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About > News
The Tonight Show
airs with Spanish captions
September 10, 2003
VITAC, the national leader in captioning and subtitling services
and TRANSLATE TV TM, (a service of Global Translation, Inc.)
a pioneer in realtime machine translation solutions, are together
providing Spanish captioning for “The Tonight Show with
Jay Leno.”
Starting September 8, 2003, “The Tonight Show”
will begin airing with Spanish captions using VITAC and Translate
TV’s award-winning new solution for live, instantaneous
translation of English captions to Spanish captions. Translate
TV’s technology uses VITAC’s English captions
on the normal CC1 channel to provide live closed captions
in Spanish viewable simultaneously on the CC2 channel. The
solution, which won several NAB 2003 Best of Show awards,
is able to provide realtime translations through a range of
mediums including broadcast TV, cable, satellite and Internet
streaming video.
“We’re thrilled to offer this groundbreaking
service to our viewers,” said Jeff Zucker, President,
NBC Entertainment. “‘The Tonight Show with Jay
Leno’ draws a huge audience for NBC, and we’re
excited to translate Jay Leno’s award-winning brand
of humor so that more of our friends in the Hispanic community
can enjoy it.”
Broadcasters are realizing the need to reach the large Hispanic
market, which is now 13% of U.S. population at about 37 million
people. Hispanics have a buying power of an estimated $500
– 800 billion and 50% of adults in Hispanic TV households
prefer to speak only Spanish or mostly Spanish at home. On
average, U.S. Hispanic households watch 30% more hours of
TV per week than non-Hispanic households and the average number
of people per Hispanic household is 3.5 vs. 2.6 non-Hispanics.
For this reason, broadcasters are paying more and more attention
to this market. VITAC and TranslateTV’s solution allows
television broadcasters and producers to reach this critical
and burgeoning market for less time and money than is traditionally
required to create Spanish captioning.
"We are very excited about the new, cost-effective solution
we are able to provide in conjunction with TranslateTV TM
and expect other broadcasters to follow NBC’s lead,”
said Joe Karlovits, CEO, VITAC. “VITAC is the only captioning
company that can offer our customers a cost-effective medium
to reach Hispanic television homes without the significant
expense of dubbing programs in Spanish or finding skilled
realtime Spanish captioners able to provide this service.”
“GTI has spent years in development of a reliable,
customizable translation technology that will provide realtime
captions in Spanish and seven other languages to TV viewers,
“ said Joel Rudich, CEO of TRANSLATE TV TM. “
“We believe VITAC’s high quality standards and
proven leadership in the caption industry makes them an ideal
partner with which to launch our service.”
About VITAC
VITAC, is the nation’s leading provider of captioning
and multi-language subtitling services. In business since
1986, VITAC provides top-quality accessibility solutions for
broadcast networks, cable TV, home video, DVD, teleconferences
and Internet programs worldwide. CBS, CNN, NBC, FOX, Discovery,
Lifetime, Verizon, and the Federal Aviation Administration
are among the company’s largest clients.
WordWave is a privately held, global provider of litigation
support, captioning and subtitling, and digital recording
and transcription services. WordWave simplifies and expedites
information capture for top law firms, media and entertainment
companies, businesses, and public sector organizations. WordWave
consists of three business units: VITAC; LegaLink, the leader
in court reporting, legal videography, and trial services;
and WordWave's International Division providing litigation
support, subtitling, and digital recording and transcription
services around the world.
For more information about VITAC or WordWave, visit www.vitac.com
About TRANSLATETV TM
Global Translation, Inc. has created TranslateTV, a company
whose award winning, patented proprietary software converts
real-time closed captions to any one of 8 different languages..
Application for this service is with broadcasters, cable programmers,
corporations, advertisers, and program distributors who need
to reach different language speaking audiences. In addition
GTI has established strategic technology alliances with SYSTRAN
(www.systransoft.com) and others to enable the technology
for multiple media platforms including DVDs, the internet,
streaming media and audio. For more information about GTI's
products and services, visit the Company on the Web at www.translatetv.com
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ABOUT ‘THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO’
Jay Leno follows in the footsteps of legendary NBC late-night
hosts Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson. Having celebrated
the show’s 11th anniversary in May 2003, Leno has created
his own unique late-night style with a combination of humor,
talk and entertainment each night at 11:35 p.m. ET - the wee
hours when viewers want to wind down with a few laughs before
drifting off to dreamland. Considered by many to be a “variety”
show, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” features
a nightly monologue and news-making guests, as well as ongoing
comedy segments including “Headlines,” “Request
Line,” “Tonight Show Side Show,” “Jaywalking”
and “Battle of Jaywalking All-Stars.” The result
is a unique look at today’s pop culture.
Honored for Emmy Awards in 1995 and 1996, “The Tonight
Show” was also voted by readers of “TV Guide”
readers as ‘Favorite Late Night Show’ in 1999
and 2000. The program has also proven to be a barometer of
political clout. In 2000, the “Los Angeles Times”
noted that “The road to the White House apparently leads
through Burbank,” as each presidential candidate --
Al Gore, George W. Bush, Bill Bradley and John McCain –
appeared to demonstrate their relaxed, good-humored side during
the presidential elections and Arnold Schwarzennegger recently
used the show to announce his candidacy for Governor of California.
Debbie Vickers is the executive producer. “The Tonight
Show with Jay Leno” is from Big Dog Productions in association
with NBC Studios.
For more information on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay
Leno,’ visit www.nbc.com/tonightshow.
# # #
Contact:
Heather York
(703) 807-2763
heather-y@vitac.com
Michael Garr
(301) 320-9828
mgarr@translatetv.com
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