Entertainment cutbacks breed anger

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(Xinhua) 08:20, October 22, 2013

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A move by China's central authority to curb entertainment programs on broadcasting networks has stirred up debates.

New regulations issued by the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SGAPPRFL) require satellite channels to allocate no less than 30 percent of their weekly air time to news, economics, culture, science, education, etc, starting from next year.

Moreover, the SGAPPRFL said satellite channels must broadcast both domestic documentary and animation for at least 30 minutes every day.

The American Idol kind of talent shows that are widely popular in China now need approval from the SGAPPRFL, which will license one such program each quarter to be broadcasted at the prime time of 7:30 p.m. to 22:30 p.m.

The restriction gained some support but also infuriated some young audiences and netizens.

In a commentary published on Monday, the Legal Daily said TV programs on Chinese TV channels are both abundant and barren. TV series, talent shows, job seeking, blind dates and other programs enrich people's lives, but at the same time, there are quite a lot programs copying each other.

"Chinese channels are filled with crappy entertainment programs, especially talent shows and series propagating unhealthy values. With the regulation, I expect to see more quality movies and TV series. " said "hnczgycjj1", a user on Baidu Postbar.

Pan Zhichang, a professor with Nanjing University in Jiangsu Province, said each local TV stations need to fill seven hours and a half with news and culture programs, which is quite promising.

The Legal Daily said in the commentary that the cut in excessive entertainment programs may push channels to seek innovation in their programming, to the benefit of the whole TV industry.

"Retirees are the main TV audience, and entertainment cutbacks may drive them to take more outdoor exercises. It is good for their health." said "qiuqiuxiaozhujiadao" on the popular Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

Many people have quite a different idea. Fan Yijin, professor at Jinan University in south China's Guangzhou city, said the more stringent limitation of legacy media, the more people will switch to the Internet.

"The newly-launched entertainment rules will probably just disrupt TV, but hasten a boom in web entertainment," said "Mr-Dynamite-Zhang" on Sina Weibo.

"The transmission and communication of culture cannot be encouraged by administrative means," said a microblogger "LOVEdandandan095" on Sina Weibo.