Global SVOD | How to go global with multi-currency and subtitles

Katherine is a writer and the cofounder of <a href="http://www.cxd.studio/">CXD Studio</a>, a creative agency based in Boston. She is also a registered nurse and enjoys the beach and any body of water she can find!
Katherine Boyarsky
Increase your SVOD channel’s global reach by offering multi-currency payment options and subtitles. Learn how to take your SVOD platform global here.

The global OTT market is set to double in size by 2023 to $72.8 billion, which means there’s never been a better time to expand your reach internationally.

Video creators are recognizing globalization strategies like the importance of subtitles, and with tools that make it easy to add captions and subtitles to videos, content can reach new international audiences.

Now, along with options to add subtitles and multiple languages, streaming platforms like Vimeo OTT are helping sellers expand globally by making it easy for them to offer multi-currency payment options. Sellers can set custom pricing for each market or automatically set pricing based on the current exchange rate, reducing signup friction and increasing conversions.

A multi-currency checkout experience, captions, and subtitles are only a few ways to think globally. Here are more tips for growing your audience internationally using global subscription video on demand (SVOD):

1. Set country-specific subscription prices

Have you ever heard of the Big Mac Index?

Each year, The Economist publishes a report comparing the price of the famed burger globally to test the true purchasing power of different currencies. What this typically reveals is that the exchange rate is not the only way to determine how much things should or do cost in different countries.

Subscribers in certain countries may be accustomed to paying a little more or less on entertainment than in your primary market. You can modify accordingly by manually adjusting your multi-currency pricing country-by-country.

Vimeo offers international-friendly multi-currency pricing where you can have video prices show up in the native country’s currency automatically. 

  • Set up pricing so that the price of a video defaults based on current exchange rates, or set a specific price in a certain region based on your knowledge of the market.
  • Make sure to set both monthly and yearly pricing in other currencies when you use Vimeo to offer multi-currency pricing on videos.
  • Vimeo offers 13 international currencies: USD, CAD, MXN, GBP, EUR, AUD, NZD, JPY, DKK, SEK, NOK, PLN, and BRL.

2. Use subtitles

An image from a TV program with closed captions in English.

The importance of subtitles and closed captioning can’t be overstated. Someone is twice as likely to subscribe to your content if you provide video subtitles in their native language. If you know you have a large audience based in certain regions, it’s worth investing in subtitles to make your content accessible to them.

Making subtitles is more affordable than you might think. There are a number of free and low-cost services that will create video subtitles for you.

If you have the time and resources, you can take your translations a step further like popular international entertainment network MHz Choice does. A member of their team reviews subtitle translations not just for accuracy, but also to update any slang terms so they make sense to their audience. So if a British show mentions the “bonnet” of a car, the subtitle says “hood” for an American audience.

MHz Choice states clearly in their site description that they provide English subtitles, so visitors know right away they’ll be able to consume and understand their content.

Why should you add subtitles to your video content?

There are many benefits to adding subtitles to your video content, the importance of subtitles being:

  • Subtitles provide an increase in accessibility for people who are deaf or hard of hearing
  • SEO can crawl text, but not video — when you backup your video content with captions and a transcript, your video content can rank on Google
  • Subtitles add an increase in user experience; with subtitles, your content can be enjoyed in any environment
  • Viewers are more likely to watch your video to completion when given the option to turn subtitles on, improving overall watch time of your content

Closed captions are also important for video content, particularly for audience members who are visually impaired. Captions provide a description of what’s happening in the video, whereas subtitles transcribe the dialogue as text. Vimeo supports both subtitles and closed captions on your videos.

Here are our recommendations for adding subtitles or closed captions to video content and the best software choices to do so.

3. Make content available everywhere

An image of IndieFlix's OTT channel

You want to have the widest market possible for your subscription. So, you want to make your content available to everyone, everywhere. Sometimes, networks choose to make content unavailable in certain countries, due to licensing agreements or other restrictions. This practice is called "geo-blocking."

What is geo-blocking?

Geo-blocking is a restrictive tool that prohibits users in specific locations from accessing certain websites. Companies can utilize geo-blocking to restrict access to content based on physical location. Geo-blocking allows creators to create content that is only accessible by desired users, and allows companies to maintain control over their online content.

With Vimeo OTT, you can geo-block individual videos or collections, rather than your full library, if necessary due to licensing or other regulations. Unaffected videos, however, remain available to everyone.

If you need to use geo-blocking to distribute your video content internationally, try Vimeo’s OTT platform for SVOD. Vimeo allows you to both permit certain countries to see videos, thereby blocking all other locations, or the opposite. You can also block certain countries, allowing the rest to access your content. Depending on how restrictive your licensing is, these options will save you lots of time so you don’t have to individually choose to block or allow by country.

How does geo-blocking work?

Geo-blocking technology determines a user’s location in order to enact restrictions. Location is determined by the user's I.P. address and measuring ping.

4. Find your international audience

With the Vimeo OTT dashboard, you can see who’s watching your videos and from where. Knowing where your fans are based can inform your marketing strategy, determine your multi-currency pricing approach, and improve your organic and paid social efforts.

Differences in viewer behavior by country can also identify where you might have an accessibility or localization opportunity.

Maybe you have a lot of viewers in certain countries who don’t convert to subscribers. That may mean that a language barrier or lack of multi-currency support is keeping them from subscribing.

Or, maybe you have those features in place, but your price is higher than the market is willing to pay. Paying attention to your viewers’ nationality helps you identify better ways to grow into new markets.

