China's National Radio and Television Administration says it will put direct financial support behind live-action drama productions. It is responding to a wave of AI-generated micro-dramas that has squeezed human actors out of work. The announcement came from Wang Xiaoliang, head of the regulator's online audio-visual programming department, at a press conference that week, 8days reported on 23 September.
The figures he gave show the scale of the shift. Around 430,000 micro-dramas came out in China from January to August, about thirteen times the total for all of last year, and more than nine in ten were made with AI. Performers have felt it directly. Some report falling fees or no bookings at all, and some license their faces to AI producers for sums reportedly as low as 100 yuan.
Wang said the regulator sees live-action work as the backbone of quality production. Besides the funding, it will keep its programme for recommended micro-dramas and push platforms to create dedicated sections for live-action titles. The rules on AI dramas are also getting stricter: they must be labelled, platforms must confirm that any likeness or voice is authorised, and since 1 September every episode must carry a prominent AI notice. This year 68,000 micro-dramas and more than 1,200 accounts have been removed or sanctioned for harmful or infringing content, most of it AI-made.
Wang granted that AI cuts costs and opens doors for creators, but said it also causes problems with quality and rights. Online reaction was split: some welcomed support for human performers, while others asked why viewers are drifting to AI dramas in the first place.
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