On February 28, a message appeared on Weibo that Youku's "new leadership" was "very determined" to reform and would reduce the number of new series to less than 12 episodes in the future. The relevant topic became a hot search on Weibo that day. However, there are also reports that Youku's plan is not a "one-size-fits-all" plan, but to control the number of episodes of self-produced and customized dramas to 8-12 episodes, with a single episode length of no more than one hour. For S+-level dramas, they are allowed to be split into two seasons, but the complete plan for the second season must be submitted when the first season is approved. This measure is mainly aimed at the problem of the proliferation of "watered-down dramas".
At the end of February, the term “#Youku12集# ” appeared on Weibo and was once ranked among the top 50 entertainment hot search terms on Weibo.
In fact, shortening the number of episodes of long dramas has become an industry trend. iQiyi's "Misty Theater" (such as "The Hidden Corner" 12 episodes) and Tencent Video's "My Altay" (8 episodes) have gained high reputation and commercial success with compact narratives. In addition to Youku, platforms such as iQiyi and Tencent Video have also tried the short theater model, but few are as "radical" as Youku.
The new life will be launched on Youku in 2024, with only 10 episodes
In fact, as early as the second half of 2024, there were many reports in the film and television industry that Youku was going to reform the number of long-running series, and there were also multiple ongoing projects that claimed that Youku had asked them to "reduce" the number of episodes. On November 5 of the same year, at the "2024 Weibo Vision Conference", Xie Ying, Vice President of Youku, delivered a keynote speech entitled "Innovation First, Quality as a Promise, Exploring Unbounded Imagination." In her speech, she said: "At present, the abandonment rate of long-video users in the first five episodes is over 50%, and the completion rate of the series is only 20%-30%. User retention has become a 'hard nut to crack'. The series still has problems such as lengthy length, empty content, and dragging plots, which has accelerated the loss of viewers."
Then, she cited Youku's 10-episode "New Life" and 21-episode "Border Water Past" as examples, saying that these two "short dramas" ranked among the top three in terms of average revenue per episode on Youku in 2024, and both ranked in the top six in terms of historical rankings. "We have always opposed ineffective involution, but we support 'volume' in content creation. The number of episodes is too long and the pace is slow, precisely because the right place was not 'volume' before. Therefore, when the overall creative ability cannot be improved overnight, we choose to 'concentrate' and 'volume' first, squeeze out the water, retain the essence, and improve the pace." This sentence is almost a clear statement that Youku is committed to the "shortening the number of episodes" reform.
However, the audience and the industry have different reactions. Many viewers who have long been annoyed by the length of "long dramas" believe that 12 episodes can force the content to be refined, reduce the amount of watered-down plots, and avoid the embarrassment of watching dramas at double the speed. In addition, the short drama model is in line with overseas high-quality dramas (such as the seasonal broadcast format of American dramas), which meets the needs of a fast-paced life.
However, there are also disputes and concerns among producers and content creators in the industry. For example, creators generally do not think that shortening the number of episodes can improve the quality of the series.
Young screenwriter Xiao L (anonymous) has experience in creating content for three long series with lengths of 30, 20 and 10 episodes. She said frankly: "Different types of themes have their own suitable episode lengths. For example, suspenseful criminal investigation series with strong plots as the main attraction are more suitable for a length of 10 to 20 episodes. But for realistic life dramas, it is necessary to give enough time for the character establishment and character relationship development to allow the audience to fully engage. Especially for period dramas and historical dramas, either the time span is decades, or the ideological, literary and historical depths need space to be laid out, so 30 to 40 episodes are reasonable."
In addition, she specifically pointed out that when people talk about the 16-episode standard for Korean and Japanese dramas, it cannot be ignored that Korean and Japanese dramas are usually 1 to 1.5 hours long per episode, which is 1.5 to 2 times the length of a domestic drama. In other words, if Korean dramas were replaced with domestic dramas, they would also have 24 to 30 episodes. In her opinion, "shortening the number of episodes can improve the quality of the drama? There is no necessary connection between the two. Even if a drama is difficult to watch, one episode is too long; "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and "The World" are so long, but they are still good."
For producers, the challenges come from cost pressure and commercial returns. Today, the long drama industry is in a grim situation. Hot money has long disappeared, and the cold air has spread to every port of the industry. It is difficult for mid-level dramas to stand out. In many cases, only those with large investments, big stars, and a large cast have a chance. However, works of this size require huge investments in the early stages. For many large projects, the largest initial investment is actually the salary of first-line star actors. After paying a considerable salary, the actors are only allowed to play 10 or 20 episodes, but the platform pays by the number of episodes, which will undoubtedly make it difficult for many producers to recover their costs.
Of course, producing high-quality short dramas will be the transformation and development direction of many producers in the future. The industry is looking forward to attracting audiences by "relying on drama content rather than stars", but the helpless fact is that the influence of stars is quantifiable, and high-quality content, from script to shooting to editing to final presentation, is full of uncontrollable factors in every link and is difficult to quantify. The content centers and content evaluation departments of several major platforms and production companies should be deeply touched by this. Therefore, no matter how the industry has called for high-quality short dramas over the years, the fact remains that there are only a handful of works that are truly low-cost "explosive high-quality short dramas" and do not rely on the influence of stars every year.
Therefore, for the production side, the creation, production and production of high-quality short dramas means that screenwriters need to control the rhythm and character creation more accurately, such as improving the information density of a single episode through "strong plot and weak foreshadowing". At the same time, producers need to find new ways to control costs and new business models, and require more efficient shooting and precise post-production processes (to improve the level of industrialization), and these are by no means achieved overnight.
Youku's decision is undoubtedly bold and determined, but from another perspective, we can also review and look forward to the difference between its self-positioning and that of several other long-running drama platforms. In recent years (especially in 2024), Youku has already had a clear trend of focusing on male-oriented works (suspense, martial arts, criminal investigation, and male protagonists), while female-oriented works are mainly idol dramas and heroine-oriented dramas with relatively controllable costs and predictable broadcast effects (after the broadcast of "Pearl Curtain and Jade Curtain" was not as expected, the heroine-oriented type may also be reduced), and the proportion of realistic life dramas is relatively low. Its route of "small wins big" is evident.
In addition, it was reported not long ago that Xie Ying, who has rich experience in traditional long dramas, has been transferred. Guan Xu, former vice president of Alibaba Pictures, will replace Xie Ying and be responsible for Youku's drama business. During his time at Alibaba Pictures, Guan Xu participated in the launch of high-grossing movies such as "The Lost Girl" and "Three Thousand Miles in Chang'an". This adjustment may introduce film production experience to Youku and promote the strategy of high-quality dramas. It is reported that people from Youku called this change a "normal rotation" in line with Alibaba's traditional management style. At present, Alibaba has not yet issued an official announcement, but multiple sources (including insiders and industry media) are confirming the news. If this personnel transfer is true, it may also show some of Youku's determination to reform.
In summary, Youku's series streamlining plan is an important attempt to improve the quality and efficiency of the industry, but its effectiveness still needs to be observed in the market. How to strike a balance between "short and sharp" and "complete narrative" in the future will be a challenge faced by both the platform and the creators.
