China's first ever regulation on karaoke programming, which set technical standards for all songs used in the karaoke industry, has gone into effect.

The regulation, issued by the Ministry of Culture, says all karaoke programs should be audio and video products which have already been published on the Chinese mainland or been previously aired by TV stations on the Chinese mainland. If not, they should be examined by related administrative authorities beforehand.

"It is the country's first regulation on karaoke programming standards," said Liu Shifa, spokesman with the Cultural Market Development Center under the Ministry of Culture. "It will promote the program quality of the country's karaoke industry."

The regulation also requires each karaoke program to be labeled with "for use on the Chinese mainland only".

A charging system of karaoke program royalties were put into use earlier this year in eight pilot provinces including Sichuan, He'nan, Yunnan, Hu'nan, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The system, designed to monitor and charge for the karaoke programs, is expected to be launched across the country in 2008.

The country's current charging standard is 12 yuan (1.6 U.S. dollars) per room every day, according to a regulation set by China's National Copyright Administration (NCA) late last year.

The NCA said the fee, 0.17 yuan per song on average, accounted for only one percent of karaoke bar turnover according to their investigations in a couple of cities, and was relatively low compared with that in many other countries.

Karaoke operators in the country have enjoyed free access to songs and MTVs without paying royalties for more than 20 years.

It is estimated that China's nearly 100,000 karaoke establishments -- each with an average of ten karaoke rooms -- generate almost one billion yuan of turnover every year.

The country is also working on specific regulations for collecting royalties from television, radio stations for using music works that had long been used for free, though when it will be publicized has not yet been decided.

(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2007)