Amazon's Prime Video Channels Have a Subtitling Problem

Prime Video Channels are a valuable way for Amazon Prime subscribers to access a wide selection of content from other streaming services. However, a severe oversight involving their subtitles might be the reason to avoid these add-ons.

Subtitles on Prime Video Channels Aren't Always Reliable

Amazon is responsible for adding subtitles to most of Prime Video's content, but it doesn't handle the subtitles for films and series accessed through Prime Video Channels. Those subtitles are instead provided by their respective streaming services. So when it comes to programs from AMC+, for example, it's up to AMC—not Amazon—to include the subtitles.

This isn't a problem for most Prime Video Channels, as they usually provide accurate subtitles for their content. However, Amazon's lack of involvement has allowed some channels to get away with subpar subtitles and terrible translations. Despite receiving countless complaints from subscribers over the years, Amazon hasn't made any progress toward resolving this issue.

One of the worst offenders is Crunchyroll, a Prime Video Channel that features anime series and films from the streaming service of the same name. Crunchyroll has a massive library of new and old anime, but it has undoubtedly cut corners to provide subtitles for the bulk of its content. This has led to severe errors appearing in the subtitles for many Crunchyroll programs. Strangely, these problems aren't present in the official Crunchyroll app or its website, which makes their prevalence in Prime Video especially baffling.

The subtitle issues and their severity seem to differ between series. In some videos, the subtitles will be mostly accurate, albeit with a few occasional typos. These aren't always minor misspellings, as the Prime Video subtitles sometimes call characters by the wrong names. Nichijou has plenty of these typos, along with some lines that are missing subtitles altogether.

There are also plenty of times that the Prime Video subtitles are completely off the mark. It's not uncommon to see the captions displaying nonsensical sentences rather than the proper script. This may suggest that the Prime Video versions of these programs use AI-generated subtitles rather than the scripts used for the Crunchyroll app's captions. The quality of Prime Video's captions for Konosuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! varies between episodes, with the subtitles for some episodes being perfectly fine while others are disastrously inaccurate.

These issues aren't limited to direct captions. Crunchyroll has plenty of films and series that are only available in Japanese, meaning most viewers will require translated subtitles to watch this content. Unfortunately, many translations available through the Amazon Prime Channel aren't the same as those found on Crunchyroll's other platforms.

The Prime Video versions of these subtitles are laden with awkwardly written sentences and grammatical errors. This isn't the case for every show on Crunchyroll's Prime Video content, but it's easy to tell when something is wrong with the subtitles. One example is the translation for Sgt. Frog, which is full of confusingly worded sentences and pointless changes that alter the meaning of the original script.

While these are the most common problems in the subtitles for Prime Video Channels, there are also a few oddly specific issues exclusive to certain shows. For example, one series titled The Daily Lives of High School Boys features accurate subtitles for spoken dialogue but completely omits lines delivered through narration or internal monologs. The Daily Lives of High School Boys is only available in Japanese, so the absence of reliable subtitles prevents most users from being able to enjoy the series.

These problems aren't exclusive to Crunchyroll's content. Acorn TV and BritBox are two other Prime Video Channels with subtitles containing missing lines, typos, and visual errors. This can be seen in Silent Witness from BritBox, which has numerous moments where musical stings are accompanied by random number signs appearing in the Prime Video captions.

This lack of quality control on Prime Video Channels has been a consistent problem for years. Even after subscribers contacted Amazon and Crunchyroll about the glaring issues with these subtitles, plenty of shows and films included in the subscription are still unwatchable for viewers with hearing disabilities or language differences.

Amazon's Subtitle Problem Doesn't Have a Solution

To be fair, most of the Prime Video Channels don't have the same problems. But for the rare examples that suffer from this lack of quality control, subscribers will have to either put up with these issues or find somewhere else to watch the same content.

In most cases, it's better to directly subscribe to a streaming service's official app rather than using its Prime Video Channel. Although the Prime Video Channels are often cheaper (sometimes with deep discounts during Prime Day), the lack of quality control isn't always worth the reduced price. It's hard to recommend Prime Video Channels when other streaming services provide more content and a higher quality experience for only a few dollars more.

It should be noted that having an active subscription to Crunchyroll's Prime Video channel also comes with a Crunchyroll membership for no additional cost. This allows you to use the official app instead of the Prime Channel, providing a way to watch the same shows with proper subtitles. Crunchyroll is one of the few Prime Video Channels to offer this benefit, along with some others, such as Paramount Plus and Max.

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While this alleviates the issues caused by unreliable subtitles, it doesn't fix the most important problem. The point of subscribing to the Prime Video Channels is to access content from multiple streaming services through a single app. However, with these poor-quality subtitles making certain programs unwatchable, you're better off avoiding these Prime Video Channels.

Prime Video Channels Desperately Need Quality Control

There are plenty of Prime Video Channels that are worth paying for. Still, severe issues like the subtitle errors found in Crunchyroll and BritBox aren't acceptable, especially coming from a service as prominent as Prime Video. Amazon tries to maintain a hands-off approach to the Prime Channels by letting each streaming service maintain its own content, but this has allowed some of these services to charge subscribers for a service with outright broken features. If Amazon wants viewers to continue subscribing to its Prime Channels, it needs to step in and make the necessary fixes.