The recent debut of Journey to the West: Reimagined, the nation's first AI-generated series to secure a prime-time slot on a satellite channel, has sent ripples through the AI entertainment sector. Airing simultaneously on Hunan Satellite TV and Mango TV, the show not only captured impressive viewership but also ignited a rally in AI-related media stocks on the secondary market. Shares of producer Mango Excellent Media Co., Ltd. (Mango Excellent Media) continued to climb after two consecutive 20% limit-up sessions, propelling gains across multiple stocks tied to AI short dramas and intellectual property content. As AI long-form series, AI animation, and AI games rapidly shift from concept to commercial reality, numerous A-share entertainment firms are accelerating technological upgrades and production capacity. Meanwhile, investors are closely monitoring monetization progress through interactive platforms and institutional research channels.

Industrialized Production Pipeline Achieves Milestone

Journey to the West: Reimagined marks a significant breakthrough for AI content by entering mainstream broadcast channels as a fully AIGC-produced long-form series. The production leveraged Mango Excellent Media's proprietary "Mango Lingchuang" AIGC platform, which integrates three layers of technical infrastructure: computing power scheduling, multi-model selection, and cloud-based collaborative pipelines. This setup streamlined the entire workflow—from character design and storyboarding to post-production—dramatically shortening project timelines and significantly reducing costs compared to traditional live-action productions of similar scale. A representative from Mango Excellent Media noted that the platform enables flat, real-time team collaboration, allowing creators to focus more energy on creative direction. This standardized production model is expected to serve as a replicable blueprint for future AI content projects. Following its premiere, the series secured the top viewership spot in its time slot among provincial satellite channels, driving over 10 billion yuan in market value gains for Mango Excellent Media within two days. Related supply-chain players such as China United Media Co., Ltd. (China United Media) and ChineseAll Digital Publishing Group Co., Ltd. (ChineseAll) also rallied, underscoring market confidence in the commercial viability of long-form AI content. Gao Zhengyang, a special researcher at Suban Bank, highlighted that this milestone signals generative AI's expansion into the complete production ecosystem, covering scripts, characters, scenes, visuals, audio, and post-production. He added that long-form storytelling demands exceptional character consistency, narrative coherence, and sustained generative capacity, making it a robust validation of the technology's industrial potential.

Listed Companies Respond to AI Content Monetization Challenge

Beyond Mango Excellent Media's breakout success, several A-share companies are actively exploring AI animation, AI games, and AI short dramas. Institutional research records and a surge of queries on investor platforms reflect the market's intense interest in monetization models for AI-generated content. A representative from China United Media stated that its AI animation business is progressing steadily, with plans to deepen collaboration with leading short-drama platforms like Hongguo. The company will dynamically optimize content selection and production schedules based on market trends and user preferences. ChineseAll, during institutional research activities, revealed a differentiated "self-developed + open ecosystem" technology framework for AI content creation. In text generation and scriptwriting, the company utilizes its proprietary "Xiaoyao AI" system. Following the launch of DeepSeek in early 2025, Xiaoyao AI was rapidly upgraded to integrate DeepSeek's advanced reasoning capabilities, now enabling high-quality IP script breakdown, setting generation, and multilingual creation. For video production, ChineseAll introduced "Ciyuan Shenbi," a full-stack AI content creation platform that combines its in-house Xiaoyao AI with leading-edge video generation models, automating the entire pipeline from IP selection and storyboarding to intelligent dubbing. Meanwhile, Kunlun Tech Co., Ltd. (Kunlun Tech) disclosed in its research summaries that, according to Sensor Tower data, its AI short-drama platform's combined MAU ranked first in the overseas short-drama market in the first half of 2026. In July, over 90% of new shows on its DramaWave platform were AI-generated, with production costs drastically lower than live-action shoots while maintaining cinematic-quality output. Gao Zhengyang emphasized that the AI long-form drama supply chain spans a wide spectrum: upstream includes computing power, foundational models, and multimodal systems like video generation, speech, and music; midstream focuses on applications such as AI scriptwriting, storyboard generation, digital characters, scene and motion creation, and post-production; downstream extends to broadcasting platforms and IP derivatives. He suggested that the ultimate value of AI long-form dramas may lie in creating a closed loop linking model capabilities, content production, and platform distribution. As content production efficiency rises, a virtuous cycle between AI tools, computing power demand, and content platforms could emerge, propelling coordinated growth across the entire industry chain.