What are media transcription services, and how can they help your business? The global media and entertainment industries are multi-trillion-dollar enterprises and an ever-present part of our lives. Creative innovations aside, many would be hard-pressed to identify a single way of improving the current state of media. I have one, though: the capability to read broadcast content instead of watching and listening to it.
Welcome to the world of media transcription. Similar to how trial transcription services enable viewing a written record of what occurred at a trial, media transcripts allow a convenient approach to digesting media content.
In this article, you’ll learn how:
- Media transcription converts video and audio into text, making content more accessible, searchable, and engaging for broader audiences.
- Professional transcription supports editing, translation, captioning, SEO, and record-keeping for media producers, including podcasters, filmmakers, radio shows, and studios.
- Choosing U.S.-based human transcription services, such as Ditto, ensures 99%+ accuracy, fast turnaround, scalability, and security compared to in-house or AI alternatives.
What Are Media Transcription Services?
Media transcription is the process of converting audio or video into text documents, allowing the audience to read the content of media productions. It applies to traditional media, such as TV and film, as well as modern formats like podcasts and online videos from social media.
Transcription offers many benefits: Text transcripts can be scanned faster than audio runtimes, enhancing media through images, highlights, subtitles, and other features. This increases engagement and comprehension. Moreover, text generates metadata, enabling web searches to index media content and improve SEO and discoverability.
Additionally, transcription can save time for media creators crafting stories and viewpoints, while also expanding their reach. This is similar to the legal field; legal transcription is sought by lawyers not only to obtain an accurate transcript but also to conserve their energy for more rigorous activities related to a legal event like a trial.
Professional transcription providers can handle the intensive process of transcribing media into engaging, readable documents, allowing you to focus on providing value to your audience.
Types Of Media Productions Where Transcription Is Needed
Here are some notable examples of media productions that can be transcribed:
| Media Productions | Why Transcription is Relevant |
| Videos (interviews, tutorials, etc.) | Add captions and subtitles for enhanced accessibility, and create transcripts for improved search engine optimization. |
| Podcasts | Generate textual transcripts, allowing podcast content to be searched and discovered more easily. A verbatim transcript of a podcast preserves its rawest form. Conversations under this audio-video type format are usually unscripted, and it is best to capture the filler words to maintain the intended meaning of every speaker. |
| Speeches/Talks | Preserve important speeches and talks in text form for broader distribution and citation. |
| Films | Generate screenplays and scripts from recorded dialogue, to add multi-language subtitles. |
| Meeting Recordings | Keep textual records of critical decisions and discussions that took place. |
| Voiceovers | Aid in the translation and localization of voice-overs into other languages. |
| YouTube Videos | Maximize reach through search engines by adding captions/subtitles in various languages. |
| Lectures | Enhance accessibility for individuals who cannot attend in-person lectures or have difficulty understanding spoken language. |
| Radio Shows | Create easily shareable written archives of spoken radio content. |
| Audiobooks | Aid in the translation and localization of voiceovers into other languages. |
| Telephone Recordings | Review key information communicated over phone calls. |
How Can The Media Benefit From Transcription Services?
Despite its seemingly simple premise, media transcription can be an excellent and affordable way to reap various benefits.
Media transcripts are similar to government transcripts, but they are intended for different audiences. Both are relevant for accessing information conveniently, editing, translating, publishing the information, and engagement.
First, those producing media content get the bulk of the value. They include media outlets, content creators, journalists, reporters, researchers, legal professionals, educators, corporations, and more. Transcription can provide a broader range of audio-visual content to attract audiences with different media preferences.
By extension, anyone consuming their content, whether through television, social media, video-sharing sites, or other platforms, also benefits. Here’s a quick list of them:
- Allows media companies to edit closed captions for video files.
- Provide accessibility and inclusivity for audiences with hearing impairments.
- More efficient editing and sound-bite extraction.
- Provide precise documentation of show recordings for media companies.
- Makes translation and foreign-language distribution easier.
- Improve SEO by creating crawlable content.
- Support academic research related to the show’s content.
- Enhance audience comprehension and engagement through the use of subtitling and captioning. (Multiple sources indicate that as much as 85% of Facebook video viewers watch content without sound.)
