China Bans Commercials on TV Dramas
By wchung | 06 Feb, 2025

In yet another blow to China’s private satellite TV broadcasts, the central government will require TV stations to stop interrupting drama shows with commercials beginning Jan. 1. The purpose of the law appears to be to remove the economic incentive to produce TV dramas which the ruling communist party’s still-influential conservative wing perceives as eroding socialist values.

The rule was billed as aimed at “lifting the standards of public cultural services” and “protecting the people’s basic cultural rights,” according to a statement Monday from the State Administration of Radio Film and Television.

TV stations will face reprimands and possible loss of licenses if they violate the ban.

The move comes in the wake of recent restrictions that have forced off the air Hunan Satellite TV’s Super Girl talent competition show, China’s most popular TV program, and will severely limit the number of shows on prime time deemed “overly entertaining and vulgar” beginning on January 1. These restrictions are designed to increase the number of informational and cultural shows which are easier for the central government to censor. They will also put state-run CCTV on a more equal footing with the private competitors for China’s $68.6 billion TV advertising market, and more importantly, as a source of news and other information.

Many of the the largest advertisers on Chinese TV are western firms like Yum! Brands, McDonald’s and L’Oreal. TV accounted for three-quarters of advertising in China, exclusive of the internet in 2010, according to Bloomberg News. TV advertising had jumped 14% in the first nine months of 2011.

The new law is expected to severely curtail the number of dramas that can be produced, sending more viewers to the internet for entertainment. China’s internet is policed by an army of about 50,000 censors who enforce stringent bans on content deemed harmful to social harmony and even specific search terms related to subversive news or concepts.

Central government regulators recently wrung out pledges from top executives of leading internet firms Baidu, Alibaba, Sina and others to impose self-censorship on “illegal and harmful” online content.

In April the city of Beijing even banned outdoor billboards that promote “hedonism, lavishness and the worship of foreign things.”