Chinese cities are competing to attract AI video studios with subsidized rent, computing support and production assistance, extending the country’s industrial-policy playbook into film and short-form entertainment.
Reuters reported that filmmaker Zhu Zhili now receives approaches from officials in cities and industrial parks that want his business. Zhu, who also leads AI-generated content work at China Wit Media, operates a Shenzhen studio with backing from the city government and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Production is getting cheaper faster than attention grows
State broadcaster CCTV estimated that the cost of producing AI short dramas fell from about 5,000 yuan per minute to a few hundred yuan in the first half of 2026. Filmmaker Pan Xiaojun told Reuters that an AI-made wedding scene cost 1,400 yuan compared with roughly 60,000 yuan for a conventional shoot. Local subsidies and rent waivers lowered his computing costs further.
Shanghai offers computing power and cloud models for AI micro-dramas. Beijing has a 260 million yuan audiovisual-technology fund, while its Huairou district offers computing vouchers. Shenzhen provides technical support and subsidized rent, and streaming service iQIYI has offered some creators subsidies for AI content.
Low costs have also produced a flood of work. DataEye counted 221,900 new AI shows launched on Douyin in the first half of the year, but only 1,055 passed 100 million views. That gap suggests distribution and audience attention, not production capacity, are becoming the scarcer resources.
The expansion is running ahead of some rules. China requires labels for AI-generated content but has not established clear copyright rules for it. Actors have raised concerns about likeness use and voice-acting jobs, while consumers have complained about plagiarism and a lack of originality.
