VietNamNet Bridge – Tighter management of pay-TV programmes is necessary because several foreign channels are carrying content not compatible with Vietnamese culture and some are dealing with sensitive foreign affairs issues.

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Do Quy Doan made this comment in an opening speech delivered on Friday, Nov 16, at a conference in HCM City.

The conference was held in the wake of new regulations that took effect on Tuesday, November 13. The regulations specifically target the operations of pay-TV service providers, delineating what they can and cannot do.

Most importantly, they are not allowed to produce content, which is the exclusive preserve of mass media organisations.

At present, there are four types of pay-TV services: digital terrestrial; digital satellite; digital/analog cable; and internet protocol television (IPTV) with 62 local and 25 foreign channels serving 4.4 million subscribers nationwide.

"The regulations state clearly that infrastructure for pay-TV is the responsibility of the telecommunications industry; mass media organisations are in charge of producing content; and providing them to the public will be the task of cable TV service providers," said Luu Vu Hai, head of the Ministry's Television, Broadcast and Electronic Information Management Department.

"This means that television and broadcasting stations are only allowed to produce content and not provide other services, while cable TV service providers are prohibited from producing content," he explained.

With the new regulations, the number of companies providing pay-TV services is expected to reduce from the current 47, with survivors likely to have strong financial, technological and human resources.

"The management of content in foreign channels was loose in the past due to poor technology and limited personnel, but the situation has improved with the ministry granting licences to the Vietnam News Agency's VNews and Viet Nam Television (VTV) to translate and edit content of 16 channels," Hai said.

He suggested that the ministry should carefully consider and renew licences only for companies that have the required ability and resources to perform their tasks well.

VNews and VTV will be responsible for content and translation into Vietnamese and will also collect revenues from advertisements run on foreign channels. In the past, Viet Nam has not been able to collect taxes on these advertisements.

"TV programme production units should share copyrights with each other and avoid the situation of many units asking for permission to produce similar programmes," Hai said.

The regulation also stipulates that only foreigners are allowed to watch foreign programmes from satellite TV directly, and that hotels should have the equipment to arrange this.

Another stipulation is that a complete switch from analog to digital cable is made nationwide by 2020, with Ha Noi and HCM City having an earlier deadline of 2015.

Responding to the 2015 deadline, a representative of HCM City's Information and Communications Department said that the city would need around VND1 trillion (almost US$50 million) to enable the analog-to-digital switch for 1.2 million subscribers.

"It would be very hard for us to do even if the deadline is moved to 2020," the representative said.

"We would like to set up a Copyright Centre to represent our members in negotiating with foreign partners as well as make internal transactions," said Tran Van Uy, vice chairman of the Pay-TV Association.

Pham Tung Lam, head of the Foreign Television Programme Editing department for VNews suggested that the ministry increase the number of foreign channels that can be broadcast in the country to serve different viewer groups. The current number is 25.

VietNamNet/VNS