Eros Now, Google Cloud Team Up to Offer Automated Subtitles

Google is automating subtitles on Eros Now. On Monday, ErosSTX announced that it has collaborated with Google Cloud to use the latter's “artificial intelligence (AI) technology” to generate subtitles for Eros Now's entire catalogue of movies and originals. Eros Now claims it's the first streaming service globally to automate what has previously been a “manual and demanding workflow”. Eros Now's automated subtitles will be first available in Arabic, followed by “other significant markets” that consume Indian entertainment around the world.

ErosSTX revealed that it took over six months for data scientists to perfect Google Cloud's automation process as it had to deal with a variety of challenges — with gender non-neutral languages and different punctuations posing the biggest hurdles. It can handle a variety of genres and modernisation of languages, Eros Now claims, and the automated subtitling system performs “equivalent to human level”, which is both bold and necessary given the cultural nuances required of subtitles in entertainment.

Google Cloud relies on AI frameworks and a vast amount of pre-existing data to create automated subtitles for Eros Now, with an in-house ErosSTX team training the model. In other words, they are doing machine learning. Eros Now believes this will help bolster audience engagement and lead to “Text to Speech” automation opportunities in the future.

“Eros has always been a pioneer in adopting technology to satiate the demands of audiences and build a deeper connection with them by offering unlimited entertainment,” Eros Now CEO Ali Hussein said in a prepared statement. “The innovative use of artificial intelligence and machine learning will give customised subtitled content for the global audience, allowing us to target a wider set of subscribers and drive engagement across Eros Now' rich consumer offering."

Google Cloud India Managing Director Bikram Singh Bedi added: “With the power of AI built on Google Cloud, Eros Now can deliver automated subtitles to further enhance the viewing experience of its users.”