TV series is hit in the back and back: inflated prices and serious water injection, online dramas strongly divert viewers

In the past two years, the IP craze has attracted a craze for film and television investment, and the production and broadcasting of TV dramas is also remarkable: competition for first-line satellite TV stations is fierce, and online self-produced dramas are developing rapidly; young audiences are returning, and the investment in large-scale dramas is hundreds of millions of yuan. TV drama production organizations are facing a more complex environment. However, behind the huge production figures and broadcast figures, China's TV drama industry still has many problems that need to be solved urgently.

Original title: The price is inflated and the water is serious. Online dramas are strongly diverting viewers. The TV drama industry has been seriously ill

. In the past two years, the IP craze has attracted film and television investment. The production and broadcasting of TV dramas are also remarkable: competition for first-line satellite TV stations is fierce, and online homemade dramas are developing rapidly; Young audiences are returning, investment in large-scale dramas is hundreds of millions of yuan, and the environment faced by TV drama production organizations is more complex. However, behind the huge production figures and broadcast figures, China's TV drama industry still has many problems that need to be solved urgently.

Question 1: Fan economic idols are in power, and market appeal is more important than quality.

Currently, TV drama production presents three paths: first, the traditional path, hard script + traditional powerful actors + soft marketing, taking the path of big drama and national drama; second, the new path, strong IP+ soft script + small fresh meat actors + strong marketing; third, the centrist path, the combination of traditional path and new path can completely explore a path that has both quality and cater to the market. However, the first path seems to be gradually declining; the third path is represented by Hou Hongliang's team, but there are not many followers. The second path is in full swing.

The fan economy makes appearance higher than acting skills, and market reputation gives way to the number of fans. Although big data shows that many people think that young people like to watch dramas with a lot of "good-looking" and "little fresh meat", it is a misunderstanding of them. However, it is undeniable that in most current TV drama themes, appearance has become a standard feature.

The current film and television industry has seen the madness of the "fan economy". The small fresh meat and flowers that dominate the screen not only have high looks, but more importantly, they all have their own loyal fans. In this "very popular" atmosphere, news about these small fresh meat's troubles will bring huge traffic. These traffic will eventually bring ratings to the producers, attract advertisements to the TV stations, and bring more opportunities to the small fresh meat and flowers. Especially letting cross-border newcomers act as the leading roles is a bad thing in the capital-kidnapping drama production industry. After a short period of glitz, it is the industry that hurts.

Question 2: IP dramas dominate the market, and the main melody dramas are being marginalized

. In 2015, the news that the four major super IPs such as "Tomb Robbing Notes","Tibetan Code","Ghost Blows Out the Lamp", and "Beauty Is the Stuffing" made the film and television industry eager to move. Halfway through 2016, it can be seen from the themes of self-produced dramas on video websites that the concept of "big IP" is still the top priority, and few non-IP dramas are seen.

Nowadays, during the summer weekly drama series, online stations have joined forces to launch well-known big IP dramas."Old Nine Gates","Fantasy City", and "Smiles and Beautiful" are staged in turn on first-line satellite TV such as Dragon TV, Hunan TV, and Zhejiang TV. Among the digital dramas run by many statistical agencies, these IP dramas also rank among the top in the attention of media such as the Internet and Weibo.

However, accompanying the popularity of IP dramas is the decline in the number and market share of TV dramas with main themes.

If there are many main theme works such as "On the Taihang Mountains","The Pretender","Sharp Edge", and "Ordinary World" on last year's TV drama ratings rankings, then in the first half of this year, only "Marshal Peng Dehuai" and "The Identity of a Father" entered the top 20, and their ratings were also much weaker.

"Nowadays, many people working in (film, television and drama) feel that they will be outdated if they don't mention IP." Zhang Guoli once said in an interview that IP has attracted more attention from the capital market, and capital has promoted the transformation of the entire market. The market began to tilt towards idol dramas and IP dramas on the production side, causing the number of major dramas to decrease in the production process. This will greatly weaken the post-broadcast effect and influence of the main theme drama, resulting in further passive compression of the room and space for choice on the supply side as the main platforms for broadcasting main theme dramas such as CCTV 1 and CCTV 8.

Question 3: The audience positioning is too concentrated and young, and the ladies are very hurt.

Due to the significant advantages of the Da TV platform in terms of funds and resources, the implementation of the two-star policy for one drama and the sharp increase in the cost of a single drama, starting this year, more The prime time TV series broadcast time of more third-and fourth-line satellite TV stations has become two and three rounds of replay time, which allows the high-quality dramas produced in the market to be concentrated on the leading Da TV platform.

The current TV drama market is showing a trend of rejuvenation. TV dramas broadcast on Hunan, Zhejiang, Dongfang and other major TV platforms have strengthened the competition for people born in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. People under the age of 44 contribute more than or close to 70% of the ratings of prime time TV dramas on China Satellite TV such as Hunan and Zhejiang. The market positioning of TV dramas in terms of audiences is changing from "those who get an aunt get the world" to "those who get a girl get the world".

Interestingly, from a market-wide perspective, people over the age of 45 spend far more time on TV dramas than people under the age of 44, or even two or three times as much.

We love watching TV dramas, but TV dramas are not produced for us. No wonder the aunties were very injured.

