YouTube.com Inc.'s eponymous site, along with Chinese video Web sites and the clips they host may soon require approval for posting and distribution. Aside from a general dislike for Internet content that has not undergone an official approval process, China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) is responding to criticism of popular satire clips, including a parody of movie director Chen Kaige's recent film "The Promise."
Sina Corp., Sohu.com Inc., and Netease.com Inc. are approved to carry video clips, the state-run China Daily said Wednesday. Although SARFT said it may step in against Internet-distributed video clips and short films, it technically may not have the authority to do so. Under a long-standing Chinese regulatory definition, SARFT regulates broadcasts, and broadcasts are defined as media sent over airwaves, satellite, or terrestrial cable to a television. Because Internet content is transmitted to PCs via telephone or broadband lines, they are technically not broadcasts, and would fall under the purview of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Who will ultimately get to regulate Internet-based broadcasts is an ongoing point of contention between SARFT and the MII, as the two compete for control over increasingly converged media such as IPTV (Internet Protocol TV). "It is only a matter of time before SARFT issues regulations covering the full range of streaming online content," said David Wolf, chief executive officer of Wolf Group Asia Ltd., a Beijing-based media and technology consultancy. "In the minds of China's regulators, this is merely broadcast by other means, and is thus subject to the same legal constraints as conventional radio and television."
