"Hou Xi You Ji" led to two consecutive limit-up days.
According to a report by PEdaily, a Chinese private equity and venture capital news provider,
After the "Cow" came the "Monkey".
A TV series without human actors or live-action scenes has landed on Hunan Satellite TV's prime-time slot. The series, called "Journey to the West: After", is a long-form AI-generated drama produced by ByteDance's Seedance series model, with production scheduling handled by Mango TV's self-developed Mango Lingchuang platform.
Once it was broadcast, the producer, Mango Super Media, rarely saw its stock price surge by the daily limit of 20cm for two consecutive days, with its market value skyrocketing by over 10 billion yuan, and also driving a collective surge in media stocks such as Huayi Brothers, Huace Film & TV, and China Reading.
"AI can produce TV dramas now," and the capital market is buying into this compelling narrative.
AI-Powered TV Dramas Have Arrived
Triggering a Surge in Stock Prices
It's necessary to pour some cold water first: "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" was originally a sparsely read book before it became an AI TV series.
On the evening of August 31, episodes of "Journey to the West" premiered on Hunan TV's prime-time slot and Mango TV simultaneously. Prior to the broadcast, the market reacted swiftly - within just over 10 minutes of the opening bell, Mango SuperMedia's stock price surged to the daily limit, while Huayi Brothers Media, Hongxin Culture, and China Online, among other media stocks, saw gains of over 15%. Shares of Huanrui Century, Bona Film, Longhua Media, and China Broadcasting Network also hit the daily limit and continued to rise on September 1, with some stocks posting gains for two consecutive days.
A TV series about AI, what's behind its huge market buzz?
However, what sets "Journey to the West: After the Legend" apart is that it is the first horizontally-shot long drama to be fully produced using AIGC and broadcast on a satellite TV's prime-time slot.
It can be seen that "Journey to the West 2" has 30 episodes, each 40 minutes long, which is the standard length for a long-form drama. The fact that it is being broadcast at 20:00, a prime time slot, via satellite signal to cover the entire country, to a certain extent indicates that the radio and television system has formally recognized the broadcasting qualifications of AI long dramas, marking the first time AI content has entered the mainstream content system.
In terms of production cycle, traditional long dramas usually take 1 to 2 years to produce, while "Journey to the West" completed 30 episodes in just 4 months. It is precisely because of the rapid production that the innovative model of "simultaneous review and broadcast" was able to be implemented.
As it happens, September 1 marks the official implementation of the Measures for the Administration of Micro Short Drama Development, which mandate compulsory AI-generated content labeling, three-tier classification review, and a ban on releasing content that has not been filed.
The AI Film Era
AI is reshaping numerous industries, and this is no longer just a slogan.
The current trend indicates that the impact of technology on the film and television industry will not cease.
In the past July and August, leading text-to-video models underwent significant upgrades, such as ByteDance's Seedance 2.5, which supports generating 30-second videos in one go and referencing 50 multimodal materials, while MiniMax H3 took the open-source route to reduce calling costs to about one-fifth of mainstream models.
The financing density of companies in the video model track can also be felt to be extremely hot —
On the last day of August, Kuaishou announced that the National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund and Zhengda Robotics would invest 1.4 billion yuan and 1.31 billion yuan, respectively, in Keling AI as additional investors. In July, Keling AI also completed nearly $3 billion in financing, while Shengshu Technology secured $500 million in new funding, Aishi Technology completed a total of 2.98 billion yuan in Series C financing, and Zhi Xiang Future completed 1.5 billion yuan in Series C financing.
Looking ahead, Yuanju Tech completed nearly $300 million in B+ round financing in June; Jingying Tech secured consecutive A round and A+ round financing. The fields of AI comics, AI animation, AI games, and AI interactive storytelling have also seen multiple investments of tens of millions of dollars.
Behind AIGC, hot money is surging.
Of course, a calming aspect is also being exposed - the test of AIGC long dramas is not just whether the first episode is good or not, but also whether the audience is still engaged by the 30th episode, and whether the characters and story remain the soul of the show. This means that the traditional film and television companies' script development, IP operations, and aesthetic capabilities are becoming increasingly valuable in the AI era.
After "Journey to the West," AI Film's journey to learn from the classics has just begun.