REPORTS over new guidelines on foreign television series have sparked an outcry among Chinese Internet users, who have come to be accustomed to viewing wildly popular Western productions such as “House of Cards” or “Sherlock” online. In a statement issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), foreign TV dramas will be put under scrutiny before they are screened online in China. In a survey on Sina Weibo this week, 95.2 percent of nearly 120,000 surveyed users of the microblogging service said they did not want the authority to decide which Western television series they could watch. Only around 5,700 said they were in support of new guidelines that require regulatory approval before a Western series can appear on a Chinese online video website. “[We want] multiculturalism, freedom of choice,” was one widely shared slogan among those who opposed the new regulation. Those who supported the new regulation said: “They [the shows] don’t suit our national sentiment.” By Wednesday evening, it was still unclear whether new regulations had actually been issued. Verne Zhu, an analyst with EntGroup, told Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post that the new reports merely reflected an effort to re-emphasize earlier regulations, which required notifying the SARFT that a new TV series has been made available to Chinese Internet users. Domestically produced content and user-generated content would however be subject to more scrutiny, she added. Jean Shao, a spokeswoman for market leader Youku Tudou, told the Hong Kong newspaper that her company has yet to be notified about new guidelines for foreign TV series. The department in charge for television series with the regulator did not make any response. Over the years, online video streaming services Youku Tudou and Sohu have gained widespread audiences by acquiring the rights for Western TV series. These services could overtake the traditional box office in China this year or next, said Robert Cain, from the entertainment consultancy Pacific Bridge. Revenue from online video rose 42 percent to 12.8 billion yuan (US$2 billion) last year, according to the Beijing-based consultancy iResearch, which expects revenue to double by 2017. The success of online streaming partly lies in the stricter regulation of the traditional box office. Unlike with movies, SARFT has not imposed an annual limit on foreign TV series. The authority allows 34 foreign movies to be imported to China and screened each year. As of last year, Sohu offered 144 U.S. and British TV series, Tencent has 123 and Youku Tudou 109, according to data provided by the Beijing-based consultancy EntGroup. Last year, the British detective series “Sherlock” was released only hours after its season premiere in Britain and ahead of its release in the United States. Other series released online in China include the 1920-drama “Downton Abbey,” the Danish political drama “Borgen” and the comedy series “Saturday Night Live.” In February, Sohu raised eyebrows by releasing the U.S. political drama “House of Cards,” which included references to corruption in China, the country’s territorial dispute with Japan and cyber-espionage. Unlike with the U.S. provider Netflix, the show was available for free, but ad-sponsored. The authority has just been overwhelmed by the amount of online video content, said Cain, who also runs the China’s entertainment industry blog ChinaFilmBiz. “[Providers] just put their content up online. They submit a notice to SARFT that it’s up and then SARFT is supposed to follow through,” he said. “They have not been able to keep up with the flow.” The reports have raised concerns that the online streaming of these popular television series could eventually be curbed by the new regulations. “It will clearly have an impact on a financial and creative level,” said Kathryn Arnold, a producer and entertainment expert in Los Angeles. International producers could either resort to making a separate Chinese version of their content or skirt the Chinese market, she said. (SD-Agencies) | 