Types Of Media Companies That Can Benefit From Transcription
Here are some specific instances where media transcription can help different types of media organizations:
| Industry | Use of Transcription | Benefits |
| Podcast Production Companies | Utilize transcription to make audio content more accessible, enhance SEO, and promote your episodes. | Widens audience range, improves discoverability, enhances accessibility for the hard of hearing and English learners, drives more website traffic, and enables engaging quotes for marketing. |
| Radio Show Companies | Use transcription to convert unscripted interviews and segments into text for online content and social promotion. | Engages listeners across formats, provides value to current listeners and attracts new ones, extends programming into multimedia experiences, and fosters station awareness, followership, and loyalty. |
| Documentary Companies | Utilize transcription to streamline post-production and accurately document interviews. | Facilitates the identification of usable sound bites, fact-checks, adds accurate subtitles, accelerates editing, and positions projects for success. |
| Film/Video Studio Companies | Utilize transcription to aid in post-production, translation, and improve content visibility. | Streamlines post-production, facilitates accurate captions/subtitles, enables smooth translation for global markets, improves SEO indexing, and drives more traffic. |
Where Should You Get Media Transcription?
Transcription can be done in one of three ways: in-house, automated, or outsourced. Let’s talk about them here:
| Type | Definition | Pros | Cons | Estimated Cost / Accuracy |
| In-house Transcription | Hiring and managing transcribers directly within your production company. | Direct oversight of staff Consistent availability | Very expensive (salaries, benefits, training, equipment)- Time-consuming to manage Not scalable for small/medium productions | ~$100k per year per transcriptionist |
| Automated Transcription | Using AI or automatic speech recognition software for transcripts. | CheapFast turnaroundEasy access to tools online | Low accuracy (requires human proofreading) Poor handling of accents, noise, and complex dialogue Still costs time to edit | 61.92% accuracy without human intervention |
| Outsourced Human Transcription | Hiring a professional U.S.-based transcription service like Ditto. | 99%+ accuracy Cost-effective Scalable for any project size Experts in language and context | Slightly higher cost than AI Dependent on the provider’s turnaround time | Affordable per-minute pricing; accuracy guaranteed |
What To Expect With Ditto Transcript’s Media Transcription Service
Getting the services of an experienced professional transcription provider like Ditto gives you more than just surface-level benefits. Here are some of our notable advantages over the competition:
- Experience and Expertise: Aside from media transcription, Ditto covers a broad range of industries, including academic, medical, law enforcement, legal, and business. That means we take on all kinds of media transcription jobs, regardless of the complexity of the topic.
- 100% US-based Service: You can’t go wrong with home-grown talent. Our transcriptionists are all from the US and are all native English speakers. Furthermore, they all possess a strong command of the language, can understand various accents, colloquialisms, and figures of speech, and have an ear for nuance.
- 99% Accuracy Guaranteed: Our services come with a 99% accuracy guarantee, every time.
- Scalability: There’s no need to fret if you have enough transcriptionists on payroll to do the work. Send us your recordings, no matter how many or how long, and we’ll handle it.
- Fast Turnaround Times: We understand that time is money in the media industry, so we work to meet your deadlines. Or, do you need transcripts as soon as possible? We can deliver them in 24 hours or less.
- Affordability and Flexibility: We offer various turnaround times to accommodate different budgetary needs. Our standard transcription pricing has a turnaround time of three to five business days. Rush pricing will result in transcripts being delivered within 24 to 48 hours. Also, we have extended and more economical turnaround times of six to ten business days.
- Security and Confidentiality: Here at Ditto, we don’t distinguish between a casual podcast and a hard-hitting journalism piece in terms of security. Every word will be kept as safe and confidential as possible through our rigorous security measures the same ones that have passed FINRA, CJIS, and HIPAA guidelines.
Choose Ditto Transcripts For Your Media Transcription Needs
Reap the benefits of accurate, high-quality professional transcription through Ditto Transcripts.
And, hey, don’t just take our word for it. Instead, look at what our clients say about our service:
Ditto Transcripts is a Denver, Colorado-based FINRA, HIPAA, and CJIS-compliant transcription services company that provides fast, accurate, and affordable transcripts for individuals and companies of all sizes. Call (720) 287-3710 today for a free quote.