JTBC Studios and SK Telecom developing auto subtitle generator

JTBC Studios and SK Telecom signed a business agreement to co-develop a voice-to-text technology that will automatically create subtitles, the companies said on Wednesday.

Once complete, the new technology will be available for Korean dramas, entertainment shows and documentaries aired on IPTV services and online video streaming services.

The software program is scheduled to be completed in the next two years, according to SK Telecom.

SK Telecom will sell the technology to broadcasters but provide it for free to JTBC Studios for a certain period of time.

For the co-development, JTBC Studios will offer its expertise in producing videos and provide its TV programs as test material, which SK Telecom will use to refine the program that will process the voices quicker and more accurately than existing automatic subtitle programs.

TV broadcasters and tech companies do offer automated subtitle services. But at the moment, the software must listen to the voice within the video and then transcribe it into text.

That results in up to a five-second gap between the voice and the text. And when there’s background noise such as music, the transcription often goes awry, especially if background music has words.

The new technology will minimize the voice-to-text time gap and better distinguish between the human voice with background noise to maximize the accuracy of the subtitles, according to the companies.

It will help providers when exporting their videos. Currently when selling a TV program to a different country, subtitles must be translated manually. The new technology will cut processing time and cost by half.

"We hope that this media technology will help spread Korean content and enhance audience welfare," said Lee Jae-kwang, leader of SK Telecom's media business support group.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]