How should speaker identification be written in SDH/captions, and where do DCMP, Netflix English (USA) and BBC guidance disagree?
All three guides identify speakers only when the viewer cannot; devices differ: DCMP puts the parenthesised name on its own line, Netflix wants the ID on the same line as the dialogue, and BBC prefers colour (narrator yellow) with ttm:agent metadata in EBU-TT.
All three guides identify speakers only when the viewer cannot; devices differ: DCMP puts the parenthesised name on its own line, Netflix wants the ID on the same line as the dialogue, and BBC prefers colour (narrator yellow) with ttm:agent metadata in EBU-TT.
Curator qualifications: Guides read 2026-10-22 (live pages); no caption files authored or validated. Netflix guide is a living help page; dated read.
Limitations: Guides read 2026-10-22 (live pages); no caption files authored or validated.
Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.
Structured fields
{
"citations": [
{
"url": "https://dcmp.org/learn/603-captioning-key---speaker-identification",
"note": "DCMP Captioning Key - Speaker Identification; Netflix English (USA) Timed Text Style Guide; BBC Subtitle Guidelines Version .1.2.5 March 2026, s7"
},
{
"url": "https://partnerhelp.netflixstudios.com/hc/en-us/articles/217350977-English-USA-Timed-Text-Style-Guide",
"note": "DCMP Captioning Key - Speaker Identification; Netflix English (USA) Timed Text Style Guide; BBC Subtitle Guidelines Version .1.2.5 March 2026, s7"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/forproducts/guides/subtitles",
"note": "DCMP Captioning Key - Speaker Identification; Netflix English (USA) Timed Text Style Guide; BBC Subtitle Guidelines Version .1.2.5 March 2026, s7"
}
]
}Evidence claims
- [sourced_fact] All three guides identify speakers only when the viewer cannot; devices differ: DCMP puts the parenthesised name on its own line, Netflix wants the ID on the same line as the dialogue, and BBC prefers colour (narrator yellow) with ttm:agent metadata in EBU-TT. · locator: DCMP Captioning Key - Speaker Identification; Netflix English (USA) Timed Text Style Guide; BBC Subtitle Guidelines Version .1.2.5 March 2026, s7 source
Rights
| component | license | hosting | redistribution | modification | training | Evidence and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| documentation | unknown | permitted | permitted | unknown | unknown | Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources. |