AI Replaces Costly Voice Dubbing… Accelerates Global Expansion of K-Content
South Korea’s popular dating reality show I Am Solo is heading to global audiences via FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV). The key to this expansion is English dubbing—powered not by traditional voice actors, but by AI. With emotional nuance and natural delivery, AI enables Korean content to be consumed more effectively abroad.
Content startup BEBRIDGE was recently selected as a consortium partner for the government’s 8billion KRW “K-FAST AI Dubbing Expansion Support” initiative. The company is responsible for AI dubbing of I Am Solo, helping rapidly localize K-content via global platforms like K-FAST.
Through this project, the government plans to secure over 1,400 hours of AI-dubbed content. More than 4,400 K-media and entertainment programs will begin streaming globally through Korean FAST channels, starting in Q4 across 20+ countries including the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
While platforms like Netflix have increased awareness of K-content, industry consensus holds that dubbing—not just subtitles—is critical for sustained overseas engagement. Unlike Korean audiences, viewers in Western markets strongly prefer dubbed audio over subtitles, enhancing both comprehension and immersion.
BEBRIDGE will translate and dub over 200 hours of I Am Solo into English. Given the show’s heavy emotional content, it presents a real-world test case for the quality of AI dubbing technology.
CEO Junghyun Park stated in an interview with Digital Times on the 4th, “In reality programming, localization and emotional fidelity are crucial. BEBRIDGE will deliver high-quality localized content through a collaborative workflow between AI agents and translation experts.”
AI dubbing is emerging as a core enabler for crossing language barriers in content. From long-form educational content to drama and entertainment aimed at global markets, demand for dubbing is surging. It allows for emotional nuance and tone that subtitles cannot capture—essential for viewer immersion.
Each country has different emotional tones and viewing behaviors, so localization must be tailored to market needs—titles, thumbnails, and content curation included. K-content performs especially well in regions with cultural proximity, like Southeast Asia and Latin America. The government’s focus on AI dubbing within K-FAST reflects this need for tailored regional strategies.
Traditional dubbing, relying on voice actors, required extensive coordination, recording, and editing—costing tens of millions of won and taking weeks to complete. This made it inaccessible to small studios and solo creators. AI dubbing lowers these barriers by offering natural voice synthesis, lip-sync, and emotional expression without human voice actors—compressing production time to just 1–2 days.
BEBRIDGE goes beyond automation, offering a full-stack content localization solution that balances cost and quality. Its end-to-end service spans voice generation, lip-sync, emotion tuning, and thumbnail design. It also pioneered the industry’s first transparent per-minute pricing model.
Its hybrid model—AI generates the first pass, and humans provide feedback—ensures high-quality results. Park noted that while experts initially revised over 50% of the AI output, that figure has dropped below 10% as the AI improves through feedback loops.
AI dubbing isn’t just about exporting Korean content. It’s also helping import foreign content into Korea. BEBRIDGE supported the Korean dubbing of a Howard Marks interview on the economic YouTube channel SamproTV. The dubbed video saw explosive engagement, outperforming subtitle-only content by over 3x in average view time, proving demand for audio-localized content in Korea as well.
There’s growing interest across the content industry in government-backed localization initiatives. AI offers a powerful tool to enhance quality and efficiency. BEBRIDGE reports that AI dubbing leads to over 3x longer watch time compared to subtitled versions and aims to help creators boost ROI through localization.
Park concluded, “With the K-FAST initiative, we’ve been able to test new business models. AI dubbing isn’t just a translation tool—it’s core infrastructure for global content distribution. BEBRIDGE will continue to serve as a bridge for K-content to reach the world with the right technology and strategy.”
Written by [email protected]
Source: Digital Times (https://www.dt.co.kr/article/12009000)