Picture source @Visual China
text | Rhino Entertainment, author | Shen Wanting, editor | Pu Fang
2023 is coming to an end. Compared with the cold winter, the recovery trend of this year’s drama market has made the industry feel a little bit "Warmth".
This year, the drama industry has stabilized its "basic market" after experiencing challenges such as the "cold winter" in film and television. On the one hand, the revenue of many parent video platforms has turned losses into profits, and the financial report data has generally been improving; on the other hand, reducing volume and improving quality is gradually showing results. From the popular Spring Festival season to the most popular summer season, many works have gained popularity and reputation Not bad results.
This year, user aesthetics have been upgraded and audience interactivity has been enhanced, which has also promoted the continuous innovation and iteration of drama promotion logic. Social platforms such as Weibo and Douyin are very lively in the "you come and I go" gameplay.
This year, the micro-short drama track has opened up new incremental space for the drama market. While the quantity has exploded, the quality has also improved. The astonishing development speed has attracted the attention of regulatory authorities, and special governance for micro-short dramas has been gradually upgraded.
As we bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, Mr. Rhino summed up the five major trends in the development of the drama market in 2023, deeply explored more industry changes this year, and jointly reviewed the "recovery" 2023.
Stabilizing the "Basic Market"
Looking at the overall trend of the drama market, the idea of reducing costs and increasing efficiency will be continued in 2023, and the results of improving quality and reducing volume will further appear.
firstly brings creation and production into a rational and normative stage. Regulatory data shows that in 2023, the total number of dramas broadcast on Taiwan will continue to decrease; the number of online dramas created has become increasingly stable, and the number of online dramas has shown a slight downward trend for three consecutive years since 2020. At the same time, according to the "2023 China TV Drama (Online Drama) Industry Survey Report", this year the number of TV drama shooting and production registration announcements has rebounded for the first time in the past five years. There are obvious signs of TV series output bottoming out and stabilizing. It can be said that the investment and production of TV series is stable and improving. trend.
Then there is a significant trend of long-form video platforms turning losses into profits, with many parent video platforms narrowing their losses and achieving profitability. Among them, iQiyi’s performance exceeded expectations. iQiyi’s third quarter financial report shows that its total revenue in the third quarter was 8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7%, and non-GAAP (non-GAAP) operating profit was 895 million yuan, an increase of 71% year-on-year from 524 million yuan in the same period last year. %, iQiyi has maintained profitability for seven consecutive quarters. Tencent Video also announced its first full-year profit in June this year, giving the long video market another shot in the arm.
At the same time, Alibaba’s second quarter financial report showed that Da Entertainment Group, one of Alibaba’s six major business groups, had revenue of 5.779 billion yuan (US$792 million) in the quarter, a year-on-year increase of 11%. The growth of Youku online subscriptions Encouragement is one of the reasons. Prior to this, Youku had achieved year-on-year reductions in losses for multiple consecutive quarters. The loss has also narrowed at Bilibili. Its third quarter financial report shows that the average daily active users of Bilibili exceeded 100 million, with total revenue reaching 5.81 billion yuan. Its gross profit margin has increased for five consecutive quarters, and its adjusted net loss has narrowed significantly by 51% year-on-year. %. The
long video platform has gradually come out of the "gloom", and has also provided a healthy growth soil for diversified and high-quality drama content. From "Hurry" and "Go Where the Wind Is" which had a "good start" at the beginning of the year, to summer movies dominating the screen "Sauvignon Blanc", "Lotus House", and "News Queen" which caused a heated discussion at the end of the year. Many works emerged throughout the year that were both popular and well-known.
The most "volume" summer film
Reviewing the drama market in 2023, we have to mention the "volume" of this summer's market.
One is the "volume" in terms of the number of episodes. According to media statistics from
, as of August 9, 93 dramas have been launched in the summer season. This number has exceeded the total number of dramas in the entire summer season in 2022. What followed was an intensive schedule of drama series on various platforms. After July, new dramas were released almost every day, especially the competition for top dramas was extremely fierce; and the promotion cycle and broadcasting period of each work were also shortened. , the space for popularity and word-of-mouth fermentation will be squeezed.
