Original title: 40% red line!
The star's sky-high remuneration will welcome strong supervision again; the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television: prohibit illegal and immoral artists from appearing in TV dramas
The sky-high remuneration of celebrities has become a difficult problem in the entertainment industry in recent years.
It has also become a strong desire of the public to control the excessive pay of celebrities.
On February 10, the website of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television published a notice on printing and distributing the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Chinese TV Dramas".
It mentioned that the order of income distribution, including actors' remuneration, should be standardized, and the use of standardized, institutionalized, and unified film remuneration and other labor contracts should be promoted.
The notice emphasizes the need to continuously optimize the market environment.
Improve the pre-event, in-event, and post-event whole-chain and whole-process supervision mechanism, seriously deal with actors and related institutions that violate laws and regulations such as tax evasion, "yin-yang contracts", and "high-priced film remuneration", and prohibit illegal and immoral artists from appearing in TV dramas.
Standardize the order of income distribution including actor remuneration
In recent years, the discussion of actors' remuneration has always been a hot topic in society, but it has never been completely controlled.
At the beginning of this year, actor Zheng Shuang caused heated discussions because of the surrogacy incident, and his sky-high remuneration was also exposed.
According to the news, Zheng Shuang's previous filming of the TV series "A Chinese Ghost Story" (renamed "Only Ask for Love in this Life") was as high as 160 million yuan.
In order to avoid the "salary limit order" policy, Zheng Shuangfang prepared a total of 4 contracts.
Zheng Shuang paid the corresponding price.
A few days ago, the First Inspection Bureau of the Shanghai Municipal Taxation Bureau has found that Zheng Shuang failed to declare personal income of 191 million yuan according to law from 2019 to 2020, evaded taxes of 45.2696 million yuan, and underpaid other taxes of 26.5207 million yuan, and made a claim against Zheng Shuang according to law. A total of 299 million yuan in taxes, late payment fines and fines were imposed.
In view of this, the website of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television published a notice on the issuance of the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Chinese TV Dramas" on February 10, and once again made clear regulations on the sky-high remuneration.
The notice stated that it is necessary to standardize the order of the TV drama market.
Promote fair competition in the TV drama market, resolutely oppose vicious competition, unfair competition and market monopoly behavior, prevent the disorderly expansion of capital, encourage healthy interaction between capital and industry, and guide capital to serve the high-quality development of TV dramas.
Strengthen the protection of the entire chain of intellectual property rights in the field of TV dramas, and enhance the industry's awareness of respecting and protecting intellectual property rights.
Strengthen the construction of the TV drama market credit system, and improve the cross-industry and cross-department credit joint punishment mechanism in accordance with laws and regulations.
Guide TV drama production institutions to scientifically and rationally arrange the production cost structure, and strengthen cost management and income accounting.
The notice requires that the order of income distribution, including actors' remuneration, be standardized, and the use of standardized, institutionalized, and unified film remuneration and other labor contracts should be promoted.
Strengthen the application and promotion of China's audio-visual big data (CVB), standardize the survey and release order of TV viewing data, solve outstanding problems in TV viewing surveys, and promote the organic combination of data statistical investigation and analysis and TV drama comprehensive evaluation mechanisms.
The notice emphasizes the need to continuously optimize the market environment.
Improve the pre-event, in-event, and post-event whole-chain and whole-process supervision mechanism, seriously deal with actors and related institutions that violate laws and regulations such as tax evasion, "yin-yang contracts", and "high-priced film remuneration", and prohibit illegal and immoral artists from appearing in TV dramas.
The notice stated that it is necessary to standardize the management of market entities such as brokers and brokerage companies in the TV drama industry.
Innovate supervision means and mechanisms, promote the modernization of supervision capabilities, optimize market services, strengthen the supply of TV drama market information and the guidance of creative business activities, and carry out the work of informing and commitment of creative production.
Continue to regulate sky-high pay
Since 2015, hot money has poured into the film and television industry, and the industry has risen for a while, and stars have frequently been exposed to "astronomical pay."
At that time, many traffic stars were paid between 80 million yuan and 120 million yuan for a movie.
Many people in the industry believe that behind the high pay is actually the impetuous performance of the entire film and television production industry.
In recent years, both relevant national regulatory authorities and industry regulators have been constantly formulating clear "prescriptions" for the issue of stars' high pay.
As early as 2017, the Television Production Committee of the China Federation of Radio, Film and Television Social Organizations jointly issued the "Opinions on the Cost Allocation Proportion of TV Dramas and Online Dramas", which pointed out that all member units and film and television production institutions should limit the ratio of actors' remuneration to Within a reasonable production cost range, the total remuneration of all actors shall not exceed 40% of the total production cost. Among them, the main actors shall not exceed 70% of the total remuneration, and other actors shall not be less than 30% of the total remuneration.
In August 2018, the three major video sites Youku, iQiyi, and Tencent Video and the six major production companies issued a "statement" stating that they would jointly resist the phenomenon of "astronomical" remuneration for artists, and try to implement a single actor's single-episode remuneration (tax included) The specific pricing rules are not more than 1 million yuan, and the total remuneration (including tax) does not exceed 50 million yuan.
In April 2020, the China TV Drama Production Industry Association released the "Proposal".
It stipulates that the remuneration of the screenwriter, director and leading male and female lead actors of a TV series or online drama shall not exceed 10% of the production cost, and the remuneration of all actors shall not exceed 40% of the production cost.
In September last year, the General Office of the State Administration of Radio and Television issued a notice on further strengthening the management of literary and artistic programs and their personnel: resolutely resist those who violate the law; resolutely oppose only the theory of flow; resolutely resist high-priced remuneration.
In terms of remuneration, the notice requires strict implementation of the remuneration regulations for actors and guests, and a strict notification and commitment system for remuneration management.
Advocate and encourage actors and guests to take social responsibilities and participate in public welfare programs.
Severely punish illegal remuneration, "yin and yang contracts", and tax evasion.
In September of the same year, the official WeChat account of the Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau also released a tweet titled "Beijing Radio and Television Bureau Takes Multiple Measures to Strengthen the Management of the TV Drama Industry", proposing to resolutely and effectively tackle prominent issues such as sky-high remuneration, "yin-yang contracts", and tax evasion.
Specifically, there are four management items, the first two of which are directly related to actors' remuneration.
The first is to compress and consolidate the main responsibility, and strictly implement the notification and commitment system.
Among them, it is necessary to inform the production agency of the relevant regulations and risks in the TV drama creation and filming and production stages, including the relevant regulations such as filing and project approval, change management, production and filming, content creation, film review and film remuneration management, etc. Legal liability for violations of laws and regulations such as “contract” and tax evasion.
The second is to implement the cost allocation ratio requirements of actors, and effectively strengthen the allocation cost review.
First, check whether the submitted materials such as the actor cost allocation ratio and the main actor's remuneration contract are complete; secondly, check whether the remuneration ratio complies with the management regulations, and if it does not meet the requirements, it will not enter the content review stage.
(Author: Kang Yin)