Cinedigm is an independent entertainment firm that owns, creates and distributes award-winning content. One of the most successful shows in its portfolio is the Emmy award-winning series Bob Ross: The Joy of Painting, which has been captivating audiences on TV in the US for over 30 years. Cinedigm’s chief product officer, Tony Huidor, wanted to extend the value and safeguard the longevity of the cult show by distributing it to Spanish-speaking audiences in the US and Latin America, but the project was thwarted by the cost of human dubbing. Until Cinedigm and Papercup partnered to localize the entire Bob Ross catalog.
It’s well documented that the studio dubbing process is expensive, but it’s also time-consuming which means that lots of content with huge pent up value, like Bob Ross, falls through the localization cracks.
By partnering with Papercup, Cinedigm was able to localize large volumes – two seasons a week – at a speed not possible with human dubbing.
The dramatically reduced turnaround times promised by AI dubbing, combined with strong evidence of the show’s ability to engage existing, English-speaking, audiences made for a solid business case.
With AI dubbing, Cinedigm has been able to realize the true value of a successful show that would have otherwise been stuck in its original language.
Cinedigm set out to scale its business internationally at a pivotal time for the entertainment industry: as demand for streaming content adapted for local markets continues to grow. By adopting AI dubbing, Cinedigm extended the value of top performing show, not only by growing audiences abroad, but by fast forwarding profitability as a result of rapid localization turnaround times.
When Cinedigm launched 30 seasons of Bob Ross as a dedicated channel on free streaming platform Samsung TV Plus in 2020, it quickly found huge success and was subsequently widely distributed across Pluto TV, Roku and LG Channels. Testament to the quality of the AI dubbing, when Roku launched in LATAM Bob Ross was selected as one of its 15 launch shows.
“The Bob Ross Channel is one of our most successful channels due to its broad appeal and the magic that Bob Ross’ talent and innovation brought to the screen. By partnering with Papercup, extended the reach of The Joy of Painting by utilizing cutting-edge technology to seamlessly dub his voice using artificial intelligence and synthetic speech. As streaming services continue to expand worldwide, this will allow us to reach a previously untapped global audience.”