On March 27, Ning Meng Film and Television (09857) announced the audited results for the year ended December 31, 2023. Revenue for the full year of 2023 was 1.22 billion yuan, up 28.4% year on year. Annual adjusted net profit achieved a year-on-year increase of 60.4%, reaching 227 million yuan, and gross margin remained high, increasing 0.1% to 39.4%.

In 2023, Ning Meng Film and Television continued to maintain a steady output of copyrighted dramas, innovating works on urban emotion, medical treatment, costume, etc., while continuing to increase investment in short dramas, creating multiple hits, establishing a “double leading” brand pattern for long and short series, becoming one of the few film and television companies in the industry that have created a leading effect in both the short and long drama market. Furthermore, diversified businesses such as overseas markets have accelerated development and achieved high growth. As a leading brand in the industry, Ning Meng Film and Television will continuously and systematically increase revenue, reduce costs, and create more value for users, partners and investors.

The quality of copyrighted dramas reached a new high level, and revenue increased 24.3% year-on-year

Ling Meng Film and Television's high-quality content continued throughout the year, and its strong performance continued to consolidate the “Super Content Connects New Public” content strategy and brand awareness. The positive growth trend continued in 2023. Based on a variety of high-quality works, revenue from copyrighted dramas was 1.17 billion yuan, up 24.3% year on year, and total revenue both achieved double-digit year-on-year growth, reaching record highs.

Quality has long been synonymous with Ning Meng, and the steady output of high-quality copyrighted dramas is the main reason why it has maintained its leading position for a long time. In 2023, Ning Meng developed around boutique copyrighted dramas, sorted out and iterated the category system, and deduced the production capacity funnel with the goal of upgrading production capacity. Over 1,000 episodes of long-form drama projects in rolling reserves were successfully produced and broadcast in 2023, covering many tracks such as urban emotion, medical treatment, and costume, and the quality reached a new high.

In 2023, the national drama was upgraded in multiple dimensions of innovation, diversity, and quality, and Ning Meng achieved a home run with real works. The urban love revitalization masterpiece “Just Love” scored 8.2 points on Douban. 150,000 people participated in the rating, and was selected as a collection of outstanding Shanghai TV series in the new era. Overseas markets also received a lot of attention. It was broadcast simultaneously on 17 platforms including Netflix; “Questioning”, which achieved Ning Meng's first breakthrough on the medical circuit, had a Douban rating of 8.5 points, setting a peak in the reputation of domestic medical dramas. It became a popular medical drama, and was selected for the China State Administration of Radio and Television's 2023 original Chinese drama series selection; The legendary drama “One Mind Guanshan” even became 2023 The hit series surpassed 10,000 in the 6 days of iQiyi's first broadcast. It was the top 1 hit value on the first day of iQiyi's broadcast in 2023. It occupied the TOP1 ratings for the same period in CSM 71, and was selected as the China State Administration of Radio and Television's annual online audiovisual boutique program.

Short dramas and overseas ushered in high growth, new businesses continue to contribute to revenue growth

While the core business base is stable, Ning Meng has been actively exploring and gradually implementing the second revenue growth curve in recent years. Diverse revenues, such as skits and overseas markets, all achieved high growth in 2023.

In addition to ensuring the leading level of the long drama business, Ning Meng's short drama business line has also shown a rapid growth trend and is gradually growing into the second “leader” that goes hand in hand with copyrighted long dramas. At present, Ning Meng has built up systematic production and operation capabilities, and successfully created a number of short series hits. In 2023, it achieved revenue of 32.23 million yuan, an increase of 1241.7% over the previous year, showing strong commercial monetization capabilities, contributing to both the group's revenue and profit, and further consolidating Ning Meng's leading industry perception in the long and short drama tracks. When Ning Meng initially set up the skit business, she decided on a boutique skit route and achieved a breakthrough through content innovation and superior quality. Currently, 8 short dramas, including the “29” series of female-themed skits, “Save My Family”, and “Behind the Traffic” have been broadcast on the Douyin platform, with a total broadcast volume of over 2.4 billion people, continuously occupying the top 1 of the Douyin skit list, and has built a multi-dimensional commercialization path for skits, covering platform customization, traffic allocation, C-side payment, and business cooperation. Among them, topics related to the phenomenal hit short drama “29” have been viewed more than 1.45 billion times, making it the highest level of skits ever on the Douyin platform, and single-drama users recharged as much as 10 million times. According to statistics, in 2023, Ning Meng has launched a total of 20 short dramas, and has accelerated expansion, and reserves the development of nearly 100 short dramas in the multi-dimensional category, which will be launched one after another.

Ning Meng's 2023 performance announcement gave practical answers on how to penetrate the international market and achieve global layout and growth. Overseas distribution is one of the important businesses for video platforms and film companies to go overseas. From the beginning, Ning Meng aimed at the global market and tried to achieve simultaneous broadcasting on mainstream platforms such as Netflix and Disney+. According to statistics, Ning Meng has distributed nearly 20,000 hours of Chinese-language content to more than 30 platforms, covering more than 190 countries and regions around the world. The distribution price reached the leading level in the industry. In 2023, it achieved overseas distribution revenue of 38.8 million yuan, an increase of 89.1% over the previous year. In addition to increasing the quality of distribution, Ning Meng has continuously upgraded the overseas model, further using co-production to carry out overseas reproductions of domestic IPs and the production of original content overseas. According to reports, the full Thai version of “Just Thirty” uses a lineup of top Thai stars and went on sale in January 2024. The Indonesian and Japanese versions of the drama are all being prepared for production, and the Thai version of “Illustrated Guide to Crime Hunting” is expected to launch in 2024. In addition, Ning Meng's performance announcement also revealed the progress of overseas skits. Currently, 2 movies have been launched, and it is planned that more than 20 will be released in 2024.

2024 future outlook: comprehensive expansion of long and short drama production capacity to lead overseas

Leading companies need to act as a benchmark, forge new paths, and focus on long-term development. Whether it is the continuous strengthening of boutique innovation ability, the ability to create a “double leading” pattern for long and short dramas, and the ability to expand and upgrade production capacity, they all showed Ning Meng's further potential and potential. Ning Meng's aggressive approach to copyright dramas, skits, and overseas shows even more vigorously her firm commitment and full confidence in the industry.

Looking ahead to 2024, Ning Meng Film and Television will continue to adhere to the long-term principle, adhere to the quality line in the field of short and long dramas, continue to improve quality and expand categories, and make every effort to expand production capacity; continue to use short dramas as an entry point to apply new technologies such as AI throughout the production process; further deepen overseas business development, lead film and television culture to sail overseas, maintain rapid growth in overseas distribution, and steadily increase localized production volume. I believe that in the future, Ning Meng will further stabilize the basic market, explore new business formats, inject lasting impetus into long-term development, achieve high-quality growth, and create more value.