That could especially come in handy for streaming services with a lot of library content. "You have streaming services with thousands of videos that are stuck on a single language," Krakowski said.</li>
</ul>
<p>
Deepdub is not the only company looking to use AI for dubbing and voice localization. Toronto-based Resemble has built tech to <a href="https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/next-up/whose-voice-is-it-anyway?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" target="_self">clone your voice</a> in different languages, which is already being used for chatbots and automated call centers. London-based Synthesia also targets Hollywood, albeit with a bit of a different approach: It changes not only the audio track, but actually <a href="https://www.protocol.com/hulu-deepfake-commercial-ai" target="_self">uses deepfake image manipulation</a> to match an actor's mouth movement to the new voice. Krakowski pointed out that such an approach is still challenged by different camera angles as well as onscreen motion, but he acknowledged that the two technologies may ultimately converge. "It's not a question of if, just of when," he said.
</p>
<p>
In the meantime, AI dubbing may be able to help Hollywood with some more pressing problems. The pandemic forced streaming services to limit dubbing for a number of markets. For instance, Netflix has been telling viewers in recent months that it had to delay localization for some of its titles. "We're prioritizing voice actors' and dubbing studio safety," the company informed viewers within its app. Artificial intelligence could help to bridge those gaps, even if studios ultimately decide to rely on real voice actors for the final version.
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<em>A version of this article will appear in this week's Next Up newsletter. </em><a href="https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/" target="_self"><em>Sign up here</em></a><em> to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.</em></p>
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Janko Roettgers (@jank0) is a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.
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January 15, 2021 13:45 EST
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