This paper employs an econometric approach with panel data of different provinces in China from 2008 to 2019 to explore the relationship between copyright protection and radio and television industry performance, and analyze the underlying mechanism of this relationship. Results find that, for the entire country, copyright protection’s effect on radio and television industry income is U-shaped. When less than the critical point, copyright protection has a negative effect; while higher than the critical point, it has a positive effect. For radio and television production time, copyright protection has no significant effect on the production motivation of radio and television organizations and their workers, causing it has little impact on radio and television production time. In terms of different regions, copyright protection has a U-shaped effect on radio and television industry income and an inverted U-shaped effect on production time in developed area, while having little effect in developing area.