What does it mean for a play like The Start and The World to go online overseas?

In the past March, due to the new trend of overseas remake of several hit dramas, China drama "Going to Sea" became a hot topic for audience discussion.

First, the Chinese drama "On Earth" was released, and then the news that Disney+, the first-line streaming media platform in the United States, was copyrighted was released. Then came the news that the hit "infinite flow" online drama "The Beginning" will be launched on Netflix4 on April 1. Then, the announcement that South Korean streaming media Watcha will remake "Mother-in-law" once again entered the audience's field of vision. In addition, TV series such as Who is the murderer, You are my fortress and Love is delicious will be broadcast in batches in South Korea. Ace Force is scheduled to land in the Japanese satellite theater in July this year, and other regular dramas in China will also be exposed in high frequency. China's drama "Going to the Sea" is not a new topic. However, the overseas release of several hit dramas did make a breakthrough in the details of the model, which also caused different voices in public opinion. It is necessary to take this opportunity to briefly sort out the new problems of China's drama "Going to Sea".

What does the distribution of "start" mean in Netflix? Today is the day when Beginnings is broadcast on Netflix, the world's largest streaming media platform. This means that from today, viewers in Taiwan Province, Singapore, Viet Nam, Malaysia and Brunei can also experience the "brainwashing" cycle of bus bombings by watching them online. Attentive viewers may have noticed that, unlike the domestic dramas that were launched on Netflix before, "Start" was not broadcast online in more than 90 countries and regions covered by Netflix, but distributed in different regions. Perhaps in the eyes of some fans, it is a pity that their "love beans" can't spread their influence all over the world through the east wind of Netflix. However, judging from China's drama "Going to Sea", this "opening" distribution mode just represents the progress of business model.

First of all, the fundamental reason why "The Beginning" is not broadcast globally by Netflix is the upsurge of copyright. In key Asian regions and countries, the broadcasting rights can be sold separately without packaging. For example, in the Korean market, due to the stable consumption habits of domestic dramas and the brand effect of midday sunshine, the right to broadcast "Start" was purchased by South Korea before it was broadcast in China, and now it is decided to broadcast in Asia and A+ dramas. This also shows that, at least for some hit dramas, the era of "cabbage price" for overseas distribution rights has passed. Although overseas copyright revenue cannot be the main source of income for video websites and film and television companies, it is no longer the mainstream to simply pursue social benefits.

Secondly, the launch of "Start" in the division of Netflix also means that the superstition of the domestic film and television industry on the American head streaming media platform is being broken, and the desire for the North American market is cooling down. In the previous public opinion about China's play "Going to Sea", it seems that the copyright of American head streaming media platforms such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon is an affirmation of the quality of the play. Being able to use these platforms to cover the markets of 190+ countries and regions, especially being able to "log on to the North American market with mainstream platforms" is a successful symbol of China's "going out" culture. But in recent years, the streaming media platform represented by Netflix is obviously disillusioned. Many viewers have found that many top streaming media platforms are also "omnivores". Take Netflix for example, it will buy high-quality dramas such as White Night Chasing the Murder and River God, and it will also block the traffic dramas such as Your Royal Highness on a Cold Night, My Dear Little Cleanliness, and even shoot China original dramas such as Extreme Money and Marriage on the Other Side. "My dear" Little Cleanliness "obviously, whether it can be launched on Netflix cannot be used as an evaluation standard for the quality of this series. In this way, it is unscientific to simply pursue the distribution strategy of "coverage" and "North American market".

Third, of course, the perfection of distribution channels has given China dramas more choices of "going out to sea".

At present, in addition to the national distribution team led by China International Television Corporation, major film and television companies such as Huace Film and Sony Group have also developed mature overseas distribution teams, as well as third-party overseas distribution operators represented by Century Youyou (also the starting overseas distribution company) and overseas business development teams of long video websites represented by iQiyi, Tencent and Youku. After years of exploration, the distribution forces of all parties have established a relatively complete distribution network suitable for the characteristics of domestic dramas, especially the new media distribution network.

