text | Xinsheng pro, author | Zhang Yitong
Perhaps no vertical content industry is more eager to look forward to the emergence of new models than variety shows.
This comes from forced industry pressure. The 2b business model allows the variety show market to be directly affected by the brand's willingness to launch. In 2023, in addition to the reduction in the overall budget, as brands pursue higher ROI, the proportion and position of variety shows in brand budgets will also continue to decrease.
The number of domestic seasonal variety shows in 2023 will be 173, which is only an increase of 4 shows from 2022 and is far lower than the 206 shows in 2020. In addition to the overall number, many programs that had been highlighted in the platform's playlist ended up being abandoned. Within the platform, investment promotion has become a basic prerequisite for program project establishment, and it is almost difficult for new programs without customers to be successful.
variety shows urgently need to find new paths, whether it is new customer sources or changes in business models.
html In March, the two core platforms Douyin and Tencent Video successively released new policies for variety shows. Douyin held a closed-door meeting for production companies and mcn and released the "Douyin Variety Show·New Douyin Variety Method Guide"; Tencent released the micro-variety show plan and opened the first phase of soliciting submissions.Although Douyin emphasizes the importance and monetization possibilities of back-link operations, at present, the changes brought about by the new Douyin are mainly in the operational thinking, and brand investment is still its core source of income. In contrast, Tencent’s 2C positioning for micro-variety shows is more clear, and it mainly promotes payment + back-link monetization. A noteworthy commonality between
and is that both plans clearly control the production budget to one million, and New Douzong even further clarifies that it is between 2 million and 4 million. Cost control is regarded as a basic requirement. Another similarity between
and
is that in addition to traditional variety show production companies, both have set their sights on new content organizations such as mcn and up owners. For the platform, new paths can arise from the self-iteration of the original system. Nature is good, but it doesn’t have to come from this.
New Douyin Variety: 2b dominates, operation requirements have become higher
After repeated attempts in various directions and forms, the concept of "New Douyin" was proposed, which is a relatively clear and systematic review of Douyin Variety Show's content methods and directions. refining.
Specifically, Xin Dou Zong’s IP core model includes three parts: First, the interest recommendation mechanism, decentralized distribution with the account system as the core, to accurately obtain traffic for variety shows; second, ecological link capabilities, linking short and medium , long-form, and live broadcast of different content genres, opening up the entire path of research and development-production-broadcasting-publicity-monetization; the third is diversified monetization, using Douyin's mature advertising system to support variety show investment, while linking 2c businesses such as e-commerce and life services , realize the link monetization of variety show IP.
Although it emphasizes the back-link operation and monetization of variety show IPs, at present, it seems that the monetization of New Dou Zong is still mainly based on brand investment. Short videos provide more advertising spaces to attract customers, but it does not change the underlying business logic of variety shows. , variety shows are still "hijacked by customers and celebrities." Purely vegetarian programs without celebrities will be considered unattractive to brands, and it will be difficult to obtain Douyin's resources.
once set a record of 20 million GMV in a single live broadcast. "Nice to Meet You" is currently regarded as a representative case of Xin Dou Zong in back-link monetization, but it is still an isolated case so far. Another leading variety show, "All Out Action" may be more representative of the general situation of Douyin variety shows. It has been internally evaluated for its outstanding broadcast performance, but its shortcoming is that it has not yet explored new aspects of back-link monetization. .
Including playback volume, short video bar average vv, number of hot spots on the list, number of account fans, etc. For most production companies that have not made too many attempts at back-link monetization, Douyin’s content assessment standards are similar to There is not much difference between traditional long video platforms and they are still traffic-oriented.
The core change that Douyin currently brings to production companies comes from the operation side. When working with long video platforms, the production team is only responsible for the content itself, and the platform takes over most of the promotion. However, under Douyin’s full-link logic, the production team needs to be deeply involved in specific work such as account operation, traffic testing, and content distribution.
Another industry consensus is that short video content must be produced by a dedicated short video team. It is difficult for traditional long video variety show teams to switch their thinking modes. For example, "All Out Action" uses dual producers. One is responsible for feature films and prefers traditional variety show production, while the second is responsible for operations, short videos and live broadcast content.
Considering Douyin’s absolute traffic advantage in the field of variety show promotion, this capability requirement does not only apply to variety shows broadcast on Douyin. A representative example is "Farming Bar". Although the main film is broadcast on iQiyi, the members of "Ten Qintian" all have personal accounts on Douyin, and live broadcast is also an important content component of "Farming Bar". Compared with the programs that have been launched before,
clearly stated in the "New Dou Zong Method Guide": to support a person who has a strong and continuous relationship with the IP, to serve as a long-term official account, and to become a back-link monetization main players. At present, this demand is mostly realized by the placement of amateur guests in celebrity variety shows.
This has also become one of the reasons why Xin Dou Zong actively invites mcn to join the game. Compared with traditional production companies, mcn has rich experience in master account operation and commercialization. Ma Jingjun, head of Wuyou Media’s Variety Show IP Center, appeared in Douyin’s official interview video “Pull Through the Fog of Variety Shows and Look Up at the Road” with a number of senior variety artists, and called the new Douyin variety show a “new species.”
In the information collection of "New Douyin Variety Show", there are contact information of dozens of variety show production companies and mcn. Douyin hopes to bring the two together to achieve cooperation, so as to take advantage of the content advantages of the production company and mcn's experts at the same time operational capabilities.