The second is the "volume" in content quality. In addition to reaching new heights in terms of quantity,
also ushered in changes and breakthroughs in creative styles in various themes. The most prominent thing is the type innovation of the ancient costume track.Yunhe data shows that the top four effective dramas broadcast on the entire network in the 2023 summer season, "Sauvignon Blanc", "Changfengdu", "Lotus Tower" and "Jade Bones" are all costume dramas.
Among them, "Sauvignon Blanc" dominates the summer season in terms of various statistics. It focuses on dramas with big female protagonists and multiple CP lines, setting off a wave of "hero competition" across the entire network. The performance of the martial arts-themed "Lotus Tower" was also quite impressive, with a score of 8.0 on Douban. As the word-of-mouth effect fermented, it finally became a summer dark horse with a score of 8.5 on Douban and over 10,000 hits on iQiyi.com.
In addition, many waist-sized works also relied on word-of-mouth to achieve industry-wide success in the summer season, such as "Pretend to Revel", which accurately captures the current youth emotions, and Bilibili's self-made drama "Ancient Acacia", which focuses on reverse time travel. "Qu", Douban scores are all above 8 points.
However, it should also be pointed out that due to various factors such as the clustering of top dramas and the compression of the promotion cycle, most summer dramas have not completed the maximum conversion of value. Except for "Sauvignon Blanc", which was very popular in the early stage, most other dramas The word-of-mouth fermentation process is generally slow, and some top content with good reputation has not been transformed due to length or subject matter, such as "Imperfect Victim" and "Happy Face".
Everyone is on the table
Under the fierce market competition, the drama industry needs more effective publicity and distribution. It can be clearly felt that since this year, whether it is the platform side or the drama side, the promotion and distribution methods of drama series have been continuously iterated, especially for key dramas, user interactivity has been greatly enhanced, and it is not uncommon for users to worry about promotion and distribution. "All people create together" "Everyone is on the table" have become key words in the drama's announcement.
What is noteworthy is that in this publicity war competing for the attention of the audience and the market, Weibo and Douyin have become two important positions for everyone to participate and accelerate industry iteration. On the one hand,
is Weibo, which serves as the basic platform for drama promotion and distribution. Relying on its strong social genes, it carries various social interactions such as audience expressions and word-of-mouth output. It covers all circles of users in all fields on the Weibo platform. The output content is more familiar.
For example, after the controversy surrounding the hit summer drama "Sauvignon Blanc", the drama team joined hands with the artist studio's official Weibo account to jointly launch the #MelinGuardianXiaoyao Second Creation Contest# and released separate files on the topic, igniting the enthusiasm of Weibo netizens for second creation. , successfully attracted many netizens to actively contribute articles, which led to a reversal of the series' reputation and an increase in discussion, helping the series continue to break through the circle. In popular dramas such as "Yunzhiyu" and "Ning'an Like a Dream" aired in the second half of the year, audience discussion and secondary creation have also become standard ways to create hot topics.
On the other hand, the importance of Douyin series promotion is becoming increasingly prominent. With its huge content ecosystem and diverse, interactive user base, Douyin has also given birth to more marketing methods, providing a more fertile soil for everyone to create together. Especially when it comes to cultivating drama content, Douyin has a natural creator advantage. Leading film and television experts, professional creators in various categories, and many KOCs can cooperate with the drama team to create hot content.
For example, during the hit season of the new year's drama "Hurry Up", many second-generation creators would contribute to the promotion of the drama, including Gao Qiqiang's walking posture being imitated, fans interpreting the arrangement of the drama, and "Arita going down the mountain" and other hot memes sweeping the Internet. wait. At the same time, the starring actors in the drama actively engaged in business and interacted enthusiastically with Douyin netizens. For example, the two live broadcasts of "Gao Family Sister and Brother Reunion Dinner" and "Key Members of the Jinghai Criminal Police Team" had a cumulative total of 5 million viewers.
However, no matter whether the TV series announces "Everyone is on the Table" on Weibo or Douyin, the essential logic behind it is that fans of the series rush in both directions.
"Breaking 10,000 Dramas" and "8-Point Dramas"
At the drama broadcast level, two data indicators appear more frequently this year than before.
