Long-form dramas will not be driven off the stage by short dramas, but only the most elite content will survive.

As the new school season begins, the summer viewing season has come to a close. Although the long-form video industry has suffered considerable setbacks under the impact of short dramas, this year's summer season still produced frequent hits with commendable results.

Youku led the long-form drama race with "The Hidden Sea" and "In the Name of Law," while iQiyi focused on diverse genres including realism, costume dramas, and suspense to break new ground. Tencent Video delivered multiple high-reputation works through its combination of "super dramas + premium vertical content."

The recent 21 new regulations released by the broadcasting authority also represent rare good news for the long-form content industry. Does this signal a promising future for long-form dramas?

**Realistic Dramas Frequently Hit Big, Costume Romance and Main Theme Content Lead in New Releases**

This year's summer season truly had numerous hits. According to Yunhe Data statistics, six dramas in the 2024 summer season achieved over 1 billion effective views, with the top two coming from Youku and the remaining four from iQiyi.

Topping the list was "The Hidden Sea," which achieved over 1.36 billion effective views from June to August. Second was the realistic judicial drama "In the Name of Law," also the only judicial-themed work in this year's summer season. Third was iQiyi's "All Things Grow," which went online in mid-August and has already exceeded 1.33 billion effective views, with expectations for further growth.

"All Things Grow," "The Hidden Sea," "In the Name of Law," and "Records of Flowing Snow" achieved over 30% daily market share on long-form drama popularity charts, with "All Things Grow" and "The Hidden Sea" becoming the only two long-form dramas in 2024 to surpass 40% market share.

In terms of genre distribution, costume romance dramas led new releases this summer with 15 titles, seven of which came from iQiyi. Main theme works ranked second with 14 titles, primarily from Tencent Video and iQiyi. Other genres were relatively evenly distributed, including urban, suspense, and fantasy themes.

Among these, period dramas, suspense, judicial, and other main theme and realistic works frequently produced excellent content, with "Anti-Drug Storm," "All Things Grow," "Tempered Era," and "Dark Current" all scoring above 7 points on Douban.

Regarding release scale, platforms overall streamlined their content volume, reflected in both the number of series and total episode duration. Long-form video platforms launched 160 long-form series during the summer season, a decrease of 7 compared to the previous year. Total episodes of new domestic series decreased by 4% year-over-year, and total duration decreased by 7%. However, new domestic series increased by 4 titles compared to the previous year, totaling 71.

**Each Platform Demonstrates Unique Strengths**

Looking at the three major platforms individually, each showed distinct capabilities. Youku produced this summer's biggest hit, securing the top two positions on the network-wide cumulative effective viewing charts with "The Hidden Sea" and "In the Name of Law," achieving a strong rebound. "The Hidden Sea" reached over 10,000 platform popularity points in just 38 hours, setting a new record. "In the Name of Law" also performed outstandingly, surpassing 1.3 billion effective views and ranking first in average V30 and popular period average charts.

iQiyi maintained its lead during the summer season, with series effective viewing consistently ranking at the forefront from June to August. This success came partly from iQiyi's signature costume romance trilogy "Riverside Immortal," "A Dream in Books," and "Records of Flowing Snow" creating a matrix effect, and partly from the realistic drama "All Things Grow" achieving "online and TV dual success" and strong crossover appeal.

"All Things Grow" reached a peak platform popularity of 11,018 on iQiyi, ranking second in platform history, only behind "The Knockout." Its CVB viewership peaked at 2.806% with an average of 2.388%, claiming the 2024 CCTV-8 annual viewership championship. The series also contributed the top character on popularity charts, with Yang Mi's character Ning Xiuxiu becoming the first character in 2024 to exceed 1.2 million in character popularity index.

Tencent Video launched the most new content this summer with 27 titles across diverse genres. Its "super drama + premium vertical content" strategy contributed works featuring top IP and talent while being more targeted in audiovisual aspects with clearer audiences, capable of breaking through both by reputation and discussion volume.

