In two previous posts, “ Worldwide Content Classification – What Happens When You Get It Wrong ,” and “ Worldwide Content Classification – How Hard Can It Be? ” we’ve laid out the challenge facing content creators and distributors who want to market their content globally. In this post, we will discuss how to avoid making mistakes that can be costly either economically, legally or reputationally, and get your content released in international markets faster than ever before.
To recap, according to IMDBPro, each year an average of 356,000 titles are released. Currently, there are about 31,000 movies, TV movies, TV series and TV miniseries in some stage of production around the world. Every one of those titles destined for general release anywhere on the planet must be viewed and rated by some regulatory body, agency or platform and be assigned a country-specific age-rating. This gives consumers some indication of appropriateness of the type of content they are about to watch. Whether anyone likes it or not (usually not), this is not an optional thing; it is required.
Over the past few weeks, industry trades have published dozens of articles, like here , here , here , here and here , highlighting the problems content creators, producers, distributors and even writers are experiencing trying to get a script or film approved for production or release in major global markets. These are not unique stories. Those who have the responsibility for obtaining ratings know how exacting that process is. What these stories highlight is the complexity and importance of correctly navigating differing country regulatory, legal, and cultural requirements.
But who has time for this? Who wants to hire staff to chase down ratings in 20 countries, whether it is a series of titles or a one-off? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to manage this entire process in one place, where titles can be reviewed once, and that one time could generate ratings in top markets around the world? Wouldn’t it be great if the people you worked with had demonstrable knowledge of the cultural realities and regulatory requirements of 200+ countries and territories worldwide? And wouldn’t it be great if the entire process, from application to review to submission, could all be managed online?
Now for the good news: introducing Spherexratings™.
Spherexratings™ is a professional service that assists studios, producers, distributors, and platforms in obtaining valid, in-country maturity ratings for film, TV, and streaming content. Built upon nearly a decade’s experience in studying and assessing cultural requirements in nearly every country on Earth, Spherexratings™ provides a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and human assessment to rate video content quickly and efficiently.
Using proprietary processes and technologies developed through creating, managing, and cultivating metadata tools for the Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry, Spherex’s ratings team works with content creators to collect all title information required to rate it. Not only are these data helpful in obtaining multiple country ratings, but they can also be used to create the metadata necessary to optimally market and position content on any distribution platform or search engine worldwide.
Spherexratings’™ client-oriented interface provides complete access to the evaluation process and allows full tracking of the title from the time it is first made available for rating through the ratings and approval process for individual countries. Customers can see and respond to both human and AI-based feedback and recommendations at all review stages.
The Spherexratings™ process is straightforward: provide secure access to the title, answer a series of questions about the title to build a metadata base, including common data such as title, synopsis, release details, cast and production team details, and more and Spherex takes it from there. Upon process completion, legal, country-specific documents are provided to demonstrate the content has been properly rated and distribution of the content can proceed. Once rated, clients can manage all future ratings from the same interface.
Available today, Spherexratings™ will fundamentally speed up the ratings process for content creators and reduce the amount of time they spend managing it. Spherexratings™ is the industry’s first global “rate once, manage forever” rating system for video content.
For more information or to schedule a demonstration, click here , complete the online form and someone from our Spherexratings™ team will contact you. We look forward to making your global content release (and your professional life) a whole lot easier.
