I’m writing here for many volunteers who feel very frustrated at the moment. And many viewers certainly feel the same.
It looks like Viki is not licensing any of the Chinese dramas which are hyped and later also turn out to become big hits. The actual example is Ode to Joy 2 which just started airing but already took over the first place in the ratings! That Viki didn’t get the license for Ode to Joy 2 is even more a disappointment as we had the first season here, so fans were naturally expecting to get to see the second season as well.
Furthermore, Rush to the Dead Summer is after a novel by Guo Jing Ming, the writer of Ice Fantasy, plus it has a star cast, so it is already expected to become the next huge hit. And it has just been licensed by the concurrence! This probably means that Viki will not get this one either.
And the other big hits earlier this year, Ten Miles of Peach Blossom, General and I, In the Name of People or the currently pretty well doing Fighter of the Destiny also all didn’t get licensed in Viki. The only hit drama of 2017 I can think of that we have in Viki is Because of Meeting You. Thank you Viki for at least getting this one! But we’re still wondering, why are the hit dramas not getting licensed?
I was just thinking about posting something similar. How can we let Viki know our frustration?
I was just looking at the upcoming list and there are a lot of cdramas that Viki got a license to that no one has ever heard of. I doubt they got it because they had a lot of requests to license it. I am not saying they get all the big name cdramas, but they could get b-rated ones that would be cheaper and still gather interest. Not all the stuff they have been getting lately.
Out of all the dramas they have gotten this year, I have only enjoyed Sparrow, which is on hold since the subbing team is subbing six other dramas. Everything else has been a miss for me. And it frustrates me to see that their upcoming cdramas are old dramas or really unknown ones or both.
I wanted Viki to license some highly expected dramas, but I doubt they will license it.
Subbers should look into subbing on youtube. A lot of the official youtube channels are opening up their videos to subbers. Some popular web-dramas have been fully fansubbed on youtube like Master Devil Do Not Kiss Me, while some airing dramas ones are being subbed like Fox’s Summer and Fighter of Destiny.
I hate to point out the obvious, but competition is moving fast. Viki needs to understand that we dont need quantity, we need quality. They just get a lot of cdramas, not quality cdramas. It makes it hard for subbers and leads to viewers losing interest in some really good dramas. It was different before with fan-channels, but now that we don’t have them this is becoming a major weakness for Viki.
The most aggravating part is that a certain website got Ode to Joy 2 when they don’t even have the first season!!! Grrrrrr ):<
This is turning out to be a huge problem. Teams are stretched thin as it is, if Viki adds a lot of new dramas, especially unknown/ unsuccessful/ uninteresting ones*, we are expected to sub them, because that’s the way this works. It creates a false sense of abundant content, where nobody watches and nobody subs most of it.
*Because, let’s be honest, not every drama deserves the effort.
Yes! A lot of dramas that Viki is getting aren’t worth subbers’ time. Not only do a lot of them low quality, but there is little to no interest in them. Subbers are stretched super thin lately. They can’t keep up with viewers. And sadly some viewers leave low ratings for dramas if they are not subbed fast, while others lose interest, or both. I am hoping subbers find a way to reach out to Viki and give their input. I honestly don’t know what to do besides leaving my comments here. It is very frustrating for me as a viewer, so I can imagine how much more frustrating it must be for subbers.
I think there is already a lot of competition with CDramas. Viki has the most important as being subber who work as volunteers this is something that no one else has, Should not be so many times get license for dramas that people do not like and less than one as a volunteer, They are losing the most popular dramas.
I really liked Ode to Joy. I was hoping Viki could get the license for season 2 as well.
I watched ice fantasy and was in hope that Viki could surely acquire the license for season 2 (ice fantasy destiny) as well.
There are lots of popular cdramas like
beauty private kitchen
young sherlock
ice fantasy destiny
Agent x
Legend of mermaid
but they all lack license.
add “White Deer Plain 2017” too
Now add Adviser Alliance to the list, despite a rather huge effort to get it licensed nearly a year before its release, it was not licensed. You can easily watch the raw though… The plot is bit of disappointment for me, just because I know too much about Three Kingdom and can’t tolerate too much deviation. But if you put three kingdoms aside and evaluate the drama by itself like the completely fictional Nirvana in Fire, it is quite good.
No Princess Agent, No A Life Time Love either…
Color of Night, Memories Of Love airing soon…
Lost Love in Times next week, not biting my nails on that one.
Tribes and Empires coming in September, hope they don’t miss that one.
Nirvana in Fire 2, Huang Feng Prison, Wu Xin The Monster Killer 2, candle in the tomb2, Noting Gold Can Stay, Chaoge sometime during the year.
And Legend of Ruyi at end of the year.
Color of Night has been pushed back without an airing date set. Nothing Gold can Stay will be on air August, 30.
We may be expected to sub them, but we also have the possibility to just turn our heads and… not sub them. Only that this doesn’t happen. There’s always someone who wants to do it. If the big fishes won’t do it, there will be many small fishes jumping in eagerly.
