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	MEASURES FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF EXAMINATION AND APPROVAL OF RADIO STATIONS AND TELEVISION STATIONS

	(Order of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (No. 37), August 18, 2004: The Measures for the Administration of Examination and Approval of Radio Stations and Television Stations (Trial), which have been adopted at the executive meeting of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television on June 15, 2004, are hereby promulgated and shall come into force as of September 20, 2004)


SUBJECT : RADIO STATIONS AND TELEVISION STATIONS
ISSUING DEPARTMENT : STATE ADMINISTRATION OF RADIO, FILM AND TELEVISION
ISSUE DATE : 08/18/2004
IMPLEMENT DATE : 09/20/2004
LENGTH : 2,518 words
TEXT :

Article 1. With a view to regulating the administration of radio stations and television stations and safeguarding the sound development of the radio and television undertaking and industry, the present Measures are formulated according to the Regulation on the Administration of Radio and Television.

Article 2. The "radio stations and television stations" referred to in the present Measures are the radio and television broadcasting institutions (include the radio stations and television stations, the educational television stations, the enterprise groups of radio, film and television, the chief stations, the branches of the radio and the television stations with the qualifications of an independent legal entity status) which gather and edit, produce and broadcast radio and television programs to the general public through the wired, the wireless, the satellites transmission or other means.

Article 3. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (hereinafter referred to the SARFT) shall be responsible for formulating the plans for establishing radio stations and television stations of the whole country, confirming the total amount, overall arrangement and structure of the radio and television stations, and examining and approving the establishment and supervising and administrating the radio and television stations of the whole country. The radio, film and television administrative departments of the local people's governments at the county level or above shall be responsible for the administration of the radio and television stations within their own administrative divisions.

Article 4. The State prohibits the establishment of radio and television stations in the form of foreign-funded venture, Chinese-foreign equity joint venture or Chinese-foreign contractual joint venture.

Article 5. The radio and television stations shall, in principle, be established by the radio, film and television administrative departments at the level of county or city undivided into districts or by the authorized enterprise groups of radio, film and television (the chief station), and the educational television stations may be set up by the educational administrative departments at the city divided into districts or autonomous prefecture level or above.

Article 6. To establish and merge a radio or television station, the following conditions shall be met:

(1) It shall be in conformity with the development programming of the national radio and television undertaking and industry and the related national and trade standards;

(2) It shall have the professional staff of radio and television, shall have technical equipments and the necessary places prescribed by the State;

(3) It shall have the necessary basic construction funds and stable capital guarantee;

(4) It shall have the definite channel orientation and certain transmission coverage; and

(5) The means of transmission coverage and technical parameters shall conform to the layout of transmission coverage net of the national radio and television.

Article 7. The establishment, merger and alteration of the related matters of radio and television stations at the central level shall be directly reported to the SARFT for examination and approval. The establishment and alteration of the local radio and television stations shall be applied to the higher radio, film and television administrative department by the radio, film and television administrative departments of their own level, and reported to the SARFT for examination and approval after the level-by-level examination and approval.

The establishment, merger and alteration of the related matters of the educational television stations shall be applied to the higher educational administrative departments by the educational administrative departments at the city divided into districts or autonomous prefecture level or above after obtaining the approval of the radio and television administrative department of their own level, and reported to the SARFT for examination and approval after the level-by-level examination and approval and the examination and approval of the educational administrative department of the State Council.

Article 8. To apply for the establishment and merger of the radio and television stations, one shall submit the following application materials:

(1) a written application;

(2) a feasibility report, which shall include the following elements:
1. human resources;
2. capital guarantee and sources;
3. place, equipments;
4. plan for the launching of channels and programs (including the orientation of the channels and the column designing);
5. transmission coverage, means and technical parameters; and
6. operational plans;

(3) the station name and logo and the call letters to be used, attached with the colored sample of the station logo, simple description of the originality and electronic manuscript;

(4) the approval documents of the people's government at its own level for granting the establishment and merger; and

(5) preparatory plans.

