Following measures to curb violence in children’s cartoons, China’s media regulator has issued new rules limiting infomercial airtime to three minutes per hour. The Wall Street Journal reports:
The rules, effective Jan. 1, also ban infomercials specifically between 6 p.m. and midnight and stipulate that programming shouldn’t include “news reporting, anchorpersons hosting and exaggerated ‘hawking’ voices and actions.”
Taking aim at one Chinese television staple, the regulator is also forbidding breast firming and body slimming products on infomercials. In addition, all promotional TV must now be labeled as advertising in the right corner of the screen.
The new rules are meant to clean up programming, with the media watchdog agency saying infomercials harmed “people’s interests and affecting the social image of radio and TV.” [Source]
