SARFT to Separate Broadcasters from Media Groups

BEIJING --- Contrary to the industry's general views, it appears now that new SARFT Minister Wang Taihua is indeed attempting to implant a new vision of the role of China's broadcasting industry instead of continuing with the reforms laid down by previous SARFT head Xu Guangchun.

In fact, it seems that just as quickly as they were formed, China's media groups are now about to be split up again over concerns that the commercial aspects of the TV business have undue influence over the industry's primary political remit.

Beginning 2-4 years ago, SARFT has overseen the merging of China's disparate media companies into media conglomerates. This involved the merging of all city and provincial cable and terrestrial broadcasters into large-scale groups which incorporate a number of assets across the media spectrum including broadcasters as well as newspapers and magazines.

The policy was put into place as a way to create strong local cross media entities in advance of the opening up of China's media sectors following WTO accession.

These policies were all put in under the aegis of Minister Xu. Rumor has it that Minister Wang does not agree with these policies, and is now seeking ways to roll back most of them.

Under a plan expected to be implemented beginning in the coming months, China's media groups will have their broadcasting subsidiaries hived off from the group and put under a separate entity called a Zong Tai (very loosely translated as Parent Station). This, in effect, returns broadcasters to the direct supervision of their respective local Radio & TV bureaus.

The commercial portions of the groups such as ad sales, etc. will be grouped under another new entity. In some cases, the main groups have already established "fully commercial" subsidiary groups that are expected to maintain control over these less sensitive assets.

The point of the policy is to completely separate commercial considerations from the management of channels. In other words, the commercial operations of the groups will be in place simply as a conduit for funding and providing content for channels, but are not to have influence on editorial controls over those channels.

Both the Department of Publicity and SARFT now seem to think putting the channels themselves into the media groups was a mistake, as it implies that broadcasters in China are to a certain degree commercial entities that allow for private investment, which they are not. The role of the broadcasters in China has always been that of the mouthpiece of the Communist Party and as a conduit to transmit the Party message to the masses.

At the heart of the matter lies the tricky question of how to define the role of broadcasting in China today. On the one hand, it is seen as taking on an increasingly independent role from that of the Party. On the other hand, no Chinese politician has ever risen through the party ranks by promoting greater media freedoms and increased access for foreign content providers.

In light of new regulations (See related article), the next few months will likely see a number, if not all, potential deals between Chinese broadcasters and foreign entities put on hold or scuttled altogether as the industry holds its breath to find out how the situation will sort itself out.