The end of the era of long dramas

Text by | Lan Jie

From March 1st to March 2nd, relevant content such as "Youku will no longer accept dramas with more than 12 episodes" and "Dramas on Youku with more than 12 episodes must be aired this year, otherwise they will be cut to 12 episodes" successively topped the hot searches on social platforms such as Weibo and Zhihu.

In response, according to a well - informed source at Youku, the claim that Youku will no longer accept dramas with more than 12 episodes is a rumor. "Currently, Youku's self - produced and customized dramas are not required to have exactly 12 episodes across the board. It's because there are too many water - filled dramas, and we need to control this situation." In addition, the relevant person also said, "IQIYI and Tencent have also made explorations in this regard. For example, the dramas in IQIYI's Misty Theater are not long in episode count, and the content is more concentrated."

According to a report by The Paper, since the second half of 2024, there have been multiple rumors in the film and television industry that Youku will reform the episode count of long dramas. There have also been several ongoing projects claiming to have been required by Youku to "reduce" the number of episodes.

Water - filled dramas have indeed existed on long - form video platforms and major TV stations for a long time. This phenomenon largely occurred because the copyright sales of domestic dramas used to adopt the business model of "pricing by episode" for a long time. In order to maximize profits, producers would "water down" the scripts or dramas to increase the number of episodes. The lengthened dramas could also provide more space for advertisements and allow producers to better share the high copyright fees and star salaries.

With the backlash of public opinion from viewers and the successive introduction of policies by the National Radio and Television Administration to restrict water - filled dramas, such dramas have been rectified. Now, the cooperation model between platforms and producers has more often shifted to the more flexible "guaranteed payment + revenue sharing" model.

In addition, in the past two years, another new thing has been accelerating the reform of the episode count of long - form video platforms, which is short dramas.

The high production cost and long return cycle of drama content have kept a number of long - form video platforms in a state of long - term losses. It was not until 2022 that they successively turned losses into profits. Just when they thought they had passed through the long winter, the sudden emergence and rapid rise of short dramas have once again brought huge impacts to long - form video platforms.

The emergence of short dramas is seizing the limited attention of viewers and changing viewers' acceptance habits of the narrative rhythm of dramas. Long dramas need to present content that can quickly capture viewers' attention to compete with short dramas.

A number of long - form video platforms have started to take a defensive stance.

An obvious sign is that they have set up short - drama channels at the primary entrances of their platforms and embarked on the path of high - quality short dramas in order to form a differentiated competitive advantage. Another sign is to shorten the episode count of long dramas.

The commercialization director of Tencent Video once told 36Kr that major long - form video platforms are controlling the overall episode count of dramas. For example, Tencent Video launched the X Theater in 2023, and the episode count of dramas in this theater was kept below 20. In addition, taking the dramas in the X Theater as an example, although they are not as intense as some short dramas from the start, the overall narrative rhythm has been accelerated.

In November 2024, at the "2024 Weibo Vision Conference", Xie Ying, the vice - president of Youku, said, "Currently, the abandonment rate of long - form video users in the first five episodes of a drama is over 50%, and the completion rate of dramas is only 20% - 30%."

Correspondingly, some attempts to introduce the fast - paced narrative and popular - style routines of short dramas into long dramas are achieving success. For example, the director of the hit drama "Misty Rain and Cloudy Skies" has directed short dramas and tried to integrate the characteristics of efficient narrative and accurately hitting viewers' emotions of short dramas into the long drama, thus receiving better - than - expected market feedback.

Other representative examples include "The Hidden Corner" launched by IQIYI's Misty Theater, which has only 12 episodes, and "My Altay" on Tencent Video, which has only 8 episodes. Both have achieved high - quality reputations and commercial success with their compact narratives.

According to Yunhe Data, in 2024, the total number of episodes of newly launched domestic dramas was 7,610, a year - on - year decrease of 14%; the average number of episodes per drama was 28.1, a year - on - year decrease of 0.8 episodes; among them, the proportion of dramas with a total episode count of 21 to 28 was 37%, an increase of 8 percentage points year - on - year. Long dramas are showing a trend of becoming medium - length. Approaching and learning from short dramas has become an industry trend.

Back to Youku Video, which is at the center of this public opinion storm, the most representative long drama on its platform is "Empresses in the Palace". This classic drama launched in 2011 has 76 episodes. Now, Youku Video has also officially joined the ranks of reducing the length of dramas.