Laws of the People's Republic of China

the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television

Order of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television

No. 37

The Measures for the Administration of Examination and Approval of Radio Stations and Television Stations, which have been adopted at the executive meeting of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television on June 15, 2004, are promulgated hereby and shall go into effect as of September 20, 2004.

Director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television Xu Guangchun

August 18, 2004

Measures for the Administration of Examination and Approval of Radio Stations and Television Stations

Article 1

For the purposes of regulating the administration of radio stations and television stations and safeguarding the sound development of the radio and television undertaking and industry, the present Measures are formulated in accordance with the Regulation on the Administration of Radio and Television.

Article 2

The "radio and television stations" as referred to in the present Measures are the radio and television broadcasting institutions (include the radio stations and television stations, the educational television stations, the enterprise groups of radio, film and television, the chief stations, the branches of the radio and television stations with independent legal personality) which gather and edit, produce and broadcast radio and television programs to the general public through the wired, the wireless, the satellites transmission or other means.

Article 3

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (hereinafter referred to as the SARFT) shall be responsible for formulating the plans for the establishment of radio stations and television stations of the whole country, determining the total amount, overall arrangement and structure of the radio and television stations, and examining and approving the establishment and supervising and administrating the radio and television stations of the whole country. The administrative departments of radio, film and television of the local people's governments at the county level or above shall be responsible for the administration of the radio and television stations within their own administrative divisions.

Article 4

The State prohibits the establishment of radio and television stations in the form of foreign-funded venture, Chinese-foreign equity joint venture or Chinese-foreign contractual joint venture.

Article 5

In principle, the radio and television stations shall be established by the administrative departments of radio, film and television at the level of county or city undivided into districts or by the authorized enterprise groups of radio, film and television (the chief station).The educational television stations, however, may be set up by the educational administrative departments at the level of city divided into districts or autonomous prefecture level or above.

Article 6

To establish and merge a radio or television station, the following requirements shall be met:

(1)

It shall be in conformity with the development plan of the national radio and television undertaking and industry and the related national and trade standards;

(2)

It shall have the professional staff of radio and television, shall have technical equipments and the place utility prescribed by the State;

(3)

It shall have the necessary funds for capital construction and stable capital guarantee;

(4)

It shall have the definite channel orientation and certain transmission coverage; and

(5)

The means of transmission and technical parameters shall conform to the layout of transmission coverage network of the national radio and television.

Article 7

The establishment, merger and alteration of the related matters of radio and television stations at the central level shall be directly reported to the SARFT for examination and approval. The establishment and alteration of the local radio stations and television stations shall be applied to the superior administrative department of radio, film and television by their corresponding administrative departments of radio, film and television, and reported to the SARFT for examination and approval after the level-by-level examination and approval.

The establishment, merger and alteration of the related matters of the educational television stations shall be applied to the superior educational administrative departments by the educational administrative departments at the level of city divided into districts or autonomous prefecture level or above upon the approval of their corresponding administrative department of the radio and television, and reported to the SARFT for examination and approval after the level-by-level examination and approval and the examination and approval of the educational administrative department of the State Council.

Article 8

To apply for the establishment and merger of the radio and television stations, one shall submit the following application materials:

(1)

a written application; and

(2)

a feasibility report, which shall include the following contents:

a.

human resources;

b.

capital guarantee and sources;

c.

place, equipments;

d.

plan for the launching of channels and programs (including the orientation of the channels and the column designing);

e.

transmission coverage, means and technical parameters; and

f.

operation plans.

(3)

the station name, and logo and the call letters to be used, attached with the colored sample design of the station logo, brief description of the originality and electronic manuscript;

(4)

the approval documents of the people's government at the same level for granting the establishment and merger; and

(5)

preparatory plans.

Article 9

To apply for adjusting the established number of programs and the range of the programs, one shall submit the following application materials:

(1)

a written application; and

(2)

a feasibility report, which shall include the following contents:

a.

the reasons for adjusting the number of programs and the range of the programs;

b.

human resources;

c.

capital guarantee and sources;

d.

place, equipment;

e.

plan for the launching of channels and programs (including the orientation of channels and the column designing);

f.

transmission coverage, means and technical parameters; and

g.

operation plans.