Article 9. To apply for adjusting the established number of programs and the range of the programs, one shall submit the following application materials:

(1) a written application;

(2) a feasibility report, which shall include the following elements:
1. the reasons for adjusting the number of programs and the range of the programs;
2. human resources;
3. capital guarantee and sources;
4. place, equipment;
5. plan for the launching of channels and programs (including the orientation of channels and the column designing);
6. transmission coverage, means and technical parameters; and
7. operational plans; and

(3) preparatory plans.

Article 10. The names and the call letters of the radio and television stations shall, in general, conform to the names of the administrative divisions determined by the State Council.

The station logo may be composed by the design, Chinese characters, numbers and letters of an alphabet, and shall be distinct from the logos used by other radio stations, television stations and other institutions and be marked out on the left corner of the screen when broadcasting. The logo of the program channels owned by the radio and television stations shall take the station logo as the principal part and shall be composed by the channel names or their short form and the serial numbers.

Article 11. To apply for the alteration of the station name, logo or call letters, a radio and television station shall submit the following application materials:

(1) a written application; and

(2) the station name and logo, the call letters to be altered and the colored sample of design, brief description of the originality and electronic manuscript. In case the alteration is due to the alteration of the administrative divisions, the photocopy of the approval documents concerning the alteration of the administrative divisions shall be submitted to the State Council.

In case the alteration of station name and call letters is due to other reasons, the reasons for the alteration shall be fully expounded in the written application.

Article 12. To apply for the alteration of the transmission coverage, means and technical parameters, a radio or television station shall submit the following application materials to the radio and television administrative departments of their own level:

(1) a written application; and

(2) the use suggestions of the technical parameters, the necessary design documents or technical appraisal reports.

The reasons for the alteration of the transmission coverage, means and technical parameters and the compacts on the transmission coverage net shall be given in the written application.

Article 13. The radio and television stations, established by the radio and television administrative departments of the sub-provincial cities or above or the authorized groups of radio, film and television (the chief station), may transmit the radio and television programs of their own stations by satellite in accordance with the undertaking and industry construction and plan of the technical development of the national radio and television.

To transmit the radio and television programs of their own stations by satellite, the stations shall apply to the radio and television administrative department of their own level, and it shall be reported level-by-level and be subject to examination and approval by the SARFT after the radio and television administrative department of their own level report to the people's governments at the same level for approval.

Article 14. To apply for transmitting the radio and television programs of their own stations by satellites, the stations shall submit the following application materials:

(1) a written application;

(2) a feasibility report, which shall include the following elements:
1. the reasons for transmitting the radio and television programs by satellite;
2. human resources;
3. capital guarantee and sources;
4. place, equipments;
5. plan for the launching of channels and programs (including the orientation of the channels and the column designing); and
6. an operational plan;

(3) the censorship of the programs and the administrative systems;

(4) the safe transmission and broadcasting schemes, technical schemes;

(5) the approval documents of their own people's government; and

(6) the preparatory plans.

Article 15. The radio and television stations, established by the radio and television administrative departments of the sub-provincial cities or above or the authorized enterprise groups of radio, film and television (the chief station), may apply to the radio and television administrative department of their own level for establishing the substations within their own administrative divisions, and it shall be subject to the examination and approval of the SARFT after level-by-level examinations.

To establish the substations, the radio and television stations shall submit the following application materials:

(1) a written application;

(2) a feasibility report, which shall include the following elements:
1. human resources;
2. capital sources;
3. place, equipments;
4. plan for the launching of channels and programs (including the orientation of the channels and the column designing); and
5. transmission coverage, means and technical parameters; and

(3) the station name and logo and the call letters, attached with the colorful design sample of the station logo, a simple description of the originality and electronic manuscript.

Article 16. The substations, established by the radio station and the television station, shall be put on the records of the radio and television administrative departments at the locality of the stations prior to the beginning of broadcasting, and be subject to the territory administration of the radio and television administrative departments at the locality of the stations.

