« Chinese Management -- Beyond Garbage In, Garbage Out | Main | Dealing with Greenspan¹s Conundrum »
March 8, 2005
UPDATE: RESTRICTIONS ON MEDIA INVESTMENT
SARFT Limits Foreign TV Production Investment
In "Is It All That Rosy for Media Investments," I suggested that an investor approach the Chinese media industry with skepticism.
A week later, we find that the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) has announced restrictions on foreign investment. The restrictions, issued on March 4, may be found in ”Notification Regarding Implementation of the Temporary Regulations on the Management of Sino-Foreign Television Production Companies.” [In Chinese: 关于实施《中外合资、合作广播电视节目制作经营企业管理暂行规定》有关事宜的通知 located here.]
Foreigners may invest “in principle” in one and only one TV production joint-venture. A second may be applied for only in the case of “special conditions,” which aren’t clearly defined. One can only guess at the meaning of this phrase. Most likely, it is simply an out, elbow-room for SARFT in case they, for some reason, find it useful to grant permission for a second JV to a foreign investor.
Note the additional restriction that the foreigner investing in his one JV may do so only if he does not harm the interests of the state. "外方合作机构应自申请之日起的前三年内没有对我不友好的记录." [Translation: The foreign partner organization may not have an unfriendly record towards China for the three years prior to the application.]
One suspects, of course, that the paramount interest is control of the medium. TV is the superlative tool for the transmission of “correct” ideological values. (Indeed, for the transmission of any “values,” a watered-down term expressing damp ideas for living. Simply consider American programming, which is very likely as vapid as it is to focus viewer attention on the ever more daring and exaggerated advertising.) With this regulation, the ideological has once again trumped the market.
OUR NEXT POST: A GUEST COLUMN
In tomorrow’s post, we will be pleased to introduce a guest columnist with a timely article touching on the trade deficit, the (U.S.) dollar and recent Federal Open Market Committee minutes.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.asiabizblog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/8
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
