Photo credit: Melissa Segal.
Having gone almost a week since the last time they banned something, it seems the folks at China’s State Administration of Press, Publications, Radio, Film, and Television (SAPPRFT) are getting a little antsy. The solution? Ban more things!
Yes, shortly after slapping around viral video star Papi Jiang and then taking down some Apple services, SAPPRFT is back at it again with a new document detailing some restrictive new rules for TV shows. Among them:
- Shows cannot advertise or market anything using phrases like “complete edition,” “uncensored version,” “uncut version,” “deleted scene,” etc.
- Shows must indicate permits and registration numbers for video content production at the opening and closing credits of every episode.
SAPPRFT’s latest regulations also reiterate some existing rules, like the rule against interstitial ads during shows. China’s TV producers had pushed back against that law at an industry meeting earlier this year, so SAPPRFT including it in yesterday’s document is likely meant to assert that nothing will be changing on that front, regardless of what the industry wants.
The newly-tightened rules aren’t likely to change a ton for the TV industry in terms of the day-to-day, aside from eliminating one potential approach to marketing. But the document is best seen from a broad perspective, as simply the latest link in a long chain of control that SAPPRFT is wrapping around China’s content-creation and publishing industries.
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