Following the State Authority for Regulation of Film & TV's (Sarft) decision to strongly enforce the rules, which only allow for 18 minutes of commercial minutes between 19.00 and 21.00 hours, the number of commercial minutes during this timeslot has experienced a 16 per cent decline between January and June 2004.
Fewer channels, furthermore, have violated the Sarft regulations this year; 74 violating channels were recorded compared to 129 during the first half of 2003, representing a drop of over 40 per cent.
Overall, 68 per cent of channels complied with the rules in the first half of 2004, compared to 43 per cent during the same period in 2003.
However, compared to the first three months of 2004, the number of violating channels has increased from 55 to 74 - including a sharp May increase that was ascribed to that month's holiday season.
"It's really been strongly enforced in 2004," said MindShare China's national buying and implementation director, Simon Woodward.
Woodward also pointed out that, despite the decrease in commercial minutes, there has been no corresponding increase in commercial audiences.
"You would guess that if there were shorter commercial breaks you would maintain commercial audience, but it hasn't picked up," he said. "If a lot of airtime is taken away from stations they lose their revenue source and their initial reaction was to put prices up. That said, inflation has been controlled to within reasonable levels in 2004."
The 19.00 to 21.00 timeslot accounts for 80 per cent of commercial revenue, and Woodward said the figures would allow the media agency to negotiate more effectively with TV stations.
"We focus on availibility and supply and demand," he explained. "If there is a restriction on commercial minutes, that makes our job tougher and can affect prices."
In addition, the report found that local channels constitute the bulk of violators, responsible for 38 per cent of violations.
Provincial TV stations ranked second with 21 per cent, followed by provincial satellite TV stations with 14 per cent.
"Its more Southern-based channels that seem to be violating the rules," said Woodward.
Of the seven CCTV channels, none have violated regulations in the first half of 2004, compared to two in the first half of last year.
Meanwhile, Guangdong remains the largest TV market in the country, and also saw a one per cent rise in commercial minutes.
The other four largest markets -Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Lioaning - all experienced significant reductions in airtime.