As well as cracking down on websites and blogs, China is set to impose restrictions on the broadcast of non-Chinese cartoons in prime time. It’s less about censorship than it is about directing money and investment towards the state-media sector.
Bill Bishop ponders what this means for on-line gaming (his forte) and has these details from the AWSJ:
The proposed ban isn’t likely to apply to cartoons produced by joint ventures, but cartoons that are designed overseas and produced and processed by Chinese animation companies will still be considered "foreign," Shanghai Media Group’s Ms. Chen said.
A similar prime-time ban on foreign dramas went into effect in 2000 and has greatly aided the development of China’s domestic drama-production industry, Ms. Chen said. Cartoons, however, are usually much more expensive to produce than live-action drama.