Article 17. All application materials submitted by the applicant shall be in quintuplicate. The radio and television administrative departments in charge of acceptance shall perform the responsibility of acceptance and examination and approval according to the terms and limit of authority prescribed in the Administrative License Law. The SARFT shall conduct the final examination and approval of the application materials. If the application of the applicant is in accordance with the statutory standards, a written decision for granting the administrative license shall be made. In case the decision of disqualification of the administrative license is made, the applicant shall be notified in written form and given the reasons.

Article 18. The SARFT shall issue Permit of the Radio and Television Broadcasting Institutions to the radio and television stations established upon authorization, and simultaneously issue a Permit of the Radio and Television Channels to each set of the radio and television programs launched by authorization.

The term of validity of the permit shall be three years, and be calculated from the date of issuing. If it needs to continue its operations when the term expires, the application shall be put forward in accordance with the prescriptions of Articles 6, 7, and 8 of the Present Measures 180 days before of the expiration of the term of validity, and the permit shall be changed for issuance after the approval through level-by-level examination.

Permit of the Radio and Television Broadcasting Institutions and Permit of the Radio and Television Channels shall be uniformly printed and changed for issuance by the SARFT.

Article 19. In case a radio and television station is terminated, it shall fully expound the reasons, and be reported level-by-level to the SARFT for examination and approval in accordance with the former establishment examination and approval procedures, and the Permit of Radio and Television Broadcasting Institution and Permit of the Radio and Television Channels thereof shall be taken back by the SARFT.

Article 20. The radio and television stations shall produce and broadcast the programs according to the setup subjects, the station names, the call letters, the station logos, the range of programs, the established number of programs, the transmission coverage and means, and technical parameters.

Article 21. In case a radio and television stations suspends its broadcasting temporarily due to special reasons, it shall be subject to approval by the radio and television administrative department at the provincial level or above. In case the radio and television station suspends broadcasting for more than consecutively 30 days without authorization or fails to resume broadcasting for more than 180 days calculated from the approval day of the SARFT, it shall be regarded as being terminated.

Article 22. The channels of the radio stations or television stations may be divided into the public welfare and commercial channels. It is allowed for the two types of channels to be properly separated in structural setup, and adopt the corresponding organization and management ways and operation means according to their respective features and aims. The special administrative measures shall be enacted separately.

Article 23. The radio and television stations can trans-regionally and jointly run the radio and television channels or columns set up upon authorization.

Article 24. In case a radio and television channel or column is jointly run, the radio and television station thereof shall apply to the radio and television administrative departments of it own level, and it shall be subject to the examination and approval of the SARFT after the level-by-level examination and approval.

To jointly run the radio and television channels or columns, the radio and television stations shall submit the following application materials:

(1) a written application;

(2) a feasibility report, which shall include the following elements:
1. the reasons for the joint operation of the radio and television channels or columns;
2. human resources;
3. capital guarantee and sources;
4. place, equipments;
5. resources of the programs and a plan for the programs;
6. transmission coverage, means and technical parameters; and
7. an operational plan; and

(3) a cooperative contract.

Article 25. No radio station or television station at the county level may establish any television channel by itself. However, the local news and the special topics of economy, science and technology, legality, agriculture, and important activities, programs of entertainment with local characteristics, and advertisements produced by them may be inserted in the time intervals of the public channels within the administrative divisions of its own province, autonomous region, and municipality directly under the Central Government.

Article 26. The administration of the examination and approval of pay channels of the radio and television stations shall be carried out in accordance with the related prescriptions of the SARFT.

Article 27. The technical schemes, safe transmission and broadcasting schemes, transmission coverage, means and technical parameters declared by the radio station or the television station shall tally with the related prescriptions of the SARFT.

Article 28. Punishment shall be imposed on any violation of the present Measures pursuant to Regulation on the Administration of the Radio and Television.

Article 29. The present Measures shall come into force as of September 20, 2004. The Measures for the Administration of Examination and Approval of Establishing Radio and Television Stations (Order No.19 of the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television) of the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television shall be repealed simultaneously.