As foreign TV shows on Chinese websites are reviewed for regulatory approval, experts say local industry stands to gain from the changing scenario, Han Bingbin reports.
China's new online video rules have resulted in several US TV serials being pulled out of the country's major streaming sites.
Agent Carter, Empire and Shameless are among such shows that have been removed from sites such as Sohu.com and Letv.com. The newly licensed serials being shown on the sites are Girls and Veep, both HBO productions that premiered in the US in 2012, and are available for daily viewing on Chinese site Tencent Video now.
Last year, Tencent Video announced a deal with HBO to exclusively stream about 10 of the networks' productions this year onward, including brand-new seasons of Game of Thrones and True Detective, two series that are popular with Chinese audiences.
According to the latest regulations, new seasons likely to debut this year will require prior approval of the sector's top regulator－the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. The contents of foreign series would need to be submitted to the administration along with Chinese subtitles for clearance.
Trade analysts expect the scenario will delay the run-time of TV series in China. The shows are not likely to reach local viewers until six months after they are screened in the United States.
Tencent Video executives declined to comment when asked by China Daily about foreign series lineup for the year.
Seasons that have run into 2015 are required to get their information registered with the administration before March 31, indicating an uncertain future for many foreign shows in the coming months. China's video sites will have to limit foreign TV shows to 30 percent of overall content uploaded on their sites.
The number of foreign TV series expected to be licensed will definitely see a drop in the future, says Feng Jun, senior analyst with entertainment industry consultancy EntGroup. Feng says that the scenes featuring "certain levels of violence and sex will surely be cut during official examination".
Some Chinese fans worry that TV serials featuring supernatural themes such as American Horror Story, for example, will fail to reappear on Chinese websites.
In the past few years, Chinese companies have been streaming content that couldn't be shown on TV, thanks to a less strict streaming system.
Cai Fuchao, director general of the state administration, was quoted by Beijing Youth Daily in December saying that content offline and online should now follow the same standards.
The popular erotic romance Fifty Shades of Grey was scheduled for a high-profile release on major Chinese video websites including iQiyi and Tencent Video on Feb 27.
But it failed to be posted to the sites, leading many fans to speculate that the US film's controversial subject meant its release was delayed.
"It will not be possible for shows to exist on video websites for a long time if they can't be shown on TV channels," Sun Zhonghuai, vice-president of Tencent Holdings, told a news conference in Beijing while announcing the company's deal with HBO last year.
This, however, could also be an opportunity to apply a rating system to China's online video industry, says iQiyi's deputy editor-in-chief to news portal Tencent Technology.
But because foreign shows don't make up the bulk of sales on Chinese video sites, the uncertainty surrounding their streaming in China isn't expected to affect the businesses of such sites, Feng says.
Statistics from EntGroup show that popular Chinese TV series were watched up to 2 billion times online, with this year's most popular historical drama The Empress of China recording more than 10 billion views so far.
Walking Dead and House of Cards, among the most-watched US TV series in China, were viewed 200 million times last year.
But with broadcasting schedules likely to be delayed and numbers to be reduced, the altered scenario is expected to cause commercial turbulence of another kind－the rise of illegal downloads.
An online video fan, who doesn't reveal his real name, says Internet traffic and commercial breaks don't get in the way of watching such downloads.
Last year, the government banned some websites that allowed illegal downloading of shows, but replacement platforms were found by fans.
Tencent Technology recently quoted an anonymous insider as saying there are currently over 2 million small-and medium-sized download websites in China, which either provide links for downloading or have online screening services themselves.
"But their vitality has yet to be observed because they will face a hard time as China strengthens its efforts to crack down on piracy," Feng says.
The local TV industry is expected to benefit from this change of situation as video websites are expected to license more local productions and more international joint productions are likely to emerge.
Earlier this year, the first joint production between Chinese online video group Youku Tudou and South Korea's JYP Entertainment Dream Knight went online.