Picture source @Visual China
text | Rhino Entertainment, author | Founder, editor | Pu Fang
Since the beginning of 2024, the variety show market has been slightly cold, with a small number of new projects, brand investment potential is not strong, especially in the public opinion field. On the subject of variety shows, last year’s “variety show headwinds” seem to have returned this year.
It is difficult for the public to pay for the conventional variety show model. This is the current consensus of major platforms, so each company simply reduces old projects with low market returns. This may be the main reason for the lack of new products in the market at the beginning of the year.
Unlike Taiwan, which continues to produce old variety shows such as "The Strongest Brain 11" and "I Want to Sing with You 5", Aiyu Tengmang (online) has significantly slowed down the pace of launching new variety shows this year, and has moved out new ones. The quantity of goods conveys some new strategic development ideas of the platform.
2024 Under the headwind start of the variety show market, what plans and big moves are each platform planning? This article will take you to take a closer look. Is the derivative of
ip a safe brand?
Let’s start with the two new year’s new releases.
One is "Detective 9 Detective Concert".
is a spin-off concert of "The Great Detective" that has been held for three consecutive years. Now this New Year limited product has generated a lot of social media buzz. From the release of promotional videos, to the release of the singer lineup, to the program list, it can all be posted on Weibo. The high number of hot searches shows the huge base of fans of Detective IP.
If "family feeling" is the goal pursued by many variety shows nowadays, "Detective" is a model student in this regard. The celebrity detective family includes He Jiong, Da Zhangwei, Wei Chen, Wei Daxun, Yang Rong, etc., and the amateur detective family includes Pu Yixing, Wen Tao, Qi Sijun, He Yunchen, etc. The two waves of people have such strong appeal to fans that it is difficult to imagine that there are other people besides them. What kind of variety show can produce a concert?
From the perspective of platform development, "Jianxinjianyi Concert" is obviously Mango's benchmark IP-derived paid product. This year's pricing continues last year's 24 yuan for two games for non-Mango TV members (12 yuan for two games for members). After its launch, it topped the popular variety show charts, and its driving effect on Mango TV’s membership income and paid income is evident.
The other one is the "Offer Due Diligence Bureau".
As you can tell from the name, this is a "Tuan Zong" spin-off from Huang Kai's "Exciting Offer 5" last year. Bringing back the elites of workplace variety shows and amateurs to play reasoning games together is truly an exclusive innovation of Tencent Variety Shows. The premise for the establishment of this spin-off of
is also because the original IP has enough fans. "Offer5" is led by Huang Kai, who has taken the postgraduate entrance examination five times and went to Tsinghua University. There are also high-heat amateurs such as Xiao Yang, Xu Wenting and a guide who looks like Yang Tianzhen. Teacher "Liu Lu" Liu Siyuan and others make the "Law Firm Celebrity Edition Reasoning Group Comprehensive" full of highlights.
was the first to launch "Detective Heart and Detective Concert" and "Offer Final Adjustment Bureau" at the beginning of the year, which somewhat reflects some of the latest signals of platform variety show development:
compared to creating a variety show with unknown risks from scratch, aiming to Derived from the high popularity of the platform and the development of high-quality IP, the "certainty" of bringing such projects to the market is obviously higher. This is the safety card of the platform, but it is also the basis for making a fortune silently.
It can be seen from this that after 2023, which has been a year of ups and downs in market response, you can say that the platform has become more cautious in developing variety shows, or it can also be said that it has become smarter. What this more demonstrates is not the platform’s conservatism, but the platform’s higher requirements for “certainty” and “improvement in quality and efficiency” of variety show projects based on a comprehensive assessment of the market environment.
2024, what big move are you holding back?
So, if we take a long-term view from the beginning of the year to the entire 2024, facing the long-term situation of indifferent topics and headwinds in the variety show market, in order to increase the "certainty" of the market returns of variety show projects, what big things has Aiyu Tengmang held back? trick?
Let’s first look at the very active Tencent variety show.
Recently, Tencent Video suddenly opened a "Goose Factory 2024 Laughter Zone" on the product page, and released a list of new 2024 shows on the official blog, including "Happy Wonderful Night" previously released at the v Vision Conference (co-produced with Miwei), comedy single show "Easy Comedy Festival", comedy group's annual variety show "Haha Maker Department Store", the belated "Comedy Convention" and "Talk Show with His Friends", etc. .
Mr. Rhino feels that this is a reassurance for Tencent Variety Show’s audience this year. After going through a period of hiatus last year, the 2024 Tencent Variety Show has confirmed that it will return with a large number of variety shows, returning the variety show to its original intention of "spreading happiness" to satisfy the current audience's growing desire to relieve stress.
opens up a new avenue for variety shows, and Xizheng is just a small piece of the puzzle of the 2024 Tencent Variety Show. Recently, a "2024 Tencent Video Variety Show Schedule" has been circulating in the variety show investment industry, from which we can also get a glimpse of Tencent Video's 2024 variety show layout strategy from a macro level.
