VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam has had three million cable TV subscribers so far, which means that less than 15 percent of households have used the services.

Service fee on the rise, users suffer

The latest report by the Ministry of Information and Communication showed that there are 40 pay-TV service providers. The pay-TV market has been controlled by the big guys, headed by VTV which possesses three brands VCTV, SCTV, K+, followed by BTS-Hanoi, HTVC-HCM City and VTC.

The Vietnam Cable TV (VCTV) now has some 1.2 million cable TV subscribers, SCTV, a joint venture between VTV and Saigontourist 1.5 million, while K+, a joint venture between VTV and French Canal Plus 40,000 satellite TV subscribers.

As such, 3 million out of the 4.5 million subscribers in Vietnam are the clients of the national television (VTV) alone. This means that VTV now holds 70 percent of the pay-TV market in Vietnam.

The big market share ratio has brought VTV some big power. It has been continuously raising the subscription fee over the last three years. In 2009, the subscription fee was VND44,000 a month, but then increased to VND65,000. The fee of VND88,000 had been applied since May 1, 2011, until one year later. On September 1, 2012, VTV decided to raise the fee to VND110,000.

As such, just within 1.5 years, VCTV increased the fee sharply by 70 percent from VND65,000 to VND110,000, while the fee has increased by three times over the last three years.

The noteworthy thing is that while cable TV service providers raise service fees continuously, their “brothers” – telecom service providers – have been decreasing their service fees continuously.

While electricity, petrol and water suppliers are required to inform clients about the price adjustments in advance and clarify the reasons, VCTV simply informs about the price increase with no explanation.

Under the Competition Law, the enterprises with dominant market positions are prohibited to conduct the behaviors such as imposing the prices of goods and services unreasonably.

Despite numerous service providers, Vietnamese remain inaccessible to pay-TV

According to Tran Minh Tuan, Deputy Head of the Information and Communication Strategy Institute, despite the high number of pay-TV service providers, many problems still exist.

Most of the service providers are small enterprises, including the ones which can only provide services within several districts and cover several thousands of subscribers.

Pham Khac Lam, former General Director of VTV, said the pay-TV market in Vietnam is crowded and in disorder.

The Vietnam’s pay-TV market has existed for the last nine years. However, the services remain unsatisfactory in both the number of subscribers and the coverage.

A lot of clients complained that while the sums of money they have to pay for TV services increase steadily, the quality has not been upgraded accordingly.

Director of the Dong Nai provincial Television--Mai Song Be, complained that local TVs have been required to pay money if they want to broadcast on cable TV channels.

“Cable TVs are ready to pay multi-million dollars to obtain the licenses for using 75 foreign TV channels and help popularize foreign culture, but would put difficulties for local TV to popularize Vietnamese culture to Vietnamese people,” he commented.

Minister of Information and Communication--Nguyen Bac Son, at a recent conference, admitted the problems in the pay-TV market, saying that some businesses have been exploiting their dominant positions to raise the service fees.

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