The present invention aims at providing a display data generating apparatus capable of generating subtitle display data suitable for respective videos. A display data generating apparatus of the present invention has a subject determination section that determines a subject appearing on a screen on the basis of viewpoint information and subject information; an important subject determination section that determines, on the basis of a result of determination rendered by the subject determination section and the subject information, an important subject which would draw attention of an audience and that generates characteristic information about the important subject; a layout selecting section that selects, from a plurality of layout templates, a layout template having selection conditions conforming to the characteristic information about the important subject; and a subtitle generating section that generates subtitle display data from the selected layout template.