If you still have some memories, Leng Yan wrote two relatively pessimistic articles last year, one was "The variety show industry may have to start over" and the other was "The variety show industry has entered "garbage time"", which once attracted a lot of attention. A lot of co

If you still have some impressions, Leng Yan wrote two relatively pessimistic articles last year. One was "The variety show industry may have to overturn and start over" and the other was "The variety show industry has entered "garbage time"", which once caused a stir. There was a lot of controversy.

But despite the pessimism, Leng Yan has always had some expectations for the variety show industry, hoping that that "miraculous moment" will happen.

Two views were repeatedly mentioned in the two articles: First, circle content must be the trend of future variety shows; second, use specific content to serve specific groups of people.

these two points actually express the same meaning. The core is that allows us to forget about hot hits, take root in the circle, and use intensively cultivated content to continue to serve those specific groups of people even if we cannot completely change the business model of variety shows. uses relatively low production costs to produce content, and uses membership income and back-link income to make the variety show business gradually become healthy and sustainable.

There is no doubt that "Farming" is the closest to that "miraculous moment", followed by this year's "Singer 2024". Although the cost of these two programs is not low, they have each created unique value that belongs to variety shows.

One is long-termism, focusing on producing content, using live broadcasts, concerts and brand cooperation to directly poke people's hearts with truth, turning "Ten Qintian" into a "heterogeneous IP" in the current variety show market. The other is to return to the national nature of TV variety shows, using live broadcast technology and stirring up national emotions to turn variety shows into extremely explosive marketing events.

But the problem is that we are in a non-standard industry, and the "miracle moment" cannot be copied. Those programs that tried to reproduce did not cause a bigger splash.

Recently, I noticed with cold eyes that Tencent Video launched a "micro variety show" and also launched two programs, namely " Super Sweet Partner " and " Sea, Fishing Village and Three Idiots ". There are also three programs to be broadcast, namely "Director Please Stay", "Facing the Wind" and "Start Hide and Seek".

It is not difficult to understand from the literal meaning of micro variety show. It should be some small-scale projects, non-leading artists and shorter program duration. It sounds like there is nothing new, and many platforms have tried it. Even Tencent Video itself once had a "Xiao Xian Zong" label, and it is still exposed in the " Mao Xuewang " program.

So what is the difference between Tencent Video’s “micro-variety show”? Leng Yan discovered two key points.

Strategy: Another production line

The content production of Tencent’s variety show business has always been studio-based. The variety show IPs that everyone is familiar with are jointly created by these studios and external production teams.

However, as it becomes more and more difficult to attract investment, long-term variety shows in the entire industry are actually facing the situation of being unable to recruit or not recruiting enough. Many platforms are reducing the number of variety show productions. For Tencent Video, which is also a platform, the supply of good content is a long-term demand. When it is difficult to establish long-term variety show projects, self-invested micro-variety shows were born. Coupled with the stability of the number of member users and the development of payment habits, there is still room for imagination to use low costs to increase membership income.

And there is a problem here. Although the micro variety show is small in size, the production process is actually not small at all. It is understood that it is an important principle that micro variety shows must not occupy the production capacity of existing studios. After all, Tencent Variety Show still needs a large number of N-generation variety shows and long variety shows with different themes to stabilize the market.

Leng Yan also learned that the "Micro Variety Show Plan" has started to collect proposals since April this year, and almost all mid-waist teams on the market have been exposed to it.After handling hundreds of program plans of different types, 5 plans were finally selected for project approval. The subsequent overall broadcasting will also be connected to 12 noon to form a micro variety show belt.

So it is not difficult to find that micro variety shows are establishing a new content production line for Tencent variety shows. In the future, they will be parallel to the long variety shows led by the studio, forming two production lines , one long and one short. Long-term variety shows protect the market, and micro-variety shows innovate, using micro-variety shows to try out those themes that long-term variety shows cannot try at this stage. On the premise of ensuring content supply, micro-variety shows are new content supplies. Of course, micro variety shows can also be upgraded and lengthened.

As for the relationship between micro-variety shows and Xiaoxianzong, Leng Yan understands that micro-variety shows are a strategic move of the Tencent platform, while Xiaoxianzong is an innovation of a single studio. They are very different in terms of play style and long-term value.

Content: innovation, attracting new people and taking root in the circle

Judging from the two micro variety shows that have been launched so far, the subject matter is indeed new. The duration of a single program is also limited to about 30 minutes. For young users who have been transformed by short videos, watching a variety show of this size at noon should be stress-free.

