Internet Audio-Visual Industry

Picture 7 Structure of This Chapter

On the one hand, the traditional movie and TV series market continues to grow, the box office has constantly hit record highs, and popular hot TV series have emerged continuously.On the other hand, in recent years, the rapid development of Internet technology has made the “film and television entertainment industry” jump out of the traditional fields such as “movies”and “TV series”, and online dramas, online macro movies, short videos,webcasts and other works created in a way similar to cinematography have sprung up with a strong vitality and gained an increasingly large new market.(https://www.daowen.com)

On August 11, 2019, the State Administration of Radio and Television issued the Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Radio, Television and Network Audio-visual Industry to further encourage the development of China’s Internet audio-visual industry.According to the data of the 2019 China Internet Audio and Video Development Research Report, by the end of December 2018, the number of Chinese Internet video(including short video) users reached 725 million, accounting for 87.5% of the total Internet users.Among them, the number of short video users was 648 million, and the utilization rate of Internet users was 78.2%.The usage time of short video users accounted for 11.4% of the total online usage time.According to the 2019 China TV Series (Online Dramas) Industry Survey Report released by You Xiaogang, the President of China TV Drama Production Industry Association, the number of short video users have exceeded that of the long video’s users for the first time in 2019.Among them, in terms of users’ scale, the number of short videos users monthly active has also reached 821 million, with a growth rate of 32%year-on-year, while the number of long video users monthly active has reached 964 million.

With the rapid development of the Internet audio-visual industry, China has issued supporting laws and policies.In addition to the Provisions on the Administration of Production and Operation of Radio and Television Programs (Order No.3 of the State Administration of Press,Publication, Radio, Film and Television) amended by the former State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television on August 28, 2015, which came into force at the same time, the Administrative Provisions on Internet Audio-Visual Program Service (Order No.3 of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television) amended by the former State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television on August 28, 2015, which came into force at the same time, the Notice of the General Office of the State Administration of Radio and Television on the Upgrade of the Internet Audio-Visual Programs Filing-Record System (No.158 [2018] of the General Office of the State Administration of Radio and Television) issued by the State Administration of Radio and Television, which took effect on December 27, 2018, the Notice of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television on Issues concerning Effectively Conducting the Examination of Application for the Permit for Spreading Audio-Visual Programs via Information Network (Order No.3 of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television) amended by the former State Administration of Press, Publication,Radio, Film and Television on August 28, 2015, which came into force at the same time, the General Rules for Examining Content of Internet Audio-Visual Programs issued by China Internet Audio-Visual Program Service Association which took effect on June 30, 2017.Besides the above-mentioned regulations, new regulations have been introduced in 2019: Provisions on the Administration of Internet Audio and Video Information Services(No.3 [2019] of the National Internet Information Office) issued by National Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the State Administration of Radio and Television, which took effect on January 1, 2020.The Specifications on Management of Internet Short Video Platform issued by China Internet Audio-visual Program Service Association, which took effect on January 9, 2019 and Standard Details of Internet Short Video Content Review issued by China Internet Audio-visual Program Service Association, which took effect on January 9, 2019, as well as Provisions on the Administration of Programs for Minors (Order No.3 of the State Administration of Radio and Television) issued by the State Administration of Radio and Television on March 29, 2019, which took effective on April 30,2019, etc.

Internet audio-visual programs under Chinese law specifically include the following three categories: (1) online dramas, micro-movies,online movies, film and television cartoons, documentaries; (2) professional Internet audio-visual programs involving the topic of arts, entertainment, science, finance, sports, education, etc.; (3) other Internet original audio-visual programs.Since that Internet audio-visual programs also involve the fields of film and television, network information and data security, network services and culture, related policies and requirements are cumbersome.