VietNamNet Bridge – Enterprises dare not make set top boxes (STBs) in large quantity to serve the national TV digitalization program, because they have no information about the demand.

The market worth $350 million

The Radio Frequency Department under the Ministry of Information and Communication has estimated that about 10 million families would need STB to watch digital terrestrial TV nationwide, including 2.8 million of poor families (14 percent) which would be given free STBs.

Analysts have noted that the TV digitalization would create a vast market in Vietnam, a delicate cake that everyone would covet. Supposed that the average sale price is $35 per STB, the market would be worth $350 million at least. The actual figure would be higher, because the families with many TVs would need more than one STB.

The Ministry of Information and Communication ha set up the technical standards on STB, to which enterprises would refer when manufacturing or importing products.

The watchdog agency has also promised to grant tax and investment incentives to the enterprises that make STBs for the national program as high technology firms. The STB imports would be exempted from tax.

According to Doan Quang Hoan, Head of the Radio Frequency Department, the State aims to form up an STB market which has high quality and can ensure the “fair play” principle among the manufacturers. An STB must be able to receive the state’s 73 indispensable TV channels.

Manufacturers have got ready

Experts have affirmed that the Vietnamese STB manufacturers have got ready and capable enough to make STBs in accordance with the technique standards set up by the watchdog agency. It is estimated that that sale price would be $35 for DVB-T2 and $38 for DVB-S2.

Ta Quang Son, General Director of Hanel, said Hanel has successfully made the DVB-T2 standard STB which have high quality and reasonable prices. The manufacturer can churn out at least 500,000 products a year and 5 million at maximum.

Son also said that Hanel has got ready to launch products into the market, while it is able to provide products just 45 days after taking orders.

Nguyen Hoang Phong from Vsystem has also said the company can provide two kinds of products to the Vietnamese market. He affirmed that with the sale price of $35, it is quite within the reach of the Vietnamese enterprises to make STBs for the national TV digitalization market.

The representative from VTV Broadcom has affirmed that it would be able to provide 1 million products by 2015 and 10 million products by 2020.

Waiting for the State’s orders

Though manufacturers all have affirmed the capability of making STBs to serve the national TV digitalization program, they still dare not make products in large quantity.

The representative from VTV Broadcom said that in the first phase of the program implementation, the urban market would be very small, because a lot of urban families now use pay-TV already. This makes the manufacturers reluctant to go ahead with the production plan.

“If the State does not place orders and be responsible for the outlet, we would not dare to make products in quantities,” said Phong.

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