Chinese producer Hou Hongliang and his production team announced at the China Online Drama Forum in Beijing on Saturday that the second season of well-known drama Nirvana in Fire would be produced as an online drama exclusively broadcast on streaming platform iQiyi.

In addition to Nirvana in Fire, which in its first season was considered one of the top TV dramas in China in 2015, iQiyi also announced eight other coproductions for 2017.

According to Hou, the show's producer, the exclusivity deal was a direct result of iQiyi's role in popularizing the show.

He added that his hope is that the second season can successfully increase the status of online dramas in the public's eyes.

"I want to produce a historical drama on the Internet. If I can manage this, online dramas will broaden the market in terms of both technology and audiences," Hou said.

Since last year, when a group of online productions debuted to huge success in China, paid subscription services have become a trend that has gradually begun to overshadow TV shows' traditional dependence on advertisers as a source of revenue.

With its online series The Lost Tomb, iQiyi was the first streaming platform to offer access to an entire season of a new show to paid VIP members, which opened the gates for other streaming platforms in China to follow suit.