iQIYI Bi-weekly Newsletter (Sep.30 2024-Oct.18 2024)

CONTENT

iQIYI Receives 44 Nominations at the 32nd China TV Golden Eagle Awards

?On Oct. 16, 44 iQIYI productions, creators, and other content airing on the platform were nominated for the 32nd China TV Golden Eagle Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in Chinese television.

Several iQIYI productions including Miles to Go, The Lonely Warrior, Like a Flowing River 3, Wild Bloom, and The Knockout were nominated in the television category, while Become a Farmer Session 2 and Deer Squad Season 3 were nominated in the variety show and animation categories, respectively. Additionally, a number of outstanding creators and actors from iQIYI content were shortlisted for television writing, directing, and acting awards. The final list of winners will be announced on Oct. 20.

iQIYI’s ‘Love On Theater’ Presents Snowy Night: Timeless Love

Snowy Night: Timeless Love, the latest release under iQIYI’s ‘Love On Theater,’ premiered on Oct. 9. Starring LI Qin and ZENG Shunxi, the martial arts drama unfolds a poignant romance of redemption and missed opportunities. Pharmacist XUE Ziye (played by Li) possesses exceptional medical skills and a compassionate and caring heart. Top swordsman HUO Zhanbai (played by Zeng) is distinguished for his unwavering righteousness and commitment.

Their fates intertwine on a snowy night, and their affection grows into love through challenges concerning life-and-death. They influence each other over eight years, achieving self-redemption and personal growth. Snowy Night: Timeless Love vividly captures the delicate charm of traditional Chinese aesthetics, capturing an enduring love story filled with romance and chivalrous spirit.

iQIYI’s National Day Holiday Content Consumption Reveals Strong Viewer Interests Across Genres

iQIYI’s viewership data for the 2024 National Day Holiday (Oct. 1-7) revealed an 11% sequential increase in total viewing time compared to the pre-holiday period and highlighted a growing appetite for diverse content. Viewers turned to traditional favorites like drama series, films, and animation, while light and entertaining genres such as comedy and variety shows saw exceptional growth, and short-form content continued to gain popularity.

Drama series continued to dominate holiday content consumption on iQIYI, leading viewing time across genres. Both new releases like Born To Be The One and The Limbo as well as popular repeat viewing picks like The Knockout ranked on the popularity chart. Viewers also showed stronger interests in films, with Successor, Go For Broke, Upstream, and A Place Called Silence ranking in the platform's top 10 most popular content by holiday’s end. Viewing time for variety shows such as hit The King of Stand-up Comedy experienced both annual and sequential growth, with a 37% yearly uptick.

Holiday data further revealed a significant jump in viewing time for iQIYI's animation and kids' content, rising by 69% and 35%, respectively. iQIYI’s recently launched 'Micro-Drama Theater' and 'Short-Drama Theater,' tailored to meet increasing demand for concise storytelling and short-form content, also received a positive market response over the holiday with titles such as Hard Noble Lady and The Obsessive Boss.

TECHNOLOGY

iQIYI Partners with DaVinci Resolve to Launch China’s First IMF Master Delivery Preset

Recently, iQIYI announced a partnership with BlackMagic Design to introduce iQIYI IMF (Interoperable Master Format) master delivery preset in post-production software DaVinci Resolve. iQIYI is the first streaming platform in China and fourth globally, following Disney, Netflix, and Sony Pictures, to integrate its preset in DaVinci Resolve. With a single click, the preset enables creators to produce video content that meets iQIYI’s IMF delivery standards, lowering the barriers for collaboration with production teams worldwide. Popular titles on iQIYI such as To the Wonder, Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty II To the West, and Born to be the One among others already use the IMF format.

Developed by BlackMagic Design, DaVinci Resolve is renowned?for its powerful color grading, editing, and exporting capabilities. As a leading post-production software, it is widely used among creators of dramas, variety shows, advertisements, and short videos globally. The addition of the iQIYI IMF preset in DaVinci is expected to reduce time for modifying, rendering and uploading master files by 60% and lower material redundancy by 3-4 times. Furthermore, Baselight, a professional color grading system, and Transkoder, a master output software, now also support the iQIYI IMF preset.

BUSINESS

iQIYI’s The Rap of China 2024 Exclusively Partners with Universal Music Greater China (UMGC) for Distribution of Signed Contestants’ Future Releases

On Oct.18, iQIYI and Universal Music Greater China (UMGC), a division of Universal Music Group (UMG), announced a strategic agreement under which UMGC will exclusively distribute all future releases of the massive hit show’s signed contestants worldwide and host the top three contestants on a global tour of UMG’s iconic music labels and studios. To ensure the success of this groundbreaking partnership, UMGC has also assembled a team to provide all-encompassing support across A&R (artist and repertoire), artist management, marketing, and merchandise development.

As one of China's most successful youth culture brands in recent years, iQIYI’s The Rap of China series has successfully launched the careers of numerous outstanding rap artists. The latest season featured standout contestants such as A A., A Three, ALAMEI, C2C, DANNY K, ErWan, FuLai, God ?ne, HuiZi, JarStick,KITO, LilWine, Oliver Jiang, SHarK, SwuckBrothers, JinJiBeWater_隼, Wuliannanhulu, XinXiu, Double Dirty, ZhaoSan, Jessie.. All upcoming songs from these artists will be distributed globally under the UMG banner. The top three finalists from The Rap of China 2024 will be invited by UMG to visit leading global record labels, broadening their artistic perspectives and fostering cross-cultural collaborations.?

iQIYI’s To the Wonder Cultural Tourism Project Wins Grand Prix at 2024 ROI Business Creativity Awards

On Oct. 11, iQIYI's cultural tourism project “To the Wonder: A Hit Show Transforms a City” won the Grand Prix, the highest honor at the 2024 ROI Business Creativity Awards. This year’s ROI Awards received 2,855 entries from 991 companies worldwide, with only 571 making the nomination list. The To the Wonder project’s triumph at Asia’s largest business creativity awards demonstrates that iQIYI’s content deeply resonates with the current cultural milieu. This achievement also spotlights iQIYI’s years-long dedication and expertise in cultural tourism marketing.

To the Wonder has achieved dual success in content quality and commercial performance. With a message of “shine brightly, no matter how turbulent life gets,” To the Wonder has brought healing and inspiration to its audience and received critical acclaim. Through strategic pre-marketing and extensive collaborations with cultural and business partners, iQIYI effectively boosted the show’s popularity and showcased the culture and landscapes of Northern Xinjiang. Altay, where the show is set, saw over 18.46 million tourist visits in the first half of 2024, generating more than 16.3 billion RMB (USD 2.3 billion) in tourism revenue.

Stay tuned for more updates in our next edition! If you’re interested in learning more about iQIYI, please don’t hesitate to reach out at [email protected].