It can be seen that the list arranges 40 programs in q1-q3, and the four major sections have different playing styles. The "Platform Head" section is the focus of promotion with the power of the platform, such as Mi Wei & Tencent's s+ variety show "Wonderful Night", classic projects "Fifty Kilometers Taohuawu 4" and "Let's Go Now 2" are all hits at a glance "Let's Reason 2", "Half Lover 3" and "Fight to the Top 3" with "n-generation quality" are top-notch products with "stable audiences" in various vertical tracks. The other two sections of
represent Tencent Variety Show’s active exploration of market growth. The "New Start" section and Yan Min's "New Rap Era" will be unveiled on Q1. I am looking forward to the new rap story in 2024; the experimental new variety of "New Life·New Power·New Attitude", including the expected Q1 launch Huang Bo convenes veterans "Some Interesting Yard" to start a holiday with friends, "Why Not a Boy", a choir battle where a boy and his former boy exchange lives, etc. It's just that I don't know how many of these experimental projects will eventually come out.
Let’s look at the Mango dual platform.
To discuss the strategic differences between Mango 2024 and last year, we have to mention "Singer 2024" first. Last year, the amateur music variety show "Youth π Project" co-created by the Mango Ju platform failed. This year, Mango learned from the experience and clearly saw the supreme value of the "Chinese top singer competition" to the music variety show, and made what may be the most critical decision this year - restarting "singer".
Recently, "Singer 2024" released a new poster "Ten Years of Sword, Gathering Together", and revealed that the program is expected to meet the audience in May. The show has been hotly discussed by public opinion (such as repeated rumors) Judging from the market response, "Singer" may be the most powerful move of Mango Variety Show this year.
In view of the fact that Mango has the most dynamic mass production team at the platform level, the 2024 Mango Variety Show will continue to focus on "multi-point blooming". After all, Mango can almost launch heavyweight large projects, small and medium-sized projects in Q1-Q4. But on the other hand, Mr. Rhino always believes that the biggest production highlight of the Mango Variety Show is the "genetic recombination of old programs."
Take the recent "All Members Accelerated 4" that was recorded in Yueyang as an example. This season's program is the first to feature the re-employed men's group (Chen Chusheng, Su Xing, Zhang Yuan, etc.) vs. the Nanbo Ten Thousand Men's Group (Pu Yixing, Wen Tao, Qi Sijun, etc.) The double-team battle mode can be said to be a major innovation like "genetic modification". The program, which is scheduled to be broadcast on the seventh day of the first lunar month, will most likely attract a wave of attention during the Spring Festival.
Finally, look at iQiyi and Youku.
The pace of new variety shows on iQiyi has slowed down this year, and there have been no solo variety shows since the beginning of the year. However, on New Year’s Day, iQiyi’s official blog released a list of upcoming shows with the topic #iQIYI2024First Five Variety Shows# , including "Wang Zha Variety Show", "Hahahahahaha 4", "Cute Detective 2024", "China's New Rap 2024", "Farming Bar 2" and "Youth New Variety" "Youth Chorus".
As far as these five major variety shows are concerned, the variety n generation accounts for four seats, so whether "Youth Chorus" can strengthen the character design of iQiyi as a pacesetter in content innovation is the most suspenseful.Rhinoceros believes that there is actually an implicit pressure in the development of iQiyi's 2024 variety show. Last year, Taochang produced the most socially influential new variety show of the year, "Zang Di Ba". Can it be compared to "Zhang Di Ba" this year? The new comprehensive is very challenging.
We have seen that iQiyi’s 2024 new variety show includes “Youth Women Herding Variety Show” and “Burning Moon”. The romantic setting of the show is very creative, but can it continue the success of “Farming”? At the moment we have to put a question mark on it.
2024 It is a very important year for Youku variety shows. Recently, Youku’s change of new brand logo has triggered heated discussions in the public opinion field. Youku’s firm attitude of starting over has been reflected in the adjustment of the variety show brand last year.
Last year, Youku launched a new label "KuKuZong", and subsequently made continuous moves in the development and integration of variety show resources. Related new strategies are mapped to this year. We see that "Tears of the Times" and "Mars Intelligence Agency 6" are taking on a new look. Popular on Q1, "This!" "Hip-hop 6" is still deeply loved by fans in the hip-hop circle.
Judging from the new 2024 Youku variety shows currently available, the self-made ones include "Super Smart Youth Conference" led by Qin Hao and Yang Chaoyue, and Li Jingxin's interview show "Hear What You Say", which was launched on the 18th. From this point of view, under the guidance of Kuku Zong’s new label, Youku’s variety show output this year has increased significantly compared with the past. From 2024 onwards, we expect Youku to develop new variety IPs with more social influence.
