Friday, February 22, 2008

China Banning Foreign Cartoons

China is putting a ban on all foreign cartoons that air between 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. to protect their domestic cartoon industry. The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) says that no foreign cartoons or programs that introduce foreign cartoons can be shown during those hours on all domestic cartoon channels and children channels starting on May 1st. Only domestic cartoons that are approved by SARFT can be aired. Cartoons that are co-produced by both domestic and foreign producers have to get approval to be aired.

In August of 2006, a ban was introduced that kept foreign cartoons from airing between 5 pm. and 8 p.m. After the ban, domestic cartoon programming for China increased by 38 percent. The ban is supposed to help China’s struggling animation studios space to compete and help their domestic cartoon industry.

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