VietNamNet Bridge - The massive landing of Indian TV soap operas on Vietnam’s television channels has worried many people.

A scene from Indian series "Bride War".

According to statistics of HCM City Television (HTV), the ratio of Vietnamese and foreign television soap operas aired on local channels in 2014 was equal, with 30 Vietnamese and 30 foreign films. In the first 6 months of 2015, the rate was 15 Vietnamese series and 13 foreign series.

On channels of national television VTV, the rate is either equal or the number of foreign series is a little higher. However, the primetime for the two kinds is similar. Vietnamese series usually have 30 to 40 episodes while foreign series have hundreds of episodes. Particularly, Indian soap operas are 100 to more than 2,000 episodes.

In fact, most of the private studios or media companies said that in recent years they have shifted to buy foreign soap operas, especially those of Thailand and India, instead of producing Vietnamese series. The reason is the ratings of foreign films (especially the Indian films) are 3-5 times higher than that of Vietnamese films. This helps them to get more advertising contracts.

Vietnamese television broadcasters pay for films by revenues from advertising. Therefore, when Indian soap operas attract audiences, ie advertising, Indian films flood all channels.

A film importer revealed that it has to pay from US$1,500-$2,000 for an episode of Indian soap operas. The rate is only behind that for South Korean dramas.

Notably, Indian films in particular and foreign films in general have changed the Vietnamese audience’s habits. Many housewives are ready to stay at home to watch the Indian series "8-year-old bride" instead of going to the market as usual. Or they abandon others to sit in front of the television set to watch "My wife is a police officer" at 8pm every day. It is very common to see groups of women chatting about characters and details in Indian series. As they love Indian films, Indian actors were warmly welcomed in Vietnam.

In recent years, the Vietnamese audience has experienced different kinds of films coming from Asian countries with a developed film industry such as China, South Korea and most recently India, Thailand, and the Philippines. Based on this fact, if this situation continues, will Vietnamese movies will be inferior on the home market?

Thanh Van