(3)

preparatory plans.

Article 10

The names and the call letters of the radio and television stations shall, in principal, be in conformity with the names of the administrative divisions determined by the State Council.

The station logo may be composed of the design, Chinese characters, numbers and letters of an alphabet, and shall be distinct from the logos used by other radio stations, television stations and other institutions and be marked out on the top left corner of the screen when broadcasting. The logo of the program channels owned by the radio and television stations shall be composed of, station logo, as the principal part, and the channel names or their short form and the serial numbers.

Article 11

In case of applying for the alteration of the station name, logo or call letters, a radio and television station shall submit the following application materials:

(1)

a written application; and

(2)

the station name, and logo and the call letters to be altered, as well as the colored sample design, brief description of the originality and electronic manuscript. If the alteration is due to the alteration of the administrative divisions, the duplicate of the approval documents concerning the alteration of the administrative divisions shall be submitted to the State Council.

If the alteration of station name and call letters is due to other reasons, the reasons for the alteration shall be fully expounded in the written application.

Article 12

In case of applying for the alteration of the transmission coverage, means and technical parameters, a radio or television station shall submit the following application materials to the administrative departments of radio and television of their own level:

(1)

a written application; and

(2)

the use suggestions of the technical parameters, the necessary design documents or technical assessment reports.

The reasons shall be given in the written application for the alteration of the transmission coverage, means and technical parameters and the compacts on the transmission coverage network.

Article 13

The radio and television stations, established by the radio and television administrative departments at the level of the sub-provincial cities or above or by the authorized groups of radio, film and television (the chief station), may transmit the radio and television programs of their own stations by satellite in accordance with the development plan of construction and technology for the undertaking and industry of the national radio and television.

To transmit the radio and television programs of their own stations by satellite, the stations shall apply to the administrative department of radio and television at the same level, and it shall be reported level-by-level and be subject to examination and approval by the SARFT after the administrative department of radio and television at the same level report to the people's governments at the same level for approval.

Article 14

In case of applying for transmitting the radio and television programs of their own stations by satellites, a radio and television station shall submit the following application materials:

(1)

a written application; and

(2)

a feasibility report, which shall include the following contents:

a.

the reasons for transmitting the radio and television programs by satellite;

b.

human resources;

c.

capital guarantee and sources;

d.

place, equipments;

e.

plan for the launching of channels and programs (including the orientation of the channels and the column designing); and

f.

an operation plan.

(3)

the censorship of the programs and the administrative systems;

(4)

the safe transmission and broadcasting schemes, technical proposals; and

(5)

the approval documents of the people's government at the same level; and

(6)

the preparatory plans.

Article 15

The radio and television stations, established by the administrative departments of radio and television at the level of the sub-provincial cities or above or by the authorized enterprise groups of radio, film and television (the chief station), may apply to the administrative department of radio and television at the same level for establishing the substations within their own administrative divisions, and it shall be subject to the examination and approval of the SARFT after level-by-level examinations.

To establish the substations, the radio and television stations shall submit the following application materials:

(1)

a written application; and

(2)

a feasibility report, which shall include the following contents:

a.

human resources;

b.

capital sources;

c.

place, equipments;

d.

plan for the launching of channels and programs (including the orientation of the channels and the column designing); and

e.

transmission coverage, means and technical parameters.

(3)

the station name and logo and the call letters, attached with the colored sample design of the station logo, a brief description of the originality and electronic manuscript.

Article 16

The substations, established by the radio station and the television station, shall be put on record with the administrative departments of radio and television at the locality of the stations prior to the beginning of broadcasting, and be subject to the territory administration of the administrative departments of radio and television at the locality of the stations.

