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BEIJING: Chinese
broadcasters will be
banned from airing
commercial breaks
during television dramas from
January 1 or face being
suspended, the country's top
media regulatory body said on
Monday. The ban follows a
State Administration of Radio
Film and Television directive in
October warning the nation's
main 34 satellite broadcasters
they would be barred from
showing "excessive
entertainment" and must air at
least two hours of news
nightly, the official Xinhua
news agency reported. "Radio
and television are the
mouthpiece of the party and
the people," SARFT said on its
website on Monday.
"Broadcasters that still air
commercials during TV series
will be ordered to suspend
commercial operations."
Broadcasters "must cancel
television commercials during
TV series as an important
measure to construct a cultural
service system," SARFT said.
Chinese TV is dominated by
historical drama series about
China's fight against outside
aggressors and its triumphs
against hardship. Earlier this
month, state flagship
broadcaster China Central
Television drew record bids of
14.26 billion yuan ($2.25
billion) into its annual auction
for prime time advertising
spots, earlier media reports
showed. There was no
indication that the ban would
affect advertisements before
and after television dramas.
Reaction was mixed among
advertising and television
professionals, who agreed that
the ban posed a challenge to
television's commercial
development in the face of
increasing competition from
the Internet. "If ad revenues
drop, then stations must cut
their budgets to buy good TV,"
Ivy Zhong, CEO of TV
production company Beijing
Galloping Horse told AFP.
"Competition is good for
companies that know how to
produce good dramas. Stations
will simply have to make
smarter choices." Tom
Doctoroff, head of US
advertising firm JWT's China
operations, told AFP he
thought that the policy would
threaten the creativity of
Chinese television. "This policy
is draconian," Doctoroff said in
an email. "Consumers won't
really be angry because no one
likes commercials. But they will
not be happy when content
becomes even more watered
down than it already is." Just
as China's 500 million web
users increasingly find ways to
get around SARFT's censorship
of the Internet, Doctoroff said
the ad ban and its drain on
revenues was "a great shot in
the arm for illegal DVDs." Nearly
98 percent of China's
population of 1.3 billion people
has access to a television and
the country is home to more
than 2,400 television stations,
official statistics show.