The audience strikes back: Agency and accountability in audiovisual translation and distribution

Newer distribution models and delivery mechanisms for audiovisual content have, over the years, contributed to the emergence of different dynamics between the consumers (or end-users) of these audiovisual texts and their providers on a global scale. Fans and casual viewers alike have now become more vocal in expressing their dissatisfaction with subtitled or dubbed content that is not up to their standards. In this article, I take a macro-level approach to audience studies in audiovisual translation (AVT) by reflecting on if and how viewers’ perspectives are being incorporated into streaming platforms’ policies and sense of accountability towards their subscribers. By analysing a recent case study from Netflix Italia – the Japanese anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (Netflix 2019–2020) – I consider the ways in which the streaming platform took on board the subscribers’ complaints about the quality of the Italian adaptation and modified its offering accordingly. This new dynamic seems to suggest that distributors who are more sensitive to their subscribers’ needs may foster a process of co-creation and meaning-making of the localized content that concretely acknowledges the consumers’ point of view. At the same time it raises issues concerning the impact that the opinions of viewers who are mostly untrained in the standards and practices of AVT might ultimately have in localization and distribution choices.