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Welcome to iQIYI’s bi-weekly news round-up! Here you’ll find the latest news and stories from the company, from entertainment, tech to business and from local to regional. If you are interested in learning more about iQIYI, please do not hesitate to reach out to press@qiyi.com .

(Nov. 01, 2021-Nov. 12, 2021)

BUSINESS

iQIYI to Report Q3 Earnings on November 17

iQIYI announced that it will report its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021 before the U.S. market opens on November 17, 2021. iQIYI's management will hold an earnings conference call at 6:30 AM on November 17, 2021, U.S. Eastern Time (7:30 PM on November 17, 2021, Beijing Time). Advance registration can be accessed through: http://apac.directeventreg.com/registration/event/6981067

iQIYI CEO GONG Yu Called for Building an Efficient IP Protection Mechanism via Cooperation and Technology

Presenting virtually at the Intellectual Property Protection and Business Environment Optimization forum held as part of 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE) on November 5, GONG Yu, Founder and CEO of iQIYI, expressed his wish for more regulatory guidance on IP protection. Gong remarked at under the leadership of the National Copyright Administration (NCA) and other government agencies, China’s film and TV industry had witnessed in recent years on reducing pirated content in the traditional sense, i.e., directly or indirectly uploading copyrighted contents to unauthorized platforms. However, new forms of piracy—such as through commenting and recreating copyrighted content—are gradually emerging. “Piracy harms the film and television industry. It dampens the passion of creators and stalls the long-term development of the industry,” Gong remarked, adding that “More international cooperation on IP protection will also facilitate technological innovation.”

GONG Yu, Founder and CEO of iQIYI

iQIYI Cloud Cinema Launches New Comedy Film for its Viewers 
 

Released on Oct 29 and as part of the Company’s “Cloud Cinema” series, the iQIYI-produced film Northeastern Bro marks another step forward in the Company’s development of premium online films. Cloud Cinema features three types of content in its collection: movies showing in theatre and then released under the PVOD (premium video on demand) model, key online films, and original films produced by iQIYI. The model allows films debuting online to benefit from a servicing platform that offers clear distributional mechanisms and business models as well as a fair, transparent, and open environment. The Cloud Cinema also enables more filmmakers to leverage technology and marketing tools, as well as develop expertise in producing and distributing movies.

A still from "Northeastern Bro"

“iQIYI is committed to continue building Cloud Cinema as a service-providing platform that offers content promotional resources and precise push notification strategies for online films,” said SONG Jia, Vice President of iQIYI and General Manager of iQIYI Film Center. Going forward, a series of original films invested and developed by iQIYI will be released on the Cloud Cinema under the PVOD model, including The Hidden Fox and Mars Project.

iQIYI Wins Five Awards at the Chinese American Film Festival and Chinese American TV Festival

iQIYI celebrated big wins at the 17th Chinese American Film Festival and Chinese American TV Festival held on November 5 2021. iQIYI original drama A Little Dilema and Get Married Or Not both won the “Golden Angel Award - TV Series”, and actress SONG Jia won “Best Actress in a Leading Role” for her excellent performance in A Little Dilema as leading actress. iQIYI also brought home “Best Variety Program” and “Best Web Series” with its original productions.

 iQIYI award-winning productions

The 17th Chinese American Film Festival and the Chinese American Television Festival kicked off on Nov. 5 as a live, in-person event. Founded in 2005 by EDI Media Inc. the event is the most authoritative and influential annual Chinese American cultural event connecting two of world’s largest film markets. Every year, hundreds of top box office films from China-US participate in CAFF, of which the Top 10 are selected and awarded with the Golden Angel, named after the city of Los Angeles.

Wisher From iQIYI Light On Series Now Streaming

iQIYI‘s original suspense drama Wisher was aired on November 3. Wisher continues the Light On series’ exploration and innovation in the suspense genre. Set in the future, the story combines suspense with technology, showcasing iQIYI’s imaginative storytelling. 