One is "The popularity exceeds 10,000/30,000." Since the birth of the video platform "Hot Value", "the site's popularity exceeds 10,000" (Tencent Video's "over 30,000") has become the standard for hit dramas. Compared with previous works, the number of "over 10,000" dramas this year has increased significantly. For example, Youku had 8 dramas that exceeded 10,000 hits last year, but this year there have been 11; iQiyi's "over 10,000" dramas this year and Tencent Video The "30,000-plus dramas" were 5 and 3 respectively.
From the perspective of subject types, these highly popular contents on the platform include both ancient and modern dolls, such as "Saurus Acacia", "Long Moon Ember", "Changfeng Du" and "Secretly Can't Hide" ", etc.; there are also relatively vertical genres such as reality, era, suspense, fantasy, etc., such as "Hurry", "The Sea in the Dream", "Who is He", "Under the Stranger", etc.
Another data indicator is “Douban 8 points”. According to statistics, as of now, there are more than 20 dramas with a Douban score of 8 or above in 2023, and the number of dramas with a Douban score of 8 or above in 2022 and 2021 are 14 and 9 respectively. It can be seen that the growth of "8-point dramas" So fast.
Among them, the "King of Dramas" in 2023 is Tencent Video's "X Theater" and "The Long Season", with more than 890,000 people scoring a high score of 9.4. The science fiction-themed drama "The Three-Body Problem" and the pastoral healing style "Go Where the Wind Is" both received 8.7 points, with more than 300,000 ratings.
has frequently exceeded 10,000/30,000 in popularity, and its Douban score has continuously exceeded 8. These data have often caused controversy, such as whether the calculation standards are scientific and whether there is inflation in the data. However, it must be admitted that the year-by-year improvement in data performance can still prove to a certain extent that the quality of the content of national dramas has also improved to a higher level.
The "rush" of micro-short dramas
In 2023, the micro-short drama track will have a strong presence in the drama market, and the market scale will expand rapidly. Various "players" such as long and short video platforms, film and television companies, mcn agencies, and advertising companies are vying to be the first to enter. market, the micro-short drama market has reached unprecedented prosperity. According to relevant data from iiMedia Research, China’s online micro-short drama market size will be 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 267.65%. In the third quarter of this year, the circulation of domestic online micro-series reached 150, nearly double the total in 2022.
On the platform side, major long and short video platforms have established special short drama theaters to promote users’ awareness and consumption of micro short dramas. For example, Kuaishou, which was the first to enter micro-short dramas, has achieved outstanding results this summer, with 85 short dramas online and 21 short dramas with over 100 million views. Another example is Tencent Video this year, which takes "fireworks, youth, freshness" as its important direction, focusing on the layout of "warm realism" short dramas. In the first three quarters, the number of new videos and market performance are in the leading position among several major long-form video platforms. .
On the content side, in 2023, short dramas with diverse themes such as fantasy, suspense, comedy, and reality will provide audiences with richer choices, such as "Escape from the British Museum", "Twenty-Nine", and "I Go Back to the Time I Was Seventeen". "Reason", "Invitation", "Feng Yue Chang" and many other out-of-circle works. However, due to the low threshold and mixed participation of participants, the overall quality of the micro-short drama content is uneven. Most of the plots blindly pursue a sense of "refreshment", and phenomena such as homogeneous themes and crude plots are common.
The popularity of the micro-short drama market has attracted great attention from regulatory authorities, and they have strengthened special management of short dramas. On November 15, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced a one-month special rectification work on online micro-short dramas. WeChat, Kuaishou, Douyin and other platforms immediately took action collectively to remove illegal short dramas from the site in batches and deal with illegal short dramas. account.
Generally speaking, the reason why micro-short dramas can be paid by more and more viewers is that they meet the needs of users for multi-category cultural consumption and form a strong complement to long and short video content. With the industry reshuffle and regulatory upgrades, only healthy and sustainable development is the future of micro-drama.
Finally, looking back, the drama series in 2023 have continued to improve in terms of popularity, genre innovation, artistic expression, etc. It has become an industry consensus to create diverse high-quality content. Although some platforms and production institutions have still not found new room for revenue growth, under the overall positive trend of the drama industry, we have reason to believe that the drama market is expected to enter the next growth period in 2024.
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