In recent years, the film and television industry has continued to be in a cycle of supply restructuring and market rhythm reshaping. From relying on large-scale production to drive growth in the past, to now paying more attention to the balance between content quality, production efficiency, and commercial value, the industry is undergoing a new stage of development.
According to Lighthouse Pro's “Series Market Watch for the First Half of 2026”, in the first half of 2026, the drama market showed a downward trend in both supply and demand, with a total broadcast volume of 43.9 billion, down 21% year on year; Yunhe data shows that in the first half of 2026, the number of new domestic series released decreased 20% year on year, and the effective broadcast rate of feature films fell 8% year on year. It can be seen that the market as a whole is still in the process of adjusting content supply optimization and rematching user needs.
The Zhitong Finance App learned that on July 31, Straw Bear Entertainment (02125) issued an announcement: The company expects the total net loss due to shareholders for the six months ending June 30, 2026 is about RMB 50 million to RMB 60 million, and the adjusted net loss is approximately RMB 47.4 million to RMB 57.4 million.
According to the announcement, due to objective external factors such as the overall schedule regulation of the industry and the pace of broadcasting on online video platforms, in the first half of 2026, the company reduced the scale and quantity of broadcast content, and mainly customized series and short dramas, leading to a decrease in revenue and project gross profit. However, the Group's overall project reserves are sufficient, and it is expected that many series will be screened in the second half of 2026 and next year, contributing to improving the Group's performance.
However, judging from long-term development, this phased fluctuation is also a phased performance in the company's process of actively adapting to industry changes and optimizing the content structure. In recent years, Straw Bear Entertainment has continued to strategically upgrade its main boutique content business. On the basis of consolidating long drama production capabilities, it has further explored diverse content forms such as short series, Chinese dramas, and short dramas, and has improved its business layout around the entire IP life cycle development, AI technology empowerment, and overseas market expansion.
As of June 30, 2026, the company has prepared a number of projects to be broadcast and prepared with diverse topics and a complete hierarchy. At the same time, the company is exploring content products of different sizes and types, improving content supply efficiency through more flexible project planning and production rhythms, and further enriching the content supply structure.
With IP as the core, AI empowers and overseas expansion to open up room for growth
With the development of the global entertainment industry and the continuous enrichment of content consumption scenarios, the industry's leading content producers are shifting from single content producers to integrated content operators. Straw Bear Entertainment has continued to explore new growth directions around the expansion of the content industry chain ahead of time. On the basis of consolidating film and television content production capabilities, it is gradually improving business layouts such as long-term IP operation, AI technology application, and overseas content distribution, and improving the efficiency of content value release through diversified paths.
On the IP side, the company continues to strengthen high-quality resource reserves and full-life cycle development capabilities to promote the transformation of content assets from individual works to long-term value.
According to the “2026 China Audiovisual IP Agreement Industry Market Status Survey and Investment Opportunity Research Report”, China's audiovisual IP protocol industry is entering a stage of development in parallel with large-scale growth and structural upgrading. In 2025, the market size reached 48.76 billion yuan, an increase of 12.3% over the previous year. As IP licensing scenarios continue to be enriched and content lifecycles continue to be extended, high-quality IP is becoming an important asset for the content industry to achieve long-term value transformation.
For film and television companies, IP value is no longer limited to the revenue of individual works, but can continue to release value in various scenarios such as film and television content, derivative products, and offline consumption through serial development, multi-form transformation, and derivative commercialization. In recent years, platforms and content companies have also gradually strengthened IP lifecycle operations to enhance the long-term value of content assets by improving development efficiency.
According to public information, Straw Bear Entertainment continues to optimize the IP reserve structure to form a content asset system for the collaborative development of classic IP and original IP. Currently, the company has stocked up many high-quality resources such as Ma Boyong's series of works, “Immortal Reverse” (original: Earroot) series, “Seven Weapons” (an adaptation of the novel series by Gu Long), “The Abandoned Daughter” (a series project adapted from Tang Jinhui's novel), and the original serial IP “Song to Wine” and “The World of Strange People” to provide a foundation for subsequent content development and serial operation.
In terms of content transformation, Straw Bear Entertainment is also actively exploring IP derivative development and expansion of diverse content forms to further enhance the long-term value of high-quality content assets. As the film and television industry gradually shifts from single production development to full IP life cycle operation, exploring derivative products, offline consumption, and cross-modal content development around the expansion of content values such as character images, visual elements, and cultural core of dramas has become an important direction for the industry to enhance IP value. Based on existing IP reserves, the company will promote related derivative development and exploration around projects such as “15 Days in Two Kingdoms”, and at the same time enrich IP expressions through variety shows such as “Three Kingdoms Youth Camp”, and further expand IP influence by linking various content forms such as series and variety shows.
On the other hand, the expansion of film and television IP to offline consumption scenarios has become an important trend in the global entertainment industry. Represented by offline experience spaces such as Netflix House, international streaming platforms are further expanding IP value boundaries through immersive consumption scenarios. Yangzhou iQi Art Park, which Straw Bear Entertainment invested in, officially opened in February 2026, and Beijing iQi Art Park is about to open. It is committed to providing users with richer interactive consumption scenarios and further promoting the extension of film and television content from screen narratives to offline experiences. In the future, the company will continue to explore more diversified commercialization paths around high-quality IP and promote the continuous release of content asset value in different scenarios.
In terms of AI technology, the company actively focuses on efficiency improvements brought about by the integration of technology and film and television production processes, and explores the upgrading of content production methods through the application of technology.
