China tightens online video rules

April 02, 2009 China's booming online video landscape was covered with a potential wet blanket this week in the form of new content licensing rules from government regulators. In a consolidation of its control over online video content, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television expanded its governance of TV and film into the online arena. Chinese consumers choose online video as the best place to find what does not play on TV or in theaters because of strict censorship of content that Beijing deems "unhealthy" or "vulgar" in the often vaguely worded edicts SARFT occasionally sends to domestic media companies.

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