Led by China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, several ministries in China, including the Ministry of Information Industry, Ministry of Culture and General Administration of Press and Publication, are working on a new regulation for the management of online video frequency service.
A representative from SARFT has told local media that research regarding the new regulation has been completed and a report has been submitted to the higher authority for approval. SARFT hopes that the final regulation will be rolled out around the end of this year or the beginning of next year, however, the detailed schedule can not be settled right now as there are many different parties involved.
At present, there are three major regulations on the online video frequency service management in China, including SARFT's "Information Network Broadcasting and Video and Audio Program Permit", MC's "Network Culture Operation License" and MII's "Internet Information Service Permit". Each of the three can work to help regulate online video frequency service to a certain extent, but they also repeat and even contradict with each other in some aspects. This is the main reason why they want to make a new, combined regulation.
Although there is no clear deadline for the unveiling of the new regulation, one thing for sure is that the new regulation will strengthen the management and supervision of online video frequency content and it will redefine the access criteria for online video frequency service providers and probably be opened more to privately run companies.
These new regulations will affect how firms like Google's (GOOG) new purchase Youtube.com and Chinese competitors like Wangyou.com operate their online video services in China.