In the past decade there has been an obvious and substantial growth of popular SVOD platforms. And while there are a few standout companies that have led this growth, with this growth has come the natural surge of smaller and more regional SVOD platforms to find success. 

Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are finally facing some competition in recent years. If anything, this change in consumer viewing habits has brought to light the revelation that global SVOD success is not reserved for the giants.

There is an abundance of space on the global level for more local, native, and regional video content creators to gain exposure and grow their audiences. According to these trends and statistics, the future of the global SVOD market is more inclusive than ever before.

What are the key SVOD trends?

  • Growth is a given. In terms of the size of audiences, the amount of existing platforms, and the amount of original content — SVOD platforms are growing in every way.
  • Netflix is the leader, but not without substantial competition. With Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Roku, Disney +, HBO, and Apple TV now in the game, Netflix’s global market domination is a thing of the past.
  • Original content is king. With an increase in SVOD platforms comes a natural increase in the production of original content, and this original streaming content has proven to be the key to retaining an audience with 69% of all global demand being for original titles from Netflix.
  • The global market is invested in action and adventure original content. No doubt sparked by the global interest in superheroes, followed by global demand for drama original content.

What are the essential SVOD statistics to know?

  • The average US household currently subscribes to 2.8 SVOD services.
  • Netflix’s yearly content budget has reached $15 billion and has long term debt to finance $12.3 billion.
  • In 2013, the combined content spend for the top three streaming services was $4.5 billion and by 2018 had grown to $19.5 billion—in 6 years that is more than a quadrupling of spending.

At the end of 2018, Netflix reported 140 million global subscribers, followed by Amazon Prime Video with 100 million.

SVOD platform Q&A

1. How do you determine which content to produce for the biggest impact?

Research your intended audience before producing content, you can’t create effective content that reaches a global audience until you understand your audience’s content consumption behavior.

2. How will you gain insight into your content’s value for your subscribers?

To ensure you are creating content that appeals to your existing audience, use content affinity analysis to assess how well new content maintains a shared liking with your current high-functioning content.

3. How do you determine your individual content’s impact on audience attraction and retention?

Prioritize your content creation on a demand per dollar basis to ensure your content is doing the appropriate heavy lifting when it comes to attracting and retaining your SVOD platform’s intended audience.

4. How do you use ROI to rank your content?

To optimize your content creation decision making process, determine the ROI of each piece of content on your platform. As your platform grows globally, the ROI of each piece of content will be subject to change and the renewal or cancellation of content produced on your platform will be determined by the increase or decrease of ROI.

5. What types of content should I invest in to reach audiences at the global level?

The major types of content that are worth your investment are subscriptions drivers, churn reducers, and niche attractors. If your content falls outside any of these major categories, your platform runs the risk of experiencing mass subscriber cancellations.

Wrap-up To Taking Your SVOD Platform Global

The current state of the global SVOD platform market is fluid. With so many SVOD giants vying for diverse audiences, there is much room for smaller niche and focused SVOD platforms to make their way into the global streaming arena.

When you utilize the right tools and content production techniques, finding success at the global level will be up to your audience and the accessibility of your content. Remember, there has never been a better time to expand your reach internationally. Think big, aim high, and implement calculated content best practices. Then, trust that your audience will rise to the occasion of meeting you there.

How endurance sports TV reaches a global SVOD audience using Vimeo

endurance sports TV created a passionate, global fanbase using multi-currency offerings and increased their international audience by reducing the barrier to accessing their content.


We market in over 60 countries, so we wanted to ensure there was no barrier for our customers to get on to the platform. Through Vimeo's multi-currency support, we’ve been able to remove that friction.
Peter Tomlinson, CEO, endurance sports TV

What should you know before taking your SVOD platform global?

  • There are currently an estimated 715 million global SVOD users, a number expected to grow to nearly 1 billion by 2024.
  • Instead of focusing on having the lowest price, determine what is the right price for subscribers to pay to use your platform, and use international pricing on your OTT platform.
  • You don’t need to provide endless content opportunities to retain viewers— instead focus on producing a targeted, well-managed library of content for your intended audience.
  • Take global expansion as an opportunity to repackage local content into widely accessible content.

How do you optimize your SVOD platform at the global level?

  • Stick to providing content audiences can trust from creators they have demonstrated they like.
  • Convenience is the key to retention. Optimize your SVOD platform for user-friendly purposes to ensure your platform remains an accessible, inclusive streaming service.
  • After launch, continue to grow your SVOD platform’s original content production to retain your audience. As your platform grows, your subscription rate will follow.
  • After substantial growth, increase the frequency of release for your most high-performing content and the content that serves specific audiences.

Launching a subscription video network

Monetizing your video content is as straightforward as finding the right OTT platform to fit your needs. Dive into the details of creating and selling a video library, what’s important in an OTT platform, how to offer your content on streaming apps, and why customer support is a top feature to review before you buy.

With the right tools you can launch a subscription network and expand it internationally without a huge tech overhaul or savvy developer skills. You have the power to share your incredible educational content, entertainment content, faith-based programming, kids videos, and more with people all over the world.

After you're done creating your video and before your content gets to the Vimeo video player, you can also leverage Vimeo's video editor for tasks like trimming video, merging video, compressing video, cropping video, making GIFs, and more.

The right platform makes all the difference.

Learn how to choose an OTT streaming platform and launch a successful subscription network.

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Photo of Katherine Boyarsky

Katherine Boyarsky

Katherine is a writer and the cofounder of CXD Studio, a creative agency based in Boston. She is also a registered nurse and enjoys the beach and any body of water she can find!

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