A new regulation on the filing of short dramas has caused shocks among practitioners.
Recently, surging news reporters learned from the competent departments of radio and television, short drama production companies, and practitioners in many places that the "Latest Work Tips on the Filing of Micro Short Dramas" (hereinafter referred to as the "Filing Tips") that circulated on the Internet has indeed been implemented in many provinces and cities across the country.
According to the filing reminder, according to the latest notice of the State Administration of Radio and Television, all platforms should report the relevant information of the micro-short drama repertoire that is currently broadcast online without filing to the provincial radio and television department of their place of residence before May 31, 2024. From June 1, 2024, micro-short dramas that have not been reviewed and filed shall not be disseminated online.
This also means that the once surging short drama industry may usher in "strong supervision": according to iiMedia Consulting data, the market size of China's online micro-short dramas in 2023 will be 37.39 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 267.65%, and the market size is expected to reach 100 billion yuan in 2027.
Filming highlights of the hit short drama "Wushuang".
"The impact on the top companies is not significant, which is a good thing for the industry as a whole. When it comes to the newly introduced filing measures, Li Tao, founder of Xi'an Fengxing Culture, the producer of the popular short drama "Wushuang", told reporters that he had 13 short dramas filmed at the same time in April, and the cost and production threshold of short dramas have increased significantly since the beginning of this year, and the industry has entered the second half of survival of the fittest, "the rest is king".
"Now there are about 4,000 short dramas promoted on the market at the same time, and at this time last year, there were less than 400, and the competition was ten times fierce. Chen Ruiqing, the head company of short dramas and chairman of Dianzhong Technology, revealed to The Paper that short dramas have now become a red sea market, and the so-called "myth of getting rich" does not exist. Taking Dianzhong as an example, the company's gross profit margin is about 10%, of which the net profit margin of the short drama business is less than 1%.
The bureaus of radio, film and television in many places have clearly started to implement it, and the filing system has been launched
The "key micro-short dramas" with an investment amount of more than 1 million yuan are managed by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the "ordinary micro-short dramas" between 300,000 yuan and 1 million yuan are managed by the provincial radio and television department, and the "other micro-short dramas" below 300,000 yuan are managed by the platform.
The Paper reporter called the competent departments of radio and television in many places. A staff member of the Network Audiovisual Department of a provincial Bureau of Radio, Film and Television told The Paper: "We have just implemented this policy, and the specific filing process is carried out in accordance with the documents published online, and the filing process is unified in various places." According to the staff member, the main company for the record needs to hold the "Radio and Television Program Production and Business License" before it can be recorded.
"This notice is currently being received nationwide. A staff member of the Guangdong Radio and Television Bureau revealed that Guangdong Province has always had relevant reviews for the online broadcast of micro-short dramas, and the new regulations for the record introduced this time are more detailed on the original basis.
The staff of the Yunnan Radio and Television Bureau said that in addition to the implementation of the new regulations for the record, there will be policy lectures on micro-short drama production and operation institutions in the future.
In addition to the implementation of the new regulations, in many provinces and cities across the country, the "online audio-visual program filing system" for micro-short dramas has been put into use. The staff of Hainan Radio and Television Bureau told reporters that at present, Hainan's micro-short drama filing system has been launched and is in the trial stage, and the main company for the record can submit an application for filing on the system in accordance with the "Latest Work Tips on the Filing of Micro-short Dramas".
The staff of the Guangxi Radio and Television Bureau introduced the process of micro-short drama filing to reporters: the main company for the record needs to first register an account with the relevant radio and television bureau, and then submit a declaration to the corresponding competent unit in accordance with the classification of micro-short dramas in the "Latest Work Tips on the Filing of Micro-short Dramas", which will be reviewed by the competent unit. Online micro-short dramas need to obtain an "Online Drama Film Distribution Permit" or a program registration record number before they can be broadcast online.
The industry has entered a period of reflection on quality and content
Regarding the introduction of the new regulations, a number of practitioners told the surging news reporter that the short drama industry, which was once considered a "myth of wealth creation", has actually passed the reckless era, and under more standardized supervision, the industry will usher in a period of integration.
Chen Ruiqing introduced that the current main business of Dianzhong Technology includes novels, short dramas, going to sea, etc. During the Spring Festival, Dianzhong Technology participated in the release of the popular short drama "I Was a Stepmother in the 80s", and previously invested in many popular short dramas such as "Mr. Pei Thinks of His Father Every Day" and "Such a Mysterious Him".
