This year in China, television producers were handed the challenge of making television less exciting and entertainment-based after Chinese officials deemed there wasn’t enough quality content on screens across the nation. The move forced producers to re-think how they make programmes in an attempt to keep up profits and keep in line with regulations.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) mainly targeted reality and dating shows, considered to be “too vulgar.” In a country known to ban entire TV stations for “negative social effects,” cable providers had a big task ahead of them to fall in step with the new demands.

In a newswire release, China’s official state news agency, Xinhua, said cable and satellite providers “should increase the amount of news programmes, and exercise better control over certain kinds of programming in order to prevent the overentertainment and vulgarszation trend. As well, to satisfy the audience’s need for diverse, multi-level and high-quality TV programmes.”

Among some changes under the new rules, foreign drama series may not run longer than 50 episodes and there must be more plot and less commercialisation. Content producer and distributor Metan Media’s President and CEO, Larry Namer, said the restrictions make creative thinking a must.

“It’s been a year of incredible changes,” said Namer. “A great deal of our business has been really staying up with the regulations and rules.”

Due to the difficulties with things such as product integration, Namer said, writers have had to find ways to get the messages from advertisers to audiences by working them into the story of the show. Simply showing a brand during a scene or running a 30-second ad can no longer do the job.

“They wanted the shows to be less commercial driven and more story driven or socially good driven,” he said.

But it’s not just the drama genre. According to Namer, the tightening up of reality shows has been one of the most severe changes.

Many stations started becoming more provocative in order to gain ratings, added to the practice of some companies fining workers on a day-to-day basis for low ratings, the sum equaled product the government considered “not socially good.” “The numbers I’ve heard are that 80 percent of reality shows or unscripted shows have been moved off TV stations,” said Namer. “The upside of that is that it’s given way to other things (alternative programming).”

SARFT was quoted in Chinese state media as saying the new restrictions would not harm the bottom line of television stations. In an article last November, the Global Times newspaper quoted SARFT head, Li Jingsheng, who said that revenues would not be seriously affected because the new regulations  “only ban cut-in advertisements during shows, and do not limit the length of advertisements before and after shows.”

Over at the BBC, Pierre Cheung, Vice-President and General Manager of Greater China for BBC Worldwide, said in an email that the new drama limitations won’t really affect his company’s standing in the Chinese market.

“We have been building relationships in China for more than 25 years. Our popular genres in China are natural history, science, and factual documentaries which are recognised by the industry as being of the highest quality,” said Cheung, pointing to work done with China’s state broadcaster. “This will continue as we look forward to creating more positive co-production partnerships as we did with CCTV on the six-part series Wild China.”

Cheung also said that the restrictions mainly affect foreign programme providers from China’s neighbouring countries. Drama series from South Korea particularly enjoy an immense popularity within the Chinese market.

“This hasn’t really impacted on our business as western drama series rarely get scheduled on prime time in China,” said Cheung. “The new rule has had more of an effect on foreign drama series from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and other Asian based suppliers.”

Meanwhile, Metan Media’s Namer said a negative affect has not been seen on Metan’s books either and the company actually grew last year as the hunger for foreign programming continues to grow. He also said there’s little choice but to simply adapt to the new regulations.

“If they change the rules to go one way, we’ll follow,” he said. “If they change them to go another, we’ll follow that too.”