The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) is a ministry-level executive agency controlled by the Propaganda Department of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

(CCP). Its main task is the administration and supervision of

state-owned enterprises A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governme ...

engaged in the

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

and

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

industries. It directly controls state-owned enterprises at the national level such as

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is a Chinese state- and political party-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its 50 different channels broadcast a variety of programing to more than one billion viewers in six lan ...

China National Radio China National Radio (CNR; ; pronunciation: ) is the national radio network of China, headquartered in Beijing. History The infrastructure began with a transmitter from Moscow to set up its first station in Yan'an (延安). It used the call ...

, and

China Radio International China Radio International (CRI) is the state-owned international radio broadcaster of China. It is currently headquartered in the Babaoshan area of Beijing's Shijingshan District. It was founded on December 3, 1941, as Radio Peking. It later ...

, as well as other movie and television studios and other non-business organizations. The administration was formerly known as the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television from 2013 to 2018, and the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television from 1998 to 2013.

History

In 1986 the Ministry of Culture Film Bureau and the Ministry of Radio and Television merged to form the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television. On 25 June 1998 the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television reorganized as the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. In March 2013 the State Council announced plans to merge State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television with the

General Administration of Press and Publication General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP; ) is the administrative agency responsible for regulating and distributing news, print and Internet publications in China. This includes granting publication licenses for periodicals and book ...

to form the State Administration of Press and Publication, Radio, Film, and Television. In March 2018, the SAPPRFT was abolished and functions of the movie, press and publication industry regulation is subordinated to the

Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party The Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, also known as the Propaganda Department or Central Propaganda Department, is an internal division of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in charge of spreading C ...

instead of the State Council. In June 2022, the NRTA and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China issued a code of conduct for online hosts of live streams and podcasts banning any content that "weakens, distorts, or denies the leadership of the CCP."

Technical details

In its role of providing the physical infrastructure for broadcasting the NRTA plays a similar role in China as TDF Group plays in France, or

Crown Castle Crown Castle is a real estate investment trust and provider of shared communications infrastructure in the United States. Its network includes over 40,000 cell towers approximately 85,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solu ...

plays in the US or Australia. It owns and operates, as well as manages many thousands of MW, FM, TV and Shortwave relay transmitters in China (as well as those leased abroad for external broadcasting).

CMMB deployment

China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting (CMMB) is a mobile television and multimedia standard developed and specified in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT). It is based on the Satellite and Terrestrial Interactive Multiservice Infrastructure (STiMi), developed by TiMiTech, a company formed by the Chinese Academy of Broadcasting Science. Announced in October 2006, it has been described as being similar to Europe's

DVB-SH DVB-SH ("Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite services to Handhelds") is a physical layer standard for delivering IP based media content and data to handheld terminals such as mobile phones or PDAs, based on a hybrid satellite/terrestrial dow ...

standard for digital video broadcast from both

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

s and terrestrial 'gap fillers' to handheld devices. It specifies usage of the 2.6 GHz frequency band and occupies 25 MHz bandwidth within which it provides 25 video and 30 radio channels with some additional data channels. Multiple companies have chips that support CMMB standard - Innofidei who was the first with a solution March 28, 2007, Siano Mobile Silicon(with the SMS118x chip family, which support diversity and have superb performance) and more.

Role in regulating film, television, and internet content

The NRTA issues mandatory guidelines for media content. In 2011 and 2012 (when still SARFT) it limited the number of

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1 ...

programs and of historical dramas expressing particular disapproval of programs with a plot twist that involved

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...

back to a Chinese historical era. This decree resulted in cancellation of a number of planned films with historical drama plots. It issued a directive on 30 March 2009 to highlight 31 categories of content prohibited online, including

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...

pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

, content which may "incite ethnic discrimination or undermine social stability". Some industry observers believe that the move was designed to stop the spread of parodies or other comments on politically sensitive issues in the runup to the anniversary of the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Four ...

. It issued a directive named " SAPPRFT's Opinions On Strengthening The Programme Management of Satellite Television Channels" in 2011, aiming at over-turning the over-emphasis on purely entertainment programmes in the satellite television channels in China.

''Outstanding Domestic Animated Television Productions''

For every quarter, the SAPPRFT announces the ''Outstanding Domestic Animated Television Productions'' (), which is given to the works that "persist with correct value guidance" () and "possess relatively high artistic quality and production standards" (). The initial nominees are selected by the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

-level administrative departments of broadcast and television, and the

(CCTV). Then, the SAPPRFT invites the relevant broadcasting organisations, experts and audience representatives to review the nominees and make the finalist. Once the list is finalised, the television broadcasters in

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...

, especially nationwide

generalist channel A generalist channel is a television or radio channel whose target audience is not confined to a particular set of people, but instead aims to offer a wide range of programs and program genres to a diverse general public. In radio, this is someti ...

s and animation and children's channels , and children's channels on terrestrial television, are recommended to give priority when broadcasting such series.

References

External links

* {{authority control Government agencies of China State Council of the People's Republic of China Mass media in China Government agencies established in 1998