Question 4: The series is getting longer and longer, and the plot is seriously flooded

. In some of the popular dramas with high ratings in the first half of this year, there were 81 episodes of the New Year's Eve drama "The Legend of Mi Yue", 74 episodes of "There is Happiness Every Day and Love in the World", and 49 episodes of "The Martial God Zhao Zhilong". (Note: The examples are only to illustrate the phenomenon, and the subsequent judgments are aimed at the overall market phenomenon, so do not take the mark). The number of episodes is getting longer and longer, and the phenomenon of water flooding in the plot is serious and becoming more and more prominent. This is also a question that has concentrated feedback from netizens such as Douban, Weibo, and Tieba. For example, in a play, various memory scenes, empty scenes, and waste scenes appear repeatedly. In many scenes, the male and female protagonists are confused about a small matter, and a large number of unnutritious conversation scenes appear.

On June 30, the official website of the State Administration of China released a set of data: From January to March 2016, various TV drama production organizations across the country completed production and were approved to distribute a total of 59 domestic TV dramas and 2653 episodes. There are 59 films, 2653 episodes, and the average single drama is 45 episodes. The total number of episodes in the first quarter of 2653 was ranked in the middle of the historical data for the same period. However, the average number of episodes in a single series reached a record high.

It is precisely because of the serious flooding of plots and the dragging rhythm of some dramas that, according to the ratings rules, when the ratings should increase in the middle of the plot, the ratings are flat or declining, and the increase is weak. This is the audience using their own remote control to vote against the water injection drama.

In the first half of this year, if the number of episodes of many dramas can be cut by one-third, the ratings may also increase by one-third.

Question 5: Video websites compete with TV stations for the right to speak upstream. The price of purchasing dramas is inflated.

Video websites are in the limelight, which greatly weakens TV's rule over TV dramas. Even so, video websites are losing money and making money. What they want first is to defeat the TV station in terms of momentum and strategy.

Previously, news of the TV series "Nirvana in Fire 2" and "The Legend of Ruyi" were successively reported that the copyright was sold at sky-high prices. "The Legend of Ruyi", newly created by Liu Lianzi, the original author of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", only announced that Zhou Xun will be the female lead. The TV series has not yet started, and it has already been scheduled to be released on next year's Dragon TV and Jiangsu TV.

The two satellite TV stations each bid 3 million yuan for an episode, and Tencent Video's exclusive copyright price is 9 million yuan for an episode. In this way, the copyright of a single episode of the show has reached 15 million yuan for an episode. According to the volume of 90 episodes,"The Legend of Ruyi" has now received 1.35 billion yuan in funding, which also marks that domestic TV dramas have officially entered the 1 billion yuan era, and the speed of development is staggering.

Behind this is precisely because video websites are willing to compete with TV stations in order to compete for resources, which has pushed up the copyright price of TV dramas to a certain extent. In the long run, such an approach will not be beneficial to both TV stations and video websites.

For some time in the future, it may be a mainstream method to broadcast major dramas exclusively online and broadcast them first on the Internet.

Question 6: Internet dramas focus on policy gaps and themes, diverting audiences

. Since last year, online solo dramas have begun to work hard. In the first half of this year, this trend became more obvious. Major video platforms such as iQiyi, Sohu, LeTV, and Tencent have begun to focus on the creation of solo dramas. Solo dramas have gradually become mainstream, and the number of broadcasts has increased significantly year-on-year.

According to relevant data, in the first half of 2016, the number of newly opened online dramas increased by 84% year-on-year. Five films "My Wonderful Boyfriend","Remains of Crime 1.2","Celebrity Superstar Reborn","The Best of Us", and "Country Love 8" entered the club with more than 1 billion clicks.

The popularity of online dramas and the surge in clicks indicate that some viewers of TV dramas are switching their viewing habits. In the past two years, the time invested by young audiences in TV dramas has been significantly reduced, which has a lot to do with the diversion of online dramas.

But overall, the themes of popular online dramas still focus on horror suspense, detective reasoning, and rebirth, and they have large scales in plot and line design. For example, the recently hit "Remnant Crime 1.2" has a subject matter of criminal investigation that cannot enter prime time on TV channels. The plot design has many details that induce crime, and the lines are flying everywhere.

When "Yu Sin" was launched, a Da TV platform proposed to follow it on TV, but it was not approved. At present, except for some dramas originally produced for TV stations, most online dramas cannot be broadcast on TV in terms of scale and caliber if they are not adapted and edited.

In February this year, the State Administration of China proposed that "online and offline standards should be consistent, and what TV stations cannot broadcast will not be broadcast on the Internet." At least so far,"simultaneous broadcasting and simultaneous review" has not yet been achieved.

Conclusion

Looking at a longer time span, the market will slowly correct the trajectory that seems to be deviating from. But it requires a process. In this process, good industry supervision and policy guidance will make the process shorter.

TV drama production follows two logics: commercial logic and cultural logic. Current business logic is showing its strong muscles and seems to be stronger. The activity of capital accelerates the optimal combination of industries and resources, but it cannot solve deep-seated problems. On the contrary, its profit-seeking nature will accelerate the exposure or become more prominent of some problems.

In a seemingly flashy market, the demand for high-quality products has never been as strong as it is now. At this year's Two Sessions, the word "craftsman spirit" entered the government work report for the first time. I hope that the pursuit of good actors, sophisticated production teams, and excellence in all aspects will return at a faster rate.

From the audience, the boundary between online dramas and TV dramas is becoming increasingly blurred. There are only good works and bad works in the future, and there are no TV dramas and online dramas.