For example, some film and television companies and distribution operators will operate in multiple languages (such as Russian, Arabic and Spanish). ) TV series channels on YouTube, and many of them have accumulated more than one million fans. In this way, when other channels are unsuccessful and the price is not suitable, it is also a good choice to broadcast it on your own YouTube channel and share a piece of it through advertisements. In addition, many countries and regions have TV stations and video websites dedicated to domestic dramas. Directional cooperation with these platforms on the premise of clear channels and suitable commercial income is not necessarily worse than cooperation with the head platform. For example, a series is launched on a North American streaming media such as Viki, which focuses on Asian dramas. At the same time, it cooperates with separate copyright distribution in other key markets in Asia. The overall distribution effect may be better than packaging the global copyright and selling it to Netflix.

How to treat the different voices of "going out to sea" in the world?

If the new distribution mode of "Going out to Sea" of "Heart" has caused more discussion in the industry, then the news that Disney+bought the copyright of "On Earth" has caused great waves of public opinion. As the biggest "explosion" drama since the beginning of the year, it is no accident that "On Earth", which has sustained many rounds of high ratings and achieved quite good results in webcasting, can "go out to sea". In fact, in a recent interview, director Lu Li revealed that Disney bought the exclusive overseas distribution right of On Earth at the early stage of filming, and how to achieve international compatibility in expression is a problem he has been thinking about in his creation. One of the producers of the play, Xinli TV Culture Investment Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of Xinli Media Group. Xinli Media has been expanding overseas markets for many years and has a stable cooperative relationship with Disney. Previously, Xinli Media released "My First Half Life" and "The Last Romance" through Disney's overseas distribution network, which were also broadcast on Disney's own streaming media platform. "The World" and Disney go hand in hand, and Sony is also a bridge between them.

What deserves attention is the civil discussion triggered by the international "going out to sea". Different from the previous China drama "Going to Sea" which received rave reviews, the cooperation between On Earth and American entertainment giant Disney also caused some opposition voices. Some viewers think that under the background that the world is full of curiosity about China, but full of misunderstanding about modern China, such a TV series "Human Life" which shows the society of China 30 to 50 years ago may cause deeper misunderstanding. Some fans are more extreme. They believe that the reason why American video websites bought the world is to spread the poor and backward image of China to all parts of the world. Let's not distinguish the prejudice of propaganda thinking and the misunderstanding of "China-centered theory" as cultural self-confidence. From the perspective of fashion trends, we can know that chronological narration in non-English-speaking countries is a hot topic of global drama in recent years, and On Earth is not a case.

Judging from the global hit dramas in the past two months, the Italian TV series My Genius Girlfriend (the third season) invested by HBO and the Korean immigrant TV series Pinball Game invested by Apple TV+ are both retro-styled dramas. The former is set in Milan, Naples and Florence in the 1970s, while the latter begins with Japan's occupation of Korea in the 20s and ends with the bursting of Japan's economic bubble in the 1990s. These two plays are both developed by American multinational media groups and are aimed at the world audience. This means that from the market level, the world audience needs the national history in the form of drama as never before. This is also a new aesthetic appeal inspired by TV series, like movies, in the era of transnational streaming media, surpassing local nature and entering the world communication cycle.

It is obviously of positive significance if we can provide the world audience with a cure for Chinese flavor in the general nostalgia. Of course, we should also have an objective understanding of the overseas communication effect of domestic dramas. In recent years, non-English drama has flourished. Due to the relatively "internal circulation" mode of domestic drama market, the world influence of domestic drama has indeed opened the gap with Korean drama and Japanese drama. We have released more and more dramas to overseas platforms, but few of them can really arouse repercussions among non-Chinese speaking groups. Comparatively speaking, with the blessing of international capital, Korean dramas have developed by leaps and bounds in recent years. According to the data of Netflix platform, in the recent ranking of global non-English dramas (March 2 1-27), the former 10/,2, 4, 6 and 9 were all taken by Korean dramas. Among them are Netflix's original dramas, such as Juvenile Court; There are also TV dramas dominated by Korean local TV stations, such as "Twenty-five, Twenty-one".