According to China's state-run media, the mainland has removed four popular US television shows that has been airing on its video websites because of government restrictions. The Wall Street Journal said such move has raised the prospect that the government control over videos posted online has been intensified, especially with the freewheeling online-video sector, two people familiar with the government's interaction with the video sites.
Chinese fans of the "The Big Bang Theory," "The Good Wife," "NCIS" and "The Practice" could no longer view its episodes through various online companies like Sohu.com Inc, Youku Tudou Inc and Tencent Holdings Ltd. WSJ noted that the companies had paid rights to air the shows to stream them free of charge and get their revenues from advertisements.
The newspaper said China is very strict when it comes to releasing foreign movies in the mainland's theaters. Moreover, the country has tight censorship rules on what is to be broadcasted on Chinese television. By contrast, video websites in China relatively have more freedom.
One of the unidentified sources told WSJ that an online video site has been in discussions with the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television officials about what it can post. The person added that although the Chinese government has been hard at work with establishing rules to govern online videos, its efforts have been hampered by the amount of manpower required to go over a vast amount of videos posted on the biggest sites in China.
The second source told WSJ that the new attention on the online video sites could result to a new set of regulations in China that would dictate video site companies on what content should they post online. On the other hand, the source said that the impact of the new rules in the industry overall will not be that major.