Toubao Research Institute released the “2026 AI Video Generation Industry Report” in May of this year. The data shows that the global AI video generation market is about US$8.68 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow to US$51.93 billion by 2030. Note As AI video generation technology continues to mature, artificial intelligence is gradually entering the film and television production process, becoming an important tool to assist content creation and optimize production efficiency.
For content companies, AI technology takes on more of the role of auxiliary creation and process optimization, improving content production efficiency by assisting creative development, optimizing production processes, and improving industrialization capabilities. In the current market, AI has gradually been applied to various aspects such as spectral visualization, sample testing, and feature film preview, which can provide new technical support for film and television production and further optimize the project production cycle and cost structure.
Under this industry trend, the company actively pays attention to the application value of AI technology in the field of film and television by setting up AI studios and communicating with AI companies with core technical capabilities. As AI tools continue to mature, film and television companies are expected to further improve production efficiency through technological empowerment and provide more flexible production methods for quality content development.
In terms of global content distribution and overseas, the company continues to expand its international market layout and promote the extension of high-quality content from copyright export to overseas content ecosystem construction.
As the overall influence of Chinese film and television content increases in overseas markets, Straw Bear Entertainment continues to promote the overseas distribution of high-quality content and expand the international market through works with cross-cultural communication capabilities.
During the reporting period, the company's drama “Sudden Liking” performed brilliantly during overseas broadcasts and reached Tencent Video's popularity list in many overseas countries and regions; “Double Track” continued to unleash long-term overseas value, ranking among the top 10 global hits of iQiyi International's Chinese-language series in the first half of 2026, showing the continued influence of high-quality content across the broadcast cycle. In the future, the company will also rely on existing content resources and IP reserves to continue to expand overseas distribution channels, explore more diverse international cooperation models, and enhance the dissemination capabilities of Chinese content IP in the global market.
Through IP ecosystem development, AI technology empowerment, and overseas market expansion, Straw Bear Entertainment is gradually improving its diversified business structure. On the one hand, the company continues to improve the long-term operation capabilities of content assets; on the other hand, it seeks new growth space through technological innovation and market expansion to accumulate more certainty for future business development.
Top quality consolidates the content foundation, and small but beautiful boutiques enhance the resilience of content supply
For content companies, a continuous and stable supply capacity for quality content is an important foundation for crossing the industry cycle. Straw Bear Entertainment has long been deeply involved in the field of film and television content production. While continuing to improve project reserves of different types and stages, it has consolidated the basic content market through leading quality projects, and explored more flexible content development models around market changes to enhance the adaptability of the content production system.
The company continues to advance project reserves around different themes and content types, including the police and bandit action comedy “The Brawler”, the contemporary urban drama “Rejuvenation”, the costume romance drama “Red Dust Quartet”, the 18-episode ancient military short drama “Never Catch the Night”, and the light comedy “Tang Bricks 2: Happy Days in the Cloud”, which continues to cover nationalized themes and diverse tracks.
In addition, projects such as the legendary ancient drama “15 Days in Two Kingdoms” and the modern revolutionary drama “Entering the Game” are also undergoing post-production. In terms of future project reserves, the company will continue to improve the content layout of different types and stages, not only further enriching the company's content matrix, but also laying the foundation for a continuous and stable supply of quality content in the future.
At the same time, in the face of changes in the industry's content structure, various forms of “small but beautiful” content, such as short dramas, short series, and Chinese dramas, are gradually becoming an important direction of market attention. Compared to traditional long dramas, this type of content has a certain degree of flexibility in terms of production cycle, development cost, and market feedback speed. Combined with AI technology to further reduce the production cycle, it can help content companies improve content supply efficiency, strengthen the linkage between content output and market feedback, and better adapt to changes in user needs.
In the first half of 2026, the company promoted content development around different volumes and viewing scenarios. Related works were broadcast one after another, including the drama “Sudden Liking” and the short drama “The Third Year Your Wife Went” and “Three Seconds to Predict You”, which also showed the industry's continued exploration of diverse content forms.
On this basis, the company also actively lays out development opportunities in innovative content forms such as multiple combinations of single episode lengths, horizontal and vertical screen combinations, and large screen and small screen linkage. As the “21 Rules of Radio and Television” promotes the optimization of the drama structure, Chinese drama has become one of the important directions for the current industry to explore the production of quality content. Chinese drama can form a new balance between narrative depth, production scale, and development cycle. It can not only carry more complete quality expression, but also become an important form of content in the continuous development of high-quality IP. At the same time, Chinese dramas have a more flexible production model, which also provides more opportunities for new players in the industry to participate in content creation.
For content companies, exploring different forms of content can explore content production systems that are more adapted to changes in the industry on the basis of adhering to quality standards. Through collaborative promotion of projects of different sizes and cycles, the company further enhances the flexibility of content supply, and improves overall business operation efficiency while maintaining the competitiveness of leading quality projects.
Through leading boutique project reserves and exploration of “small but beautiful” diverse content forms, Straw Bear Entertainment is promoting the further optimization and upgrading of the content production system. In the process of continuous industry adjustment, the company did not reduce content investment, but instead enhanced the flexibility and resilience of business development by improving the project hierarchy, enriching content forms, and improving production efficiency.
In the future, as reserve projects enter the broadcast stage one after another, the company's long-term accumulated content assets and diversified layout are expected to gradually be transformed into a driving force for continuous development.