Over 35 years ago, in Hollywood, I got started in foreign language voiceover work. At the time, English voices were not in high demand. Securing foreign language artists was tricky and they knew it. English voiceover talent would charge an average of $75 per hour. Spanish was $150 per hour and Asian languages, like Chinese and Japanese, earned more than $200 per hour.

So many major films were dubbed into foreign languages and would have to use the same voiceover talent for multiple characters in multiple movies because there wasn’t enough to fill the need. This meant, , which didn’t quite present the cinematic experience intended.

All this changed once Netflix started dubbing English programming. Within a short time, production sites sprung up and supply was finally able to keep up with demand. Fast forward to 2022 with translated foreign programming into English here to stay, making it nearly impossible to keep up with the growing demand.

Case in point: was asked to record 500 hours of programming from different languages into English. Dollar signs were on our minds. There was just one problem: we would need 7,000 English voiceover professionals. Unsurprisingly, the availability was scarce. Mind you, translation or recording studio efforts were not a problem, though the project required the use of more than 20 production houses worldwide in order to release the programming on time.

For those interested in exploring voiceover work, the demand in the industry is lucrative. However, it takes more than an awesome voice to secure steady voiceover work. One needs to manage lip-syncing and character adaptation too. There is also a shortage of voiceover training schools, meaning .

The short-term answer is meeting English voiceover needs with non-professional talent. If you listen carefully, you can tell when an actor is not a native speaker. Though, there should soon be an increased in qualified resources to handle the volume since it represents unchartered territory. To further complicate matters, outside of major box office films, distributors don’t seem to care about quality as long as it is done cheaply, which is not a sustainable solution.

Meanwhile, today’s clients and consumers expect to have the best of the best, while still benefiting from a low cost. How then will this supply and demand balance out? And will audiences stay engaged with poor-quality translations?

Stay tuned for the next blog post exploring current voiceover costs and where the industry is headed.