Can hit 1990s US sitcom Friends rescue China’s struggling video-streamers from a short video beating in 2022?
- The hit 10-season show, which first aired on NBC between 1994 and 2004, will be released in China this Friday
- Move comes as China’s video-streaming platforms struggle to attract users amid the rising popularity of short video-sharing apps
Major video streaming companies including iQiyi, Tencent Video, Youku and Bilibili will officially broadcast American television sitcom Friends in China, as the platforms compete for eyeballs with short video services.
The hit 10-season show, which first aired on NBC between 1994 and 2004, will be released in China this Friday and be rolled out at one season per week, the companies all announced on their official Weibo accounts. They did not disclose any pricing at this stage.
The move comes as China’s video-streaming platforms struggle to attract users amid the rising popularity of short video-sharing apps such as ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese sister app of TikTok, and Kuaishou Technology, which appeal to netizens with short attention spans. China’s rigid censorship laws also make it impossible for video streamers to import new hits such as South Korean drama Squid Game, produced by Netflix.
At stake is China’s multibillion-dollar video-streaming industry, which had 944 million users as of June last year, according to the state-run China Internet Network Information Center. The average daily usage time of short video apps was 125 minutes in March 2021, 27 minutes longer than the time spent on traditional long-form videos, according to research firm Questmobile.
iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video last year attacked short video platforms for profiting from copyright infringement, saying that user-generated movie and TV clips were hurting their business, which relies on exclusive video content to attract subscribers. China’s National Copyright Administration said last April that it would intensify its scrutiny and rectify any such copyright infringements, following a public call by film and television producers to end these practices.
In December, iQiyi started a wave of lay-offs, trimming more than 30 per cent of jobs at high-expense departments, such as marketing and distribution, according to reports by Chinese media Yicai and news portal Sina.