Shanghai Accelerates in the Miniseries Track: “Policy + Funding + Services” Empower Development, and Inaugural Shanghai Miniseries Conference Successfully Held

On June 25, the inaugural Shanghai Miniseries Conference opened at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. Centered around topics such as “Quality Creation of Miniseries”, “Digital Intelligence” Applications, and “New Quality” Development, the conference featured sessions including policy releases, project promotions, roundtable forums, market launches, and venture capital discussions. It served as a platform for industry exchange, exploring new opportunities in miniseries and promoting the high-quality development of Shanghai’s miniseries industry.

During the conference, the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism (Shanghai Municipal Administration of Radio and Television) prominently announced the “Several Measures (Trial) for Shanghai’s Promotion of Miniseries Industry Development”. These measures include nine specific actions aimed at driving the comprehensive economic development of the miniseries industry chain. They focus on fostering market entities, accelerating industry clustering, leading with quality content, encouraging overseas expansions, and optimizing approval processes, leveraging the combination of “policies + services”. The goal is to launch over 300 high-quality miniseries within three years, nurture and expand ten leading enterprises in the industry, and establish a robust industry ecosystem characterized by clustering, diverse entities, vigorous creativity, technological empowerment, precise services, and orderly development.

To support the high-quality development of miniseries in Shanghai, an annual budget of 50 million RMB will be allocated as guidance funds for Shanghai’s online miniseries industry, so as to support the entire industry chain with incentives. Specifically, municipal-level funds will focus on promoting the creation of high-quality miniseries, innovation in models, and international dissemination, and individual miniseries projects could receive up to 3 million RMB in support. District-level funds in Yangpu, Songjiang, Minhang, and other districts will concentrate on comprehensive support throughout the lifecycle of enterprises in the miniseries industry chain within their respective regions, including subsidies for renting, listing, financing services, and more.

Additionally, Shanghai will introduce a comprehensive support plan for miniseries. The “Blossoms Plan” will specifically support projects that closely align with the pulse of the times and highlight Shanghai’s characteristics, providing support in script verification, filming assistance, content review, financial aid, traffic support, selection for awards, promotions, and more. The “Going Global Plan” will leverage overseas promotion projects such as high-quality audiovisual content from Shanghai to encourage and support key creation institutions and platform operation companies in expanding into multilingual overseas markets for miniseries. The “Talent Plan” will provide various supports such as rental subsidies, talent apartments, and settling in Shanghai for attracting and nurturing talents in miniseries production. The “Support Plan” will explore the establishment of district-level content review service centers, providing management services such as project registration and post-production reviews for miniseries creation at doorstep.

To fully leverage the clustering advantages of the miniseries industry, Shanghai will establish miniseries industry platform areas in Yangpu, Songjiang, and Minhang districts, respectively. These areas will focus on creating clusters for miniseries production and shooting, and national benchmark industrial parks based on AI-generated and professional radio and television technologies. During the conference, Yangpu, Songjiang, and other districts tailored their own supportive policies based on their geographical advantages, covering aspects like high-quality support, enterprise settlement, technology applications, talent introduction, and more. Several industrial parks such as the China (Shanghai) Internet Network Audio-visual Industry Base and Shanghai Cangcheng Film and Television Cultural Industrial Park also successively released support policies and promoted their parks, to attract enterprises, and contribute to clustered development.

The rollout of this series of policies has effectively boosted industry confidence and development momentum. The conference also witnessed the signing ceremony of COL Group Co., Ltd.’s miniseries to settle in Shanghai. In the future, COL Group Co., Ltd. will establish its miniseries business in Shanghai, leveraging its leadership advantages to drive upstream and downstream development of the industry chain. Bilibili announced its 2024-2025 lineup of high-quality miniseries and the “Spotlight Project” for soliciting excellent short film creations, aiming to deepen its footprint in the high-quality miniseries track through incubation and support. Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) declared a substantial investment in miniseries operations, focusing on building a new content ecosystem centered around high-quality short films, while also launching the “Red Miniseries” support plan with significant advertising and resource support. Qimao, Govmade, Joy Media, and other enterprises have also entered the fray, announcing their own miniseries plans.

Furthermore, the Shanghai Miniseries Industry Development Alliance, jointly initiated by the Shanghai Network Audio-visual Association and Shanghai Broadcasting Film & TV Producers Association, was officially established during the conference. This alliance aims to gather industry forces to empower the high-quality development of Shanghai’s miniseries industry. Representatives from several upstream and downstream miniseries industry enterprises such as Douyin, Bilibili, the China (Shanghai) Network Audio-visual Industry Base, Shanghai Yangpu Technology & Innovation Group, and Shanghai Cangcheng Film and Television Cultural Industrial Park, among others, have joined as initial alliance members.

During the conference, various activities such as project promotions, roundtable forums, and venture capital discussions were also held. Ten teams including SMG Pictures, TRON Technology, Junyi, etc., showcased their projects focusing on “Quality, Digital Intelligence, and New Quality”, demonstrating their explorations in high-quality miniseries creation, technological applications, new forms of industry, and commercialization. At the roundtable forum, industry guests from leading content organizations such as Crazy Maple Studio, Kuaishou, and Tencent, as well as frontline teams in high-quality creation, discussed industry trends and prospects in miniseries industry development, exploring multiple dimensions and deep-seated issues to chart new paths for industry growth.

Moreover, a dedicated venture capital negotiation area was set up, where over 70 teams across various segments including production, distribution, IP, investment, and industry incubation of micro short films presented their projects, showcased enterprise achievements, and engaged in discussions and negotiations.

The 29th Shanghai Television Festival (STVF) is hosted by the National Radio and Television Administration, China Media Group, and the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, and organized by Shanghai Municipal Administration of Radio and Television and Shanghai Media Group, with co-organization by the Administration Committee of Lin-gang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, and special support from Shanghai Lingang Special Area Investment Holding (Group) Co., Ltd.