D-day has arrived in the halls of the Chinese domestic viewing experience and the howls of rage and sadness abound. Late last year in 2014, the almighty SARFT (State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film) issued one of its inexplicable decrees concerning what can be aired in China whether on the big screen, televisions, and even internet viewing portals. This particular decree had widespread ramifications that reverberated strongly in US television entertainment as well as K-drama land. SARFT’s edict demanded that starting in 2015, no overseas shows can be aired online in China if it’s not completed already, and those must first be screened by SARFT and approved.
The US television industry naturally went batshit since US shows are seasonal and run for many years before a series finale airs so there is no way popular shows will ever see the light of day over the Chinese web waves. K-dramas are less problematic since the short ones are 16-episodes and the long weekend dramas still have finite episodes upwards of 50-episodes. But this still means K-dramas can no longer be live-aired online and must wait for a show finish before getting SARFT approval. Last year all the popular K-dramas made headlines for how much it sold the online rights to various Chinese video portals like Youku or iQiyi, not to mention how many times a drama was viewed in China became a badge of its popularity. That’s all over (for) now.
C-netizens were hoping SARFT either backtracked on this edict or postponed the enforcement, but sadly that’s not to be. Starting January 1st of this year, K-drama fans in China grew increasingly concerned when there have no new K-dramas streaming legally over the Chinese video portals whether its new SBS weekend drama Birth of a Family, MBC prime time drama Kill Me Heal Me, or any news of upcoming KBS drama Spy which lots of Jaejoong fans in China have been anticipating. The still airing K-dramas which premiered in late 2014 will be allowed to finish up its legal streaming run on the video portals which purchased the exclusive rights, including Pinocchio, Healer, The King’s Face, Punch, Pride & Prejudice, and so forth.
This is why there have been no news articles on how much upcoming Hyun Bin drama Hyde, Jekyll, Me sold to China video streaming since the big video streaming companies can no longer buy rights to air a K-drama until it finishes the entire run and obtains SARFT approval. Same goes for Kill Me Heal Me which doesn’t have an official Chinese video airing platform since the airing rights hasn’t been scooped up in China. This edict won’t affect HK-dramas since it’s one country-two systems so HK-entertainment is not considered overseas. Not sure if TW-dramas will fall under this radar since that’s a touchy political question there. J-doramas are less popular in China but still have plenty of fans, all of whom are equally disappointed not to be able to live-watch news shows, unless pirated of course.
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Good and Bad for the kdrama industry.
However, i hope this makes them focus more on the Quality of their shows and stop making dramas with crappy plots just for the Chinese market
I agree with you. This can be a blessing in disguise for the kdrama industry.
Do you really think that the crappy plots came about because of focusing on the Chinese market? SMH. Last I heard, Chinese people aren't really any more lowbrow than people of other nationalities.
well not to generalize but a lot of crappy dramas have done well on online portals eg Doctor Stranger, My Lovely Girl.
Who knows how KMHM will turn out too esp as its a chinese coproduction?
Seems like they are more focused on OPpa, Oppa than actual plot
Ok, so you have two examples of shows that were not popular in Korea doing well in China. Nothing near the sample size you would need to argue that Chinese preferences would be a major driver for the deterioration of Kdramas... let's be real. Those crappy dramas would have been made with or without Chinese influence. Plus, regarding KMHM - that one is all on the screenwriter. You know, Jin Soo Wan, who gave Koreans their favorite drama of the past several years.
I'm sorry, but what does lowbrow mean?
Are you for real?
I wonder for KMHM: Since it's a Chinese coproduction... What a mess and a killjoy overall.
It's not a co-production in that the drama is considered half a C-drama. KMHM merely got Chinese financing without any Chinese involvement in the production process.
This does not surprise me at all. Naturally the Chinese government had to be growing more and more concerned about infiltration of foreign influences into popular culture. I expected that they would attempt to keep as tight a rein on television imports as they do on the Internet in general. It's all about control, over thought, over culture, and especially over revenue.
Over culture is sooo true nowadays. Last month SARFT issued a new decree for domestic television - no show can air on TV if it has a plotline where the female lead loves more than one man throughout the entire story. Apparently the female lead having more than one love interest is promoting female promiscuity or something like that.
What?! Thats so crazy! How can it be promiscuity liking two guys unless you are sleeping with both. But isnt it normal to have love line and have someone challenge the feeling of the lead male. Thats gonna be so boring!
No wonder they are crazy over kdramas there even if its totally a fail in korea because its something new that they havent seen before. There are variations of plot and its always interesting to see something thats different from the norm.
It only means that VPN's are about to get even mor popular in China or sites will be pirating like mad.
VPN
That SARFT monster is sure big and mighty... O_o
Long live pirating!! Its stupid. Why do this to harmless citizens who are living happily enjoying their dramas and turn them into angry citizens?
pirating is good for nettizens, but for production firms/tv networks, they will no longer account pre-sale to their production cost
Nooo... wtf?! I watch all my korean dramas on Chinese online video portals because they have high quality streams and they provide high quality subs in lightning speed. Whoever came up with this asinine regulation? The one bright spot in this whole fiasco is that at the very least, that Healer will be exempt from this rule since it aired in late 2014. But still arghhhh..
The truly obsessed will find a way with illegal streaming... but this is still kind of surprising to me. I never realized that Kdramas were so popular in China that the central government had to go this far. You learn something new every day.
Apparently this reg was targeted primarily at US shows, K-dramas and J-doramas are less popular there than US shows and are the collateral damage in this case.
So if this is targeted at US shows so when they say "until the show has completed" do they mean the season is over OR the show is off the air for good like soprano?
Completed as in "all done for good" so a US show running for multiple seasons can only be approved when it runs a series finale, not when there is a season finale.
That's gonna be so hard US shows run for like forever! Multiple seasons!
Is it harder to pirate these dramas and sub them in Chinese, especially when China has more internet restrictions?
Then i guess they'll have to wait longer. It wont be so big a problem for kdramas since its episodes are shorter. But im worried for the contents of the drama since they are gonna be inspecting it so they can chop of any scene they deem unworthy.