China Media News

Following up on its new policy that Chinese video sites must first submit all episodes of foreign series for approval prior to being shown, industry regulator SAPPRFT has ordered a number of international TV series to be pulled from online video sites.

The policy, announced late last year and slated to take effect this month, noted that Chinese online video sites must submit all episodes of international series to SAPPRFT, and wait for approval prior to airing them. The move is widely seen within the industry as a blow against anti-piracy efforts as there is now no practical way for popular TV series from outside China to appear on licensed websites within a reasonable time period. This is especially true as a number of popular online shows in the US, such as House of Cards, see a full season released at one time.

According to local reports, current victims of the new policy include shows like Agent Carter and Empire which have been removed because full seasons of the shows were not submitted to SAPPRFT. At the same time, Shameless has been taken down even though it has already licensed last year due to "sensitive themes."

Other shows that have been licensed but whose fate remains unclear are shows like Stalker, 2 Broke Girls and American Horror Story. It's not only US and UK shows that are feeling the hit. Korean smash hit Pinocchio was just licensed and started airing on Tudou at the end of 2014 for a reported record breaking license fee of US$280,000 per episode. However, it's now unclear whether the show will have to be pulled and re-submitted for approval to SAPPRFT thereby leaving fans of the series who can't wait until censorship clearance to simply use bittorrent or purchase it on the pirate DVD market.