Wisher is the seventh installment the Light On series, which returned in 2021 with The Pavilion. Who is the Murderer and Gold Panning will also air later on as part of the series.

A still from "Wisher"

As the pioneer of suspense series in China and ever dedicated to offering viewers diverse contents and enhanced viewing experiences, iQIYI continues to improve the operation model and explore new direction in content creation through Light On.

TECHNOLOGY

iQIYI and FilmLight Announce Partnership to Improve Content Delivery Efficiency

On November 5, iQIYI announced its partnership with FilmLight, a leading color science and grading software company, to launch a set of scene template for iQIYI, including the Interoperable Master Format (IMF). Different from storing images, sounds, etc. in a single file, IMF stores the image, sound, subtitles and other elements separately, which makes content production, file interoperability, version control and other processes convenient and controllable, reducing unnecessary manpower and resource costs. As the first company to utilize the IMF in China, iQIYI will also be the first Chinese streaming platform to embed its deliverable spec in a professional color grading and finishing system, thereby lowering the application threshold for the IMF from the beginning of the production process. 

“IMF helps enhance the audio and video quality of productions and enables faster uploading and a more streamlined production process. But for IMF to be used more widely, it requires developing tools based on technology that post house can easily access, “said ZHU Liang, iQIYI Vice President and GM of Intelligent Production. Zhu added, “FilmLight is a world-class professional color grading software company, and we hit it right off.”

Wolfgang Lempp, CEO of FilmLight said, “We welcome iQIYI’s initiative to base the content format of their streaming platform on the well-established IMF framework and provide a future-proof production environment for the content created today.”

As viewers nowadays continue to have growing standards for video quality, the traditional process is struggling to cater to demands around video quality. Any change in content requires tremendous time and resources in the post-production process because content distribution platforms would have to re-submit material. With IMF, the producer can modify the video, subtitles, and other materials in a targeted manner while maintaining a strong, overall grasp on the different versions. As the IMF technology greatly reduces the time cost of replacing, modifying, rendering, and finishing multiple versions, it maximizes the audio-visual quality of the deliverables.

First in China: iQIYI Features Virtual Idol in a TV Show 

iQIYI’s romance drama Out of the Dream came online on October 28 and became the first real-life TV show in China to feature virtual idols as characters. “Xiaomoli”, literally means Little Jasmine, first made her debut in 2020 as a member of iQIYI virtual idol group RiCH BOOM, and her participation in Out of the Dream marks another step iQIYI takes in pushing the creative boundary in TV and film production.

In the future, iQIYI will continue to explore possible ways to incorporate virtual idols such as Xiaomoli in the Company’s IP development effort. In doing so, iQIYI hopes to bring more examples of innovation to the industry.

iQIYI QAV1 Encoder Achieves Top Rankings at Global Video Codecs Comparison Event

iQIYI's proprietary QAV1 encoder won first place at the world’s leading event Moscow State University (MSU) Video Codecs Competition 2021 on October 31^st, lifting the maximum encoding speed by nearly 50 times higher than the version iQIYI submitted last year. This year’s competition saw the participated of 22 teams. A strong testimony to iQIYI's technological abilities, the QAV1 encoder enables a viewing experience at lower bit-rates, which in turn saves bandwidth without any sacrifice in the video quality. Leading tech companies such as Huawei, Tencent, Alibaba, Intel, and Google also competed at this year's MSU Video Codecs Comparison 2021.

With the development and popularization of 5G technology, viewers’ demand for ultra-high-definition video experience continues to increase, and the streaming industry also welcomes the increased standard in the movie-viewing experience. For streaming platforms, video encoder is a key technology that determines the user experience and costs. The main function of video encoder is to compress and encode the video, and to ensure the transmission of high-quality video information with lower bandwidth. Going forward, iQIYI’s codec team will continue to optimize encoder performance.