Get an online cultural business license to run live streams; a private company basically cannot get the permit for audiovisual programs

To run live streams or game commentary, you need an online cultural business license issued by the provincial culture department, and the business scope has to state online performance. You get a result within 20 days after acceptance, and the license covers 3 years. You have to keep videos you have already streamed for a full 60 days. If you open without the license, you are told to stop and given a warning, and then fined up to 30000 yuan. If you do not stop, you go on a blacklist.

Cost

The online cultural business license, commonly called the network-culture license (网文证), governs whether you may make money from online performances such as live streams and game commentary. A provincial culture department approves it. You get a result within 20 days after the application is accepted. It is valid for 3 years, and you go to renew it in the 30 days before it expires. The audiovisual-program permit governs whether you may put programs online. It requires the applicant to be a wholly state-owned unit or a state-controlled unit.

Benefit

A unit that does online performance has to get the license first. The regulation says it "shall, under the Interim Provisions on the Administration of Internet Culture, apply to the provincial culture department for an Online Cultural Business License, and the business scope of the license shall expressly include online performance." Playing a game for people to watch, or explaining it to them, is handled under the same set of rules. The regulation says it is "administered by reference to these measures." Video records of all online performances "shall be kept for no less than 60 days." You keep videos you have streamed for a full 60 days yourself. Doing commercial internet cultural activities without approval brings an order to stop, a warning, and a fine of up to 30000 yuan. If you are told to stop and you still do not, you are put on the cultural-market blacklist. Putting programs online is a different permit. You "shall obtain a Permit for Disseminating Audiovisual Programs over Information Networks." The applicant must "have the status of a legal person, and be a wholly state-owned or state-controlled unit." It has to be a unit wholly owned by the state or controlled by the state. A private company basically cannot get it. Doing it without this permit brings a warning and an order to correct, and a fine of up to 30000 yuan may be added. In a serious case, the penalty follows the regulations on radio and television administration (nationwide).

Notes

Which business goes with which permit is clearest in the document from the 7 departments. A platform that makes money from live streams needs the online cultural business license plus ICP filing. ICP filing is the step of registering the website with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Putting programs online needs the audiovisual permit, or completed registration. Publishing news needs an internet news information service license. Also, the Interim Provisions on the Administration of Internet Culture reposted on the Chinese government website in 2025 is the unrevised text from 2011. A citation should follow the current text of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Sources · 4

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