**Clear Long-Form Drama Polarization: Winners Take All**

Despite the lively drama market this summer, it couldn't stop the overall decline of long-form series. Whether iQiyi or Tencent Video's financial reports couldn't hide the reality of losses. iQiyi's Q2 revenue was 6.63 billion yuan, down 11% year-over-year, with a net loss of 134 million yuan. Tencent Video's paid subscribers numbered 114 million, declining by 3 million both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter.

After reorganization, Youku directly listed its entertainment segment under "other revenue," with data not directly reflected in financial reports, but it couldn't escape the overall trend.

Even with Grade 14 S-level works clustered in the summer season, audiences still couldn't be retained. According to Lighthouse Professional Edition data, the 2024 summer season's total network viewing reached 28.4 billion, down 11.3% year-over-year. Average episode viewing also shrank overall, with only one series, "In the Name of Law," exceeding 50 million average episode views this summer, compared to three last year.

The so-called "hits" and "popular shows" were more limited to relative success within individual projects, unable to drive overall market warming. As users decrease, investment decreases, costs decrease, and content decreases, which only further shrinks the market. This traps the long-form video industry, which follows a "content is king" logic, in a vicious cycle of cost reduction and efficiency decline.

Beyond overall budget reductions, another investment trend is highly concentrated funding, only willing to invest in top-tier S or S+ level projects, with funds originally allocated to Grade A and below markets basically flowing to micro-short dramas.

Admittedly, this "winners take all" situation creates opportunities for high-investment, high-return premium works like "All Things Grow" and "The Hidden Sea," but it also results in numerous small and medium-budget projects facing financing difficulties, sharp reductions in production starts, and serious gaps between upper and lower tiers, lacking middle ground.

However, this brutal competition isn't necessarily bad for the industry itself. Rather, it forces industry self-reform, washing away speculative elements and preserving only content-focused parts. Past practices of driving viewership through marketing hype and traffic stars are gradually being abandoned by the market, with content quality and reputation becoming the only path to survival.

This year's summer season confirmed this point. Whether "In the Name of Law" or "All Things Grow," these works' success relied entirely on solid scripts, excellent performances, and profound realistic portrayals that resonated with audiences. Conversely, S+ major productions that merely pile up IP and stars without meeting quality expectations are no longer recognized by the market.

Investment return measurement standards are shifting from pure traffic metrics to long-term value and brand effects driven by reputation.

**Broadcasting Authority Intervenes to Ease Restrictions: Can Long-Form Content Warm Up?**

With long-form content struggling, the broadcasting authority finally stepped in last month, launching 21 new reform measures. Regardless of how much overall improvement the 21 measures can bring, they at least serve as a morale-boosting shot for the currently sluggish industry.

The 21 measures include removing the 40-episode limit for TV dramas, not strictly limiting costume drama quantities, improving seasonal drama broadcast interval management, and encouraging excellent micro-short dramas to enter television broadcasting. Additionally, examination mechanisms have been reformed, with the General Administration and provincial bureaus establishing synchronized review mechanisms for prime-time satellite TV and key website homepage content, and TV drama completion review timelines will be compressed and optimized.

For series, sitcoms, and anthology dramas, a new "review while broadcasting, revise while broadcasting" examination mechanism will be piloted.

Under the new policies, several changes may occur. First, improving seasonal drama broadcast intervals makes long-term IP development possible. Second is the introduction of overseas content, with policies supporting the import of quality foreign TV dramas, documentaries, and animations for prime-time satellite channel broadcasting.

Equally noteworthy is "micro-short drama televisionization," encouraging excellent micro-short dramas to enter television broadcasting, with provincial satellite TV allowed to establish micro-short drama theaters.

Overall, the 21 broadcasting measures aren't meant to "rescue" squeezed long-form content, but to return the content market to a fairer competitive ecosystem. For long-form video, market contraction and capital outflow trends can basically only be slowed, not reversed, as this represents not just market changes but also media evolution.

However, just as photography's invention couldn't truly replace painting, long-form dramas won't be driven off the stage by short dramas. But like photography making many second and third-tier painters unemployed, only the most elite portion of long-form dramas can survive today.

Whether to explore new territories or push long-form dramas to their limits, different platforms are gradually providing different answers.