Happy New Year everyone!

Marbridge Consulting has published an in-depth translation of an announcement regarding the new SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film and Television) and MII (Ministry of Information Industries) regulations on online video, which I wrote about briefly after the MII Minister Wang Xudong made an announcement about their implementation the other day. The new regulations, which can be found in Chinese here (thanks Christine!), officially go into effect on January 31.

The requirement that online audio and video service providers be majority state-owned isn’t as onerous as it sounds. The work-around that’s allowed all of these venture-backed Chinese Internet companies to operate since the late 90s, whereby the offshore Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) forms a contractual relationship with or takes a minority stake in the mainland-based ICP license-holding company. will probably still satisfy regulators. (UPDATE: At Bill Bishop’s suggestion, I really should make clear that the SPV will have to work its license through a state-owned or majority state-owned entity; not an optimal solution, but it looks like that’s the one we’re left with).

My gut take on this is that it’s more about holding these video sharing and P2P companies responsible for naughty content than about trying to shake- or shut down the industry. And what’s interesting here is that two regulatory bodies that have traditionally been at odds over a number of issues (like who regulates Internet and mobile broadcasts, who has jurisdiction over cable Internet service and so on) seem to be playing nicely together now.