According to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), there are 35 companies providing pay-TV services with 13.8 million subscribers charged monthly.

Vietnam has five types of pay-TV services, namely cable TV, digital terrestrial television, digital satellite television, mobile television and Internet broadcasting. The number of subscribers is 10 million for cable TV, 200,000 for digital terrestrial TV, 1 million for digital satellite TV, 1 million TV for internet TV, and 480,000 for mobile TV.

In Vietnam, there are 87 domestic radio channels, 199 domestic television channels and 70 foreign television channels. MIC reported that the revenue of the pay-TV market was VND8.6 trillion in 2019.

The figure was VND4.4 trillion in H1, an increase of 5.7 percent compared with the VND4.16 trillion in the same period last year. The number of subscribers increased by 27 percent compared with the same period 2019.

According to the watchdog agency, the TV market development remains stable. However, small enterprises are facing difficulties because of Covid-19. Some may have to leave the market in the time to come as they cannot overcome the problems.

Traditional TV challenged

Nguyen Ha Yen from the Authority of Broadcasting & Electronic Information noted that many pay-TV providers are trying to provide internet TV services.

Of 35 companies licensed to provide pay-TV services, 20 are providing internet TV. This service satisfies demand for watching TV on mobile devices and the trend of personalizing content.

While the number of subscribers using traditional services is slightly decreasing, the number of internet TV subscribers is on the rise. As of August 2020, there were 30 million downloads and registrations to watch TV services provided by domestic companies.

Nguyen Chan, head of the service management division of the agency, said the rise of internet TV is reflected in the figures on revenue.

The revenue of OTT TV services increased by five times in 2017-2019. However, there still exists a gap between OTT TV with revenue of VND120 billion and traditional TV with revenue of VND8.6 trillion.

Asked about the challenges faced by pay-TV service providers, Yen mentioned piracy and the services provided across borders by foreign TV companies.

Le Dinh Cuong, deputy chair of the Vietnam Pay-TV Association, stressed that Vietnam needs to apply measures to tighten control over cross-border pay-TV services.

“The cross-border pay-TV service providers also have to pay taxes to be equal to Vietnamese TV providers,” he said, adding that a decree to replace the Decree 06 dated in 2016 will be issued soon and will help settle the problem. 

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