Article 17

All application materials submitted by the applicant shall be done in quintuplicate. The administrative departments of radio and television in charge of acceptance shall perform the responsibility of acceptance and examination and approval in accordance with the time limit and the limit of authority prescribed in the Administrative License Law. The SARFT shall conduct the final examination and approval of the application materials. If the application of the applicant is in accordance with the statutory standards, a written decision for granting the administrative license shall be made. In case the decision of disqualification of the administrative license is made, the applicant shall be given a written notice and the reasons therefore.

Article 18

The SARFT shall issue Permit of the Radio and Television Broadcasting Institutions to the radio and television stations established upon authorization, and simultaneously issue a Permit of the Radio and Television Channels to each set of the radio and television programs launched upon authorization.

The term of validity of the permit shall be three years commencing from the date of issuance. If it needs to continue its operations when the term expires, the application shall be filed in accordance with the prescriptions of Articles 6, 7, and 8 of the Present Measures 180 days before of the expiration of the term of validity, and the permit shall be reissued for a new term upon the level-by-level examination and approval.

Permit of the Radio and Television Broadcasting Institutions and Permit of the Radio and Television Channels shall be uniformly printed and issued by the SARFT.

Article 19

In case a radio and television station is terminated, it shall fully expound the reasons, and be reported level-by-level to the SARFT for examination and approval in accordance with the former establishment examination and approval procedures, and the Permit of Radio and Television Broadcasting Institution and Permit of the Radio and Television Channels thereof shall be taken back by the SARFT.

Article 20

The radio and television stations shall produce and broadcast the programs according to the setup subjects, the station names, the call letters, the station logos, the range of programs, the established number of programs, the transmission coverage and means, and technical parameters.

Article 21

If a radio and television station temporarily suspends its broadcasting due to special reasons, it shall be subject to approval by the administrative department of radio and television at the provincial level or above. If the radio and television station suspends broadcasting for more than consecutively 30 days without permission or fails to resume broadcasting for more than 180 days commencing from the date of approval by the SARFT, it shall be regarded as being terminated.

Article 22

The channels of the radio or television stations may be divided into the public ones and commercial ones. It is allowed for the two types of channels to be properly separated in structural establishment, and adopt the corresponding organization and management ways and operation means in light of their respective features and aims. The special administrative measures shall be formulated separately.

Article 23

The radio and television stations can trans-regionally and jointly run the radio and television channels or programs launched upon permission.

Article 24

In case a radio and television channel or program is run jointly, the radio and television station thereof shall apply to the administrative departments of radio and television at the same level, and it shall be subject to the examination and approval by the SARFT after the level-by-level examination and approval.

To run the radio and television channels or program jointly, the radio and television stations shall submit the following application materials:

(1)

a written application; and

(2)

a feasibility report, which shall include the following contents:

a.

the reasons for the joint operation of the radio and television channels or program;

b.

human resources;

c.

capital guarantee and sources;

d.

place, equipments;

e.

resources of the programs and a plan for the programs;

f.

transmission coverage, means and technical parameters; and

g.

an operational plan.

(3)

a cooperative contract.

Article 25

No radio station or television station at the county level may launch any television channel by itself. However, the local news and the special topics of economy, science and technology, legality, agriculture, and important activities, programs of entertainment with local color, and advertisements produced by them may be broadcasted in the reserved time intervals of the public channels within the administrative divisions of its own province, autonomous region, and municipality directly under the Central Government.

Article 26

The administration of the examination and approval of pay channels of the radio and television stations shall be carried out in accordance with the pertinent regulations of the SARFT.

Article 27

The technical schemes, safe transmission and broadcasting schemes, transmission coverage, means and technical parameters declared by the radio station or the television station shall be in conformity with the pertinent regulations of the SARFT.

Article 28

Punishment shall be imposed on any violation of the present Measures pursuant to Regulation on the Administration of the Radio and Television.

Article 29

The present Measures shall go into effect as of September 20, 2004. The Measures for the Administration of Examination and Approval of Establishing Radio and Television Stations (Order No.19 of the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television) of the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television shall be abolished simultaneously.