On November 11, the first micro-variety show "Super Sweet Partner" launched the encounter content, and the main film will be launched at noon on November 18. This is a variety show focusing on young male and female newcomers. It is a new type of variety show. In the show, male and female actors will be paired up according to different rules, they will work together to create and experience characters, and shoot super sweet short films.

Judging from the introduction of the final rules of the "Encounter" that has been launched, this program has great innovations in user participation, and users have a great say in the content. While

launched the feature film in the first week, the program also launched a CP list of a super sweet partner. The list of will be accumulated from the first week until the end of the show. The couple with the highest votes will star in a customized drama as a super after-sales service for the "Super Sweet Partner" program. It is understood that starting from the second week, there will be voting for super sweet short films every week, which also makes Leng Yan full of expectations.

In fact, Mango has "Mango Freshman Class" that has been launched, and Youku also has "Super Drama Partner" in preparation. "Super Sweet Partner" does not seem to have a particularly obvious advantage. But the reason why this program was born on the Tencent Video platform is that Leng Yan believes that it is a program truly based on the characteristics of platform users.

Tencent Video has many years of romance user base. " Heartbeat Signal " and " Half-cooked Lovers " have firmly occupied the minds of users. At the same time, " Actors please take their place " and " Director please give me advice " 》Such a super variety show IP also has a very stable user base. Therefore, after combining the consumption habits of users of romance dramas and drama dramas, the emergence of "Super Sweet Partner" is a logical thing.

attempts content based on the characteristics of platform users, and then allows users to participate in the content and have a great say. Leng Yan believes that this is what micro variety shows should do.

Another micro variety show is called "Sea, Fishing Village and Three Idiots". You can feel the difference of this program from the name. The last time Leng Yan saw a program title with such a structure was a documentary called "It's Bread, It's Air, It's a Miracle."

This program is mainly about three rappers who have a natural relationship, Pharaoh ( Sun Quan ), Elf (Chen Zhengyu) and Chinese Boy ( Wang Hanzhe ), who went to a small village called Dongshan Village in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province. The fishing village competes for the title of "Dongshan Squid" through a 240-hour "rebirth" experience. Simply put, it is to help this small fishing village be known to more people through the program.

sounds like a very conventional program idea, a variety show under the banner of cultural tourism and rural revitalization. But after watching the first two episodes of the program, Leng Yan discovered that the reason why this program was established on Tencent Video also involved a lot of strategic thinking.

First of all, the three regular guests on the show, Pharaoh, Elf and Chinese Boy, have a natural relationship and are all very good friends in private. The matter of original relationship has been verified in many variety shows. 0713. Needless to say, it goes without saying that Tencent Video’s own "Mao Xue Wang" is the same. Therefore, the program "Sea, Fishing Village and Three Idiots" also uses this kind of character relationship to structure the program.

Regarding the guest combination of the reality show, Leng Yan has always had this view: "On a familiar road, walk with unfamiliar people; on an unfamiliar road, walk with familiar people." How to understand ? If the show is a competition that everyone is very familiar with or a destination that everyone is familiar with, you can invite guests who are not so familiar with each other to explore together. But if it’s a completely unfamiliar destination, it’s best to invite familiar friends to go with you. We will find that many reality shows are not good to watch because they let unfamiliar people walk together on unfamiliar roads.

Secondly, these three "idiots" all have rap music labels, and Tencent Video has not had rap music programs in recent years. Although " Afraid of Girls " was produced three years ago, that was also three years ago. In fact, the rap circle has never been able to have good content products to penetrate it. At this stage, it seems unrealistic to continue to develop a large vertical music comprehensive, but users in this circle need to consume content.

So inviting rappers with native connections to participate in a non-audio variety reality show is a very smart move by Tencent Video. can not only attract users in the rap circle through programs to attract new users, but can also formulate follow-up strategies based on the broadcast situation of the program. As I said coldly before, we do not rule out the possibility of upgrading and growing the variety show.

Whether it is "Super Sweet Partner" or "Sea, Fishing Village and Three Idiots", I have discovered that Tencent Video's micro variety shows are not random attempts, but decisions based on platform characteristics and long-term strategic thinking.

Although these micro-variety shows alone will definitely not be able to reverse the dilemma of variety shows, and it will be difficult to create a real "miracle moment", the overall thinking of Tencent Video's micro-variety show is still very complete, and it is exploring new content Production and revenue model, this is the long-term value and the responsibility of the platform.