VietNamNet Bridge - In the 1980s and 1990s, the popular sight in both rural and urban areas was rooftop TV antennas. But the number of urban families still using this equipment to receive over-the-air TV broadcasts on a handful of channels has dipped considerably. Most households in major cities and provinces have subscribed to cable and satellite TV services, especially of SCTV, HTVC, VTC and most recently K Plus.

Over the years the number of pay TV channels has taken a quantum leap, from a few dozens to around 100 at the moment. Take VTC that now has 100 channels and SCTV 97 channels for example. There is little sign that the figure will stay there while the market remains small, with around 2.5 million individual, household and institutional subscribers nationwide.

A few standard channels, particularly those under license from international networks like CNN, BBC, CNBC, TV5, DW, NHK, Channel News Asia, Cartoon Network, Disney, HBO, Star Movies, Cinemax and ESPN, have attracted large audiences but most others that are produced locally have been competing hard for viewers.

For any TV channels, their lifeblood is ad revenue. However, the struggling channels find it hard to lure advertisers due to low ratings. To survive, they are ready to grasp any type of advertiser by offering dirt-cheap ad rates which a local newspaper puts at VND2.5 million (about US$120 at current exchange rate) for three spots a day, with each spot lasting 10 minutes and advertising a maximum of five products.

Pay television has thereby become an excellent avenue for dishonest vendors to promote their fake or smuggled goods as the best. So the obvious result is many uninformed viewer buyers have fallen victim to those bogus vendors.

Local print and online media has in recent weeks been up in arms about the unchecked advertising of substandard goods on a number of pay TV channels in the wake of two companies being found last month to be selling counterfeit goods or those of lower-than-claimed quality.

In the middle of last month the HCMC government fined Happy Shopping VND451.5 million for selling bootleg products, trading in unregistered cosmetics and imported goods with no additional labels in Vietnamese, and employing foreign staff without prior permission from authorities.

In addition to the financial penalty, the company had all its goods without documentation confiscated, including 13,900 cosmetic, kitchen and jewelry items, while 594 Kitchen King Pro veggie cutters, battery-operated Swivel Sweepers, and sets of Contour Pro Knives were abrogated because they bore the brand “As on seen TV” which had been registered for protection in Vietnam by Best Buy, according to Thanh Nien newspaper.

Late last month another company, Viet An, was also found to own a number of products, such as home appliances, pillows, electric blenders and multipurpose ovens, bearing the Best Buy-registered brand “As seen on TV”, which had been boisterously advertised on pay TV channels.

Advertising of such fake and smuggled products is a glaring indication of TV network operators’ sheer disregard of their viewers’ interests. What’s more irritating is goods vendors can easily cook up hypes to persuade little-informed TV viewers into buying items with origin different from what is asserted and with quality far lower than claimed.

Advertisers claim their products originate in America, Germany and other Western countries but their actual origin is mainly China, says a report by Sai Gon Dau Tu published by Sai Gon Giai Phong newpaper.

Believe it or not, their ads claim medicinal foods could help cure multiple illnesses, their “miracle” bras could help increase breast size even after they are taken off, and their cosmetics could help whiten skin and remove scars in a flash.

Those apparent exaggerations that have gone unchecked for a long time are a cause for concern. They would have spelled more trouble for the communities if the Happy Shopping and Viet An cases had not been brought to light.

The lack of a sense of responsibility on the part of bogus products sellers is nothing to argue about. But how about the TV network owners that have sold airtime or even leased out certain channels to outsiders though they are owned by the State?

Lawyer Ngo Quang Thuy is quoted by Tuoi Tre as saying that the TV networks concerned are seen as a third party and should be indirectly held responsible for whatever inaccurate or insufficient information is provided on their channels. This responsibility is clearly specified in the law on protection of consumers, which took effect in early July this year. The ordinance on advertising also requires media to ask the advertiser to supply correct information about the content of an ad and to compensate for any damage caused. This clearly shows the TV networks that sold advertising spots to Happy Shopping and Viet An must have taken the blame.

The nation’s radio, television and Internet authority has begun intervening. Dao Kim Phu, chief of the southern office of the authority, has made clear on local media that all those TV stations involved should be strictly dealt with.

TV stations are not at all banned from selling advertising spots to their customers to generate revenue but consumer interests cannot take a back seat to commercial self-interestedness, said Phu.

Source: SGT