The Internet has brought documentaries opportunities that they have been waiting for for many years. At the same time, it has also brought rapid changes to the industry that cannot be ignored.

In the new communication environment, production and communication have become two equally important links. Rejuvenation and commercialization have become the development direction of documentaries.

The documentary market is gradually becoming more lively, but this is definitely not a time to be optimistic and enjoy it.

Text | Heineken After film, television dramas and variety shows, video websites have set their sights on documentaries.

Netflix's "Icarus" won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Tencent launched the Fat Roll Plan and invited documentary director Chen Xiaoqing to serve as deputy editor-in-chief, responsible for the overall control of all its documentary studios.

Youku has established a pan-documentary center to achieve output on pan-youth issues, trendy life, food culture, travel reality shows, ecological public welfare, space documentaries and other themes, and establish a relatively complete "documentary universe".

iQiyi has launched a partnership program, hoping to open up the entire documentary industry chain and connect funds, platforms and markets.

Be the first to launch the payment-sharing model for documentaries, and attract high-quality creations through the stimulation of commercial monetization.

Station B announced the "Search Plan" to find more excellent documentary content for users and provide creators with support across the entire industry chain.

Station B signed a contract with ITV. At present, the video website’s documentary sources are mainly divided into three types: copyright procurement, joint production and self-made content. It is gradually advancing its position in the documentary industry chain.

The Internet has brought documentaries opportunities that they have been waiting for for many years. At the same time, it has also brought rapid changes to the industry that cannot be ignored.

The sudden love of young people In recent years, the most exciting change in the documentary industry has come from the gradual shift of the audience from the "three highs" (high class, high education, and high income) to a younger audience.

Wang Juan, editor-in-chief of Tencent Video and senior vice president of Penguin Film and Television, shared a set of data: "70% of Tencent documentary users are under the age of 28. It can be said that the viewing group of documentaries is already represented by the post-90s and post-00s generations.

The main audience for documentaries is getting younger.” Wang Juan, editor-in-chief of Tencent Video and senior vice president of Penguin Film and Television, and Yang Haitao, vice president of iQiyi, once publicly stated, “Among iQiyi’s documentary viewers, users aged 19-30 account for more than 10%.

50%, and users under the age of 18 also accounted for 14%. "According to Ze Media's online survey, 57.27% of the surveyed users of the video website born in the 1990s said they prefer documentaries.

Yang Haitao, vice president of iQiyi, said that it was Station B that brought the first wave of surprises to young people in documentaries. In 2016, "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" unexpectedly became popular at Station B, which flattered documentaries that are accustomed to targeting middle-aged and elderly audiences.

Bilibili saw business opportunities from the sudden accident and invested in a documentary film of the same name that was screened in theaters.

Subsequently, the second season of "A Bird's Eye View on China" was exclusively broadcast on Station B. When it first aired, it ranked first in the time period, with a rating of 9.7 on Station B.

"If National Treasure Could Talk" The nurturing atmosphere provided by Station B to the documentary, as well as its young audience, have become the outlet that many documentaries are looking forward to.

"Looking for Craftsmanship", which was rejected by many TV stations, became known to more people precisely because of Station B.

Wang Bingdi, the director of "How to Live", who won the Jury Prize of the 8th China Documentary Academy Awards, told ID:TVWatching that Station B is her first choice when considering using the Internet to promote the film.

Li Ni, chief operating officer of Bilibili, said, “To a certain extent, Bilibili users represent the future of documentaries.” Striving to gain the love of young audiences is an issue for all film and television products, but for those who were once characterized as spiritual consumer goods for the elderly,

It’s especially grim for documentaries.

Akari Mori, the column director of "Documentary 72 Hours", which has been voted the most popular documentary by NHK viewers for ten consecutive years, said: "In fact, in Japan, young people are not very interested in documentaries. We have collected about 2,000 letters from young people.

It is found that more and more people who live in the Internet world actually want to know about the little things in their real daily life, or some areas that they don’t know much about, such as what kind of life the workers working on the construction site live.