Stills from the short play "I Was a Stepmother in the Eighties".
Regarding the overall income of the incoming short dramas, he said frankly that in the overall revenue share, the platform side takes out most of it, and the copyright owner, producer, producer and distributor share about 15% of the profit. If the profit of a short drama project is 100 yuan, of which 85 yuan belongs to the platform side, and the content producer can only get less than 15 yuan, "Taking Dianzhong as an example, it can currently produce about 60-70 short dramas per month, of which 30% of the projects have lost their money, and the hit rate is less than 10%. ”
Chen Ruiqing revealed that around 2022, the cost of a short drama can be made as low as 50,000-100,000 yuan, but now the cost has increased several times, and the overall income has shrunk. ”
In the view of Xu Minghe, a senior practitioner of short dramas, the popularity rate of short dramas is now less than 1%, and many problems have been exposed in the rapid development of the industry, such as relying on vulgar, pornographic and other marginal content to win attention. The legend of the short drama to get rich has also attracted a large number of laymen who do not understand the content to flock to the industry, resulting in the phenomenon of "quantity but no quality" in the market. ”
"Last year, there were 8 days of income over 100 million yuan, and this year it is rarely heard. Xu Minghe said.
Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Consulting, told reporters that in the long run, the new regulations for the filing of the short drama industry will undoubtedly promote the further standardization of the industry, whether it is the domestic market or the overseas market, short dramas need a more sound talent training system and supporting facilities, "but in the short term, it will definitely have an impact on some start-ups, but this is temporary, and it is also an inevitable process to improve the overall threshold of the industry." ”
"The new filing regulations provide the premise and support for future interventional industry supervision. Zhai Wei, executive director of the Competition Law Research Center of East China University of Political Science and Law, told The Paper that "promoting development with regulation and leading innovation with norms" will become the governance tone of the short drama industry in the future, which is conducive to removing the chaff from the chaff in the field of short drama content, and promoting the gradual transformation of the industry from the "barbaric growth" pattern to the "orderly development" pattern. As a result, companies in the industry will pay more attention to the improvement of the content and quality of short dramas, and strengthen the fit between the content of short dramas and mainstream values.
Major short drama platforms have stepped up supervision
In addition to the strengthening of supervision by relevant departments, the review of short dramas by live broadcast platforms is also tightening.
Demand is still rising: According to Qian Lili, the person in charge of Douyin's high-quality short dramas, the number of paid users of Douyin short dramas will increase by 3 times in 2023, the average daily playback volume will increase by 100% compared with 2022, 12 short dramas will exceed 1 billion plays, and 8 high-quality short dramas will have more than 100 million views during the Spring Festival.
The relevant person in charge of Kuaishou told reporters that through measures such as capital and traffic support and business empowerment, a high-quality support system for Kuaishou short dramas has been built to guide the positive development of short drama creation. At the same time, Kuaishou has also formulated relevant rules to conduct audits from multiple dimensions such as institutional qualifications and content, and through online audit tools, the audit process is standardized, highly transparent, and traceable, so as to improve the quality and efficiency of audits.
Previously, on April 10, Douyin and Kuaishou respectively issued announcements on cracking down on illegal micro-short dramas. The announcement said that the platform recently found that some micro-short dramas promoted unhealthy and non-mainstream family views, marriage and love views, deliberately amplified and exaggerated the conflicts between husband and wife, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law and other content, and the Douyin platform has removed 6 related illegal micro-short dramas, 4 Kuaishou removed from the shelves, and cleaned up 738 related content.
At the 11th Network Audiovisual Conference, Yang Zheng, deputy director of the Network Audiovisual Program Management Department of the State Administration of Radio and Television, delivered a speech on the Sichuan Jing Lookout Map
"As a new thing, the micro-short drama mini program is still in the initial stage of development, and how to achieve high-quality and sustainable development is the primary problem we are currently facing. At the 11th Network Audiovisual Conference, Yang Zheng, deputy director of the Network Audiovisual Program Management Department of the State Administration of Radio and Television, once said that in the critical period of transformation and upgrading of micro-short drama mini-programs, first, we must highlight the ideological value guidance, and effectively grasp the correct political direction, public opinion orientation, value orientation, and aesthetic interest; A win-win situation.