China's top broadcasting watchdog has ordered a national ban on all TV stations airing commercials during TV dramas.
The new ban will take into effect on Jan 1, 2012 and all TV stations must rearrange their programs to delete all commercials set to air during TV dramas or face stern punishment, said the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) on its website.
Earlier reports show TV stations have mixed responses to the long-rumored ban. East China's Jiangsu Television and North China s Tianjin Television both made it clear that they will follow the ban, while China Central Television (CCTV), Beijing Television and Shanghai's Dragon Television said they hadn t received any notice and declined to reveal their stance, according to Beijing News.
A micro blog survey conducted by Sina.com show the majority of people in favor of the ban. About 85 percent of nearly 10,000 respondents say TV commercials are so annoying that they support the ban. Some advocates complain there are now so many commercials that sometimes it's like fragmented TV dramas are inserted into a non-stop relay of different advertisements, ruining the viewing experience.
Still, 11 percent of respondents oppose the ban on the grounds the market shouldn't be subject to excessive administrative regulations. Some voiced their concerns on whether local TV stations will abide by the ban as it will allegedly cost 20 billion yuan ($3.13 billion) in lost advertisement revenue.
The ban is among SARFT's latest efforts to regulate the country's once-rampant TV commercials. Last month, SARFT ordered a ban on sex-related commercials on radio and TV. The administration also said commercial advertisements should not be aired under the guise of a news report, or in the form of a news interview.
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Messages that harass,abuse or threaten others;have obscene or otherwise objectionable content;have commercial or advertising content or links may be removed.SubmitComments: (41) wrote: 2 m ago
i am for it Bing Bing wrote: 12 m ago
The nature of this proposed ban shows that a degree of balance is required.
Obviously some tv channels are going overboard by having an excessive number of commercials so that they can make more revenue. They have little or no concern for the viewing public in this and how viewers mig ... View All
The nature of this proposed ban shows that a degree of balance is required.
Obviously some tv channels are going overboard by having an excessive number of commercials so that they can make more revenue. They have little or no concern for the viewing public in this and how viewers might feel so frustrated that they would change channels.
However, the tv stations do require advertising revenue to pay for these programs. They can't broadcast them for nothing. It might also be recognised that commercials can also have a positive value in informing us about different products and services.
Banning all commercials during dramas seems like a sledgehammer solution to me. Perhaps the SARFT could establish a time limit such as 10 minutes per hour of ads and this might satisfy both parties.
wrote: 1 h ago
@ 2011-11-28 23:28
Now here is a real brain child. A real \'lets re-build the great wall\' mentality. \"People will buy the product if it has value, no advertising is required\'? \'Capitalism is free market business with failed government regulation\'? You must think you\'re talkin ... View All
@ 2011-11-28 23:28
Now here is a real brain child. A real \'lets re-build the great wall\' mentality. \"People will buy the product if it has value, no advertising is required\'? \'Capitalism is free market business with failed government regulation\'? You must think you\'re talking to all uneducated country bumpkins, or you\'re hoping you are. You need to catch up to the 21st century my man..... or gal or whatever.
wrote: 1 h ago
Advertising: a pain to view your shows with it and you cannot have your shows without it.
You cannot ban the commercials because that is what pays the cost to provide the dramas. The stations know how many viewers are tuned into their shows at any given time. If they run too many ads the viewe ... View All
Advertising: a pain to view your shows with it and you cannot have your shows without it.
You cannot ban the commercials because that is what pays the cost to provide the dramas. The stations know how many viewers are tuned into their shows at any given time. If they run too many ads the viewers will stop tuning in and watching. Not enough ads and they will not be able to pay the bills to air the shows or make a reasonable profit. If the cost of commercial air time goes up due to government regulating that commercial air time the product company airing the ad will pay that added cost and pass that cost on to the consumer, YOU. Is the light coming on?
It\'s called free market and if you regulate this you no longer have free market. You then risk losing the quality of the programming and possibly stations shutting down all together. Perhaps everything is being funded by the government at this point and all the dramas government broadcasting. You then loose the art of creativity in the open market that is demanded to gain the highest market share of available viewers.
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