China to restrict satellite TV stations to one foreign programme

China will allow satellite television stations to buy the right to broadcast only one foreign programme each year from next year as part of new restrictions to push “morality-building” and educational shows, state media reported on Monday.

The official Shanghai Securities Journal, citing an order by the General Administration for Press and Publication to domestic television stations, also said foreign programmes could not be broadcast in prime-time viewing hours from 7.30pm to 10pm during the year in which the broadcasting rights were purchased.

The new rules are an intensification of an earlier policy announced in February, which capped the broadcast of foreign television series to 50 episodes, and will result in fewer foreign series being broadcast in China.

The campaign also could accelerate a wider trend: the migration of domestic viewers away from broadcast television toward pre-recorded shows downloaded from the internet to computers and mobile devices.

The Chinese government is increasingly concerned about what it sees as rising vulgarity in domestic television programming. At the same time, it has been moving to limit domestic channels’ reliance on imported content.

The English-language Shanghai Daily said the new restrictions were intended to crack down on the growing practice of buying the copyright of proven foreign shows like Britain’s Got Talent, then localising them without further modification, spawning shows like China’s Got Talent.