Let’s imagine a situation where an upcoming show is still in the project finder and nobody has asked to manage it/moderate it. Is it possible that viki contacts English popular CMS and moderators privately, asking them take on this project? Maybe, I have no idea. It is possible. It could happen in some cases.
But what we see is usually the opposite: everybody rushing to become CM or mod of “whatever”, even some obviously ridiculous cheap web dramas.
Only variety shows and vlogger videos are still on the CM project finder, sitting like a spinster “on the shelf”, waiting for a buyer.
Absolutely! Personally I only choose stuff that interests me. True, if it’s an oncoming drama, there might be surprises, good or bad. It may sound interesting on paper and then turn out to be a disaster. Or the opposite. But I’d never ask sub or moderate something just because I want to be seen as very active. I’ve got other stuff to do in my life than waste time on a corvée, something I don’t enjoy
I don’t know anything about CM, I purposefully stay as far away as possible from this mess.
We can turn out heads (I do, I’m glad you do, I hope other people do, too), but there will always be people with the “suuuuuubz” and also it doesn’t look good for Viki’s stats*.
The thing is, even if someone picks a dozen channels as CM or Mod for vanity, there’s no way they’ll be able to gather all the necessary teams. We are always short on hands and people will always choose where to dedicate their time.
*Which begs the question, why do they bother with the license? But Viki doesn’t always make sense anyway…
I don’t think they do. I had suggested (I think here in the forums) and other users, too (I think sophie2you) for Viki to find a way, maybe a poll, to see which dramas have demand but not teams, and ask people to work on them, as a special project, maybe with a badge. I’m pretty sure the day Viki listens to our suggestions, Song Joong Ki will call me and ask me out.
Lol, you killed me with that one ! 
Just saw the new upcoming cdramas for Viki. I swear Viki licenses cdramas that people in China don’t even know exists. That is how unknown and unpopular these pics are.
I honestly hope subbers stop subbing some of the bad picks Viki is doing just so it teaches them a lesson. Sadly like someone said, there is always someone willing to sub it. However, I doubt it gets many views.
I get Viki doesn’t have money to get the big fishes, but there are plenty of interesting small fishes. They could also go for critically acclaimed dramas, etc. However, they pick these cheap unknown dramas and it really bothers me. We don’t need eight new unknown cdramas. Just one decent one would be good enough.
I knew this whole no fan channels was going to really hurt cdrama fans, but I didn’t expect for Viki to completely give up on getting decent cdramas like they have for the past few months.
Since it is like this, I hope subbers consider subbing cdramas on Youtube. It can be effective, just look at Princess Agents. It is being fully subbed on youtube.
Well, I really appreciate, that Viki got licenses for some k-movies and c-movies. But it seems, for the c-movies, they made a deal and got them in a jumbo package from the same provider. That I dislike slap, kiss and torture aka revenge movies, is my personal taste, but I doubt, that those movies can replace a decent c-drama and I wonder, where in the world they digged them out…
I’m going to watch AA raw over time, I can do that luckily, I will have to put the editing of other things on a slower track to do it - I’ll have to pay close attention like I do when I rewatch NIF… I really wish we had the chance to sub it here, we would have done this one well - and the comparison to NIF - that’s exactly what I see. Fictional…but great. On its own merits, I saw that in the trailer from last year and that’s why I tried so hard to get this one. I still say that based on that trailer - it is still potentially my only other 10…and i’ll find out when I get there. (sigh).
We’re halfway through 2017 and it’s turning out to be a very good year for Chinese dramas. We have 96 channels live for 2017 - Tribes and Ruyi are still listed under 2016, so this isn’t even all of the live channels for license. Of these, 15 have licenses. We’re halfway through the year, and we have almost no dramas licensed - and certainly NOT dramas we have all hoped to see licensed. 
There are more than 80 pending channels out there, and I would say that with the Rakuten overwrite this morning, hopes fade even more quickly for anything other than more rather spooky movies… could it be that they have missed the reason MOST PEOPLE ARE HERE - the DRAMAS?
There is a certain amount of give and take to be done with regard to our hopes and their checkbook, but they really do need to give us some of the ones that will be the banner dramas like NIF for the future, and not merely trade on older dramas they can acquire less expensively.
My wish list includes some Japanese historical - Sanada Maru - and other NHK content which generally is well done. Wouldn’t mind getting Jingbirok either. Something more serious than what we’ve been getting on the K drama front as well - although I AM finally watching Rebel - that’s pretty good. 
Anyway - all we can truly do is wait and see. I am not sure our actions have any meaning to the powers that be.
Wuming
I was really hoping Viki would get AA. It seems like another Nirvana and it is gettign rave reviews. I agree on the give and take. If they license 2-3 big dramas in a year, fans would be happy. Or at least some less popular, but well received dramas.
I wonder what is going on. I’m guessing for the sake of maintaining relationships they probably won’t reveal exactly what is going on.
I can only see 1 upcoming and 0 airing Chinese dramas of any type. My location is Canada, not sure if it’s any different for Americans.
While demand for the dramas isn’t as high as Korean ones, there is still a lot of interest and they were licensing a reasonable number in the past. Something has changed. I doubt this is all or even mostly Viki.