The “foreigner restriction order” strikes again. Who touched my “Oppa”?

According to news today, the "foreign restriction order" issued by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television to strengthen the management of online broadcasting of foreign dramas - "Notice of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television on Further Implementing the Relevant Regulations on the Management of Online Foreign Films and TV Series" will add new regulations in the near future. The new policy not only includes the number of imported films and TV series and the broadcast mode of first review and then broadcast, but also will uniformly register all imported dramas. By then, the overseas imported film and TV series market will see a new situation.

Liu Gang, editor-in-chief of TV Series Research, once said: "Domestic TV series must first be approved by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television before filming begins, and must also undergo content review after filming is completed. This censorship system means that Chinese TV series can only be broadcast after they have been fully filmed."

The new policy stipulates that foreign TV dramas that are newly released in 2015 must obtain a full season of the film and subtitles before being submitted to the local bureau for review. After passing the review, they can obtain an import license number before they can be broadcast online. This means that foreign dramas may be rejected or deleted by the radio and television authorities due to various content, scale, subject matter and other issues, just like domestic dramas.

Especially overseas dramas have a wide range of themes and are quite explicit. Take the popular Korean idol drama "Palace" a few years ago as an example. The drama not only tampered with the Korean political system, but also adopted an imaginary worldview and set it as a constitutional monarchy. It also featured a lot of political scandals. The once-famous long-legged Oppa drama "City Hunter" also used political struggle as the main background of the story.

At the same time, American and Korean dramas that are popular among Chinese users are mostly shot and broadcast at the same time. The biggest advantage of this broadcast mode is that the plot can be changed at any time according to the preferences of the audience and the characteristics of the actors; of course, the disadvantage is that the continuity is poor. Often, before the audience finishes watching one drama, they will be attracted by another one. Especially in China with a strict censorship system, if there is a problem with an episode in the censorship process, the TV station will be "disconnected". In this regard, Zheng Xiaolong, the director of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", said, "If we imitate the way of overseas dramas that are shot and broadcast at the same time, the audience needs to change their viewing habits; the TV stations will be the ones who suffer the most in the early stage. If the ratings are not good, the TV stations may have no choice but to stop broadcasting."

However, for overseas dramas, if the same "review before broadcast" method as domestic dramas is implemented, especially if the lag time is extended to more than a year, it means that while domestic female audiences have not yet wiped the drool all over their keyboards because of long-legged Oppa Lee Min Ho, Professor Do who traveled from the stars has already won numerous awards and made a lot of money; and while male audiences are still immersed in endless fantasies about Max with a big butt and big breasts in "2 Broke Girls", foreign audiences have already appreciated her unique charm after losing weight.

This kind of playback mode not only greatly reduces users' interest in "chasing" overseas dramas, but also confuses and blurs the fundamental differences between overseas dramas and domestic dramas, making users truly experience the sadness of having no dramas to watch.

It is reported that the "foreign restriction order" also restricts the number of TV dramas. The policy stipulates that the number of TV dramas that can be imported in 2015 should be 30% of the number of domestic TV dramas that were newly broadcast in the previous year (2014), and the countries and themes should be diversified. In this regard, the large number of American TV dramas may be greatly cut, and corresponding Youku.com and Sohu Video, which mainly focus on American TV dramas, may be greatly impacted.

By analogy, as the import of overseas TV series and movies is frustrated, their copyright prices will inevitably rise sharply, and the enthusiasm of video websites to develop self-produced dramas and weekly dramas may also increase simultaneously, which will further promote the era transformation of video websites in terms of content and business models.

At the same time, the new policy also stipulates that foreign films and TV series that were broadcast online before September 2014 must complete registration before April 1, 2015. The online broadcast content agreement cannot be renewed after expiration. If renewed, the new policy must be followed to account for quota and review content.

At present, the relevant departments have not issued a specific notice on whether the overseas TV series and movies broadcast online from September to December 2014 will occupy the quota of the import plan for 2015. However, based on the relevant policies that have been issued so far, it is not difficult to conclude that it will not be so easy to watch long-legged Oppa in the future.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.