China Will Ban Commercials During TV Dramas as Control of Media Tightened
China to Ban Commercials During Television Dramas Next Year
Guang Niu/Getty Images
TV show "Super Girl" is recorded at Hunan Satellite TV station, China. Hunan Television earned about 100 million yuan ($15.7 million) this year from selling advertising slots during the “Super Girl” show, a Chinese ad agency report says.
TV show "Super Girl" is recorded at Hunan Satellite TV station, China. Hunan Television earned about 100 million yuan ($15.7 million) this year from selling advertising slots during the “Super Girl” show, a Chinese ad agency report says. Photographer:Guang Niu/Getty Images
China will ban television stations from airing commercials during broadcasts of dramas starting Jan. 1, further limiting the $68.6 billion TV advertising market in the world’s second-biggest economy.
Television stations may face reprimand or the loss of commercial broadcast rights if they air advertising during the 45-minute episodes, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television said in a statement on its website yesterday. The rule is meant to “lift the standards of public cultural services” and “protect the people’s basic cultural rights,” the regulator said.
The restrictions add to actions China has taken to increase control of TV and web content after the Communist Party, which censors criticism of its rule in the media, said last month it would promote “fine” TV programming and strengthen management of online social media sites. In addition to TV, the city of Beijing in April also began banning outdoor ads that promote “hedonism, lavishness and the worship of foreign things.”
“This would seem to affect how profitable TV programming can be,” James Roy, an analyst for China Market Research Group, said by telephone today. “Advertisers are definitely going to take notice because any time you’re not getting ads in the middle of programs it decreases the value sharply, and makes TV a less attractive advertising medium.” Roy said he didn’t have an estimate for the value of ad revenue that will be lost due to the ban during TV dramas.
Ad Money
Yum! Brands Inc., L’Oreal SA (OR), and McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) are among companies that spent $68.6 billion on TV ads in China last year, according to researcher CTR MarketResearch Co. TV accounted for more than three-quarters of ad spending in traditional media last year, which excludes online marketing, according to CTR.
In the first nine months of this year, TV advertising increased 14 percent from the same period of 2010, according to CTR. Total annual TV ad spending grew 11 percent last year from 2009, according to the researcher.
The ban creates an economic disincentive to produce TV dramas, which conservative party leaders think are “vulgar and in some cases anti-socialist,” Willy Wo-Lap Lam, an adjunct professor of Chinese history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said by telephone today. The overthrow of governments in North Africa this year has also increased the desire to use TV for propaganda, he said.
TV Propaganda
“They want to ensure they can use prime-time TV as a propaganda tool to promote patriotism, positive values about the party and focus on the brighter side of socialism,” Lam said.
If the limits reduce the number of dramas broadcast on TV, many consumers may be spurred to opt for online entertainment instead, China Market Research Group’s Roy said. Youku.com Inc. (YOKU) and Tudou Holdings Ltd. are China’s biggest online video sites.
The Communist Party’s Central Committee released a communique after a meeting in October vowing to “promote more fine literary and artistic works” in fields such as television, movies and photography. At the same time, the media regulator unveiled limits on the number of “overly entertaining and vulgar” reality and talent shows that could be aired on TV.
The communique also said the government would strengthen management of online social media sites, on which users have criticized the government and exposed official graft.
Online Content
Earlier this month, executives from China’s biggest web companies, including Baidu Inc. Chief Executive Robin Li, Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma and Sina Corp. Chief Executive Charles Chao pledged to curb “illegal and harmful” online content at meetings with the government, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
In September, the media regulator ordered Hunan Television to suspend broadcasts of its “Super Girl” singing competition, similar to “American Idol,” for infractions including the exceeding of limits on the length of the shows, Xinhua reported. “Super Girl,” the most-watched of China’s TV talent competitions, drew more than 400 million viewers for its finale in 2005 at the peak of its popularity, according to Xinhua.
Hunan Television earned about 100 million yuan ($15.7 million) this year from selling advertising slots during the “Super Girl” show, according to a report by Charm Communications, an ad agency in China. The show, which first aired in 2004, allowed the audience to select the winner of its signing competition by voting via websites and mobile phones.
Government-Owned
All Chinese broadcasters are owned by either the central government or by local provincial and city governments. Government control over these local TV stations is less direct, which makes the use of “economic weapons” more effective than ordering that they show fewer dramas, Lam said.
The media regulator said in its statement yesterday that it had designated January as a “special month” for enforcing the new ban throughout the country.
Concerns about a erosion of morality in China may also be contributing to the move to increase control of TV content, Lam said. Premier Wen Jiabao in April blamed food safety incidents in the nation including the sale of tainted baby formula and the use of illegal food additives on a “severe” lack of integrity and morals.
Last month, the People’s Daily, a newspaper controlled by the Communist Party, published a commentary calling on the nation to halt a decline in morals after surveillance camera footage distributed over the Internet showed more than a dozen people in southern China who ignored a 2-year-old girl after she was struck by two vans. The girl later died of her injuries at a local hospital.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Edmond Lococo in Beijing at elococo@bloomberg.net; Daryl Loo in Beijing at dloo7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page