Aug. 13 (NBD) -- Chinese top video streaming websites iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video, along with six film and TV production companies including New Classics Media and Ciwen Media, made a joint announcement Saturday to set a payment cap for actors.

According to the statement, actors can get paid no more than 1 million yuan (145,711.0 U.S. dollars) for one TV series episode and a total of 50 million yuan (7.3 million U.S. dollars) at most for an entire TV series.

The Hengdian Film and TV Industry Association, which has over 400 company members, also released an announcement Sunday calling for reasonable celebrity pay and fighting against illegal acts.

The statements follow an order published in late June by several national-level government bodies, including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Taxation and the China Film Administration, which urges departments concerned to tighten the regulations on the film and TV industry and crack down on illegal activities such as tax evasion.

The order is in response to the heated online discussions about celebrity pay. In May this year, Cui Yongyuan, a former CCTV anchor, posted on his Weibo account photos of a contract for a four-day shoot involving Fan Bingbing, a famous Chinese actress, revealing that Fan might have evaded paying tax by signing two separate privately-signed agreements for a single job, with one stating the real amount to be paid and one showing a much lower payment.

Following that, the tax authority in East China's Jiangsu Province carried out an investigation into the case.

The celebrity pay has become the majority part of the cost for TV series and films since 2016. An industry insider noted that the salary for A-list and B-list actors increased by about 250 percent in 2016. Besides, data shows that the financial remuneration for some domestic actors even takes up 50-80 percent of the total cost for a TV series.

Actually, to deal with "sky-high payment", five Chinese authorities made a statement in September last year, specifying the cap of actors' payment. The cost for actors or guests should account for no more than 40 percent of the total cost for a film, TV series or online program, while lead actors cannot be paid more than 70 percent of the total cast pay. 

However, the impact that the newly published announcements have on the industry remains unclear. Some industry insiders also pointed out that TV and film production companies may offer actors additional payments, such as equity interest or property. 

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn