Subtitling Services. What's your rate?
Thread poster: Diego Achío
Diego Achío
Diego Achío  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:03
English to Spanish
+ ...
May 31, 2013

Hello Guys (and girls)!

My translation business have been growing up in the last year and now we want to offer Subtitling services as well. We will begin with EN>ES and ES>EN only.

But I wanted to ask the community, what do they think its the minimum rate for this service?

I've been thinking about something like this:


If Video + Source Lang. transcription is provided: $2.00USD per minute + translation rate per word.

If only
... See more
Hello Guys (and girls)!

My translation business have been growing up in the last year and now we want to offer Subtitling services as well. We will begin with EN>ES and ES>EN only.

But I wanted to ask the community, what do they think its the minimum rate for this service?

I've been thinking about something like this:


If Video + Source Lang. transcription is provided: $2.00USD per minute + translation rate per word.

If only Video is provided: $3.00USD per minute + translation rate per word


Would something like this be reasonable? or Is it out of the ordinary?
Collapse


 
JohannaKa
JohannaKa  Identity Verified
Local time: 06:03
English to German
+ ...
Hi Diego! May 31, 2013

I would say that this is rather on the low side. Mostly you would only charge per film minute. In subtitling your word count is generally low as your translation is more or less a summary of what is being said. This doesn't mean that it's less work - you have to think laterally a lot, looking for shorter solutions, evaluating what is most important... That's why I would advise you to charge a higher rate per minute. You should calculate well then. I've just checked a recent project of mine, I ha... See more
I would say that this is rather on the low side. Mostly you would only charge per film minute. In subtitling your word count is generally low as your translation is more or less a summary of what is being said. This doesn't mean that it's less work - you have to think laterally a lot, looking for shorter solutions, evaluating what is most important... That's why I would advise you to charge a higher rate per minute. You should calculate well then. I've just checked a recent project of mine, I had 1,200 words for a reel of 20 minutes; I think this is about average, just to give you an idea.Collapse


 
Diego Achío
Diego Achío  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:03
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I have no idea how much to start with! Jun 1, 2013

JohannaKa, thank you for your reply and warning me about the pricing. Truth is, we're implementing transcription and subtitling as new services and in a try to guess transcription prices I actually got ripped off in our first transcription assignment hahaha.

Do you have any recommendation regarding a starting rate? I dare to ask.


 
LilianNekipelov
LilianNekipelov  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 01:03
Russian to English
+ ...
Mine is $5-7 per minute of text Jun 1, 2013

I think the rates range from $5/min to $10/min. Of course there may be some people who charge starvation rates. Subtitling has to be done really well, and it takes a lot of time.

 
Diego Achío
Diego Achío  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:03
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
The translation issue... Jun 22, 2013

LilianBNekipelo wrote:

I think the rates range from $5/min to $10/min. Of course there may be some people who charge starvation rates. Subtitling has to be done really well, and it takes a lot of time.


Does this rate include the translation of the English dialogs? In transcription there's a huge issue among translators because most of us complain that the average rate for transcriptions is way too low for the effort of transcribing + translating the transcription.

According to my numbers, there is an average of 60 - 220 words in 1 minute of video, ranging from a normal movie where dialogs are not fluent to a documental where there's a minute full of dialogs. This means that in 10 minutes there would be from 600 to 2,200 words to transcribe, translate and paste as subtitles.


The lowest average translation rate from English to Spanish is $0.04 USD per source word. Just translating 2,200 words would mean a $88.00 USD pay. If someone charges $10.00/min (as LilianBNekipelo suggests – Thanks LilianBNekipelo) for subtitling a 10 minutes video this would mean a $100.00 USD pay.

So, the whole job would mean around $12.00 USD for transcribing the dialogs and stamping their translation to the video as subtitles. Plus $88.00 USD for the effort of translating them with the lowest rate.

This doesn't sound as a very profitable job to me, taking into account that just the translation would be an around 5 hours job (at a 3,500 words per day speed)... You'd be earning less than $13 USD per hour if the whole thing takes you 8hrs. You'd be better off working at McDonalds.

I guess it would be more fair to charge around $5 – $10 per minute for transcribing + stamping the subtitles. Plus $0.04 USD (or your rate here) per source word. So a 10mins video would mean around a $188.00 USD pay.

Does anyone actually charge like this? Does anyone else agree?

[Editado a las 2013-06-22 22:41 GMT]


 


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:


You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Subtitling Services. What's your rate?







TM-Town
Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business

Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.

More info »
Anycount & Translation Office 3000
Translation Office 3000

Translation Office 3000 is an advanced accounting tool for freelance translators and small agencies. TO3000 easily and seamlessly integrates with the business life of professional freelance translators.

More info »