But based on the feedback we’ve received, this matchmaking is currently of limited effectiveness. There are still large differences in cognition and needs between production companies and mcn, and there is a lack of effective translators and connectors between the two.
Tencent Micro Variety Show: Comprehensive 2c, emphasizing content innovation
2c is the core keyword of Tencent Video’s newly released micro variety show plan. It directly responds to the difficulty in establishing new projects caused by the reduction in the number of advertisements.
In the long video field, the variety show business model is shifting to the c-side. In addition to the reduction in the number of b-side advertisements, it is also related to the adjustment of the overall revenue model of the platform. In Tencent's micro variety show solicitation plan, "member base" is listed as one of the three major platform advantages. , and is considered to bring a larger membership income space to the program. The
micro-variety show plan has three characteristics: first, in terms of project establishment, it is funded by the platform, full investment or joint investment, without resorting to brand investment, and starts quickly; second, in terms of business model, it is mainly based on member income + diversified realization of IP. The production team is also encouraged to add 2c payment points in content design; thirdly, in terms of content, the duration, number of episodes, and broadcast scheduling are flexible, and content innovation is emphasized.
At the same time, unlike the studio-led "Little Fresh Variety" series that Tencent has tried, the micro-variety show plan is aimed at a broad range of creative teams and has stronger platform attributes. This is also related to its 2c attribute. Only with a sufficient amount of content that is continuously updated can users gain continuous subscription confidence and build overall brand awareness.
The gradual formation of payment habits among users of long video variety shows is one of the core reasons why the platform dares to try. Represented by " heartbeat signal " and " heartwarming offer ", amateur variety shows with strong drama emotions have previously shown good C-side payment attraction, and "heartwarming offer 5" even opened the finale Advance screening was unimaginable in the past.
Daqian's " Shining Days " was one of the earliest projects to try a split-account variety show. When its popularity was at its highest, its single-day membership income could exceed one million.
Mango TV has established its unique membership barriers by relying on variety shows. In the latest post-financial report conference call, Mango once again emphasized that it will invest more in small and medium-sized programs with member-driven potential. In fact, the membership income of "Hua Shao 5" can already cover the production costs.
Most variety show practitioners believe that the 2c business model is conducive to helping variety shows return to relatively pure content logic. But another question arises: what kind of variety shows can attract users to continue paying.
At this stage, the only clear answer is people.Earlier, in talent show variety shows such as "Idol Producer", the platform has discovered that derivative content such as contestant practice rooms is the most stimulating user payment. Today, there are almost all derivative concerts of various drama series and variety shows. Good membership income, for example, the latest member concert of " Detective " has been played more than 130 million times.
The difference is that variety shows have to shift from borrowing the traffic and influence of top artists to incubating their own people. Especially after the offline performance market is liberalized, the variety show team's bargaining power over artists has become more limited. "Yuanren" has multiple member-paid variety shows on Mango TV, and its derivative clothing brand "Nanbowan" has sold more than 100,000 units in three months.
Although it is not the only factor, the 2c business model does affect the shaping and presentation of variety show content on people. When how to make the audience have more emotional connection with the variety show guests becomes the primary purpose of the content instead of obtaining more traffic, the program will naturally tend to present a more beautiful and rewarding side.
's continuous and high-frequency content updates are conducive to the formation of a sense of companionship and connection. This is also reflected in the content requirements of the micro-variety show plan. When a single issue is recommended not to exceed 30 minutes, projects with more updates every week will Priority for project establishment.
mcn, is up main entrance reliable?
It is worth noting that both Douyin and Tencent Video are trying to introduce new content power into the existing variety show market.
takes the back-link operation and commercialization of master accounts as its direct needs, and Xin Douzong has attracted mcn to become the main participating force. Tencent's micro-variety show plan has a wider range of recruitment targets, including mcns, personal up-and-comers, and micro-short drama companies.
Behind these "enrollment expansions", the essence is new variety show content paths and business model attempts, which have put forward capability requirements in more directions for the production team, and many traditional variety show production companies are currently unable to meet this demand.
For example, although variety shows are also strengthening the emotion of the drama, compared with micro-short dramas, the payment points for their content are not clear. "It is hoped that the content design will increase the 2c payment point" is also directly written into Tencent's recruitment order; for another example, Under the natural personal IP attribute of the up owner, its content has a closer emotional connection and social stickiness with fans, which is lacking in traditional variety show production teams, but is becoming more and more important in the new stage.
At the same time, the variety show of medium and short videos, represented by up owners, is constantly blurring the boundary between personal videos and variety shows. For example, the "City Hide and Seek" series that became popular on station B in 2023 has already met the basic requirements of an outdoor reality show in terms of content form.
In fact, the advancement of New Dou Zong has led a number of variety show teams to adjust their original structures, such as adding positions related to Internet operations and data analysis, establishing independent short video teams, etc.
In addition to these new capabilities, there is another basic capability that may become a trap for some traditional teams, and that is cost control capabilities.
Whether it is New Dou Variety or Tencent’s micro-variety show, millions of investments in single programs have sent a clear signal that the era of spending big money on variety shows is gone forever.
For the variety show industry, mcn and up owners may not necessarily become the new main force, but if they cannot keep up with the platform's transformation, teams that complete their own path updates will undoubtedly be eliminated.
