VietNamNet Bridge – Set top box (STB) manufacturers said they would only make products to the State’s order under the national TV digitalization plan.

According to the Information and Communication Strategic Institute, 8 million households are using pay-TV and terrestrial digital TV (DVB-T standard, broadcast by VTC). This means that the other 14.3 million households would be the subject of the national TV digitalization plan.

The State would give financial support to poor families to help them buy STBs as a part of the plan implementation. It is expected that VND1.7 trillion would be disbursed by 2020 for the STB program.

Vietnamese manufacturers have affirmed that they are technically capable enough and ready to make STBs which can satisfy the requirements set by the Ministry of Information and Communication.

The selling prices would be about $35 for DVB-T2 standard product and $38 for DVB-S2. The STBs can be used to receive unlocked terrestrial digital TV channels.

However, the representatives of Hanel, Digilink and VTV Broadcom all have said that they would not dare to make products in large quantities to sell in the market, because Vietnamese products are obviously less competitive than Chinese ones in terms of prices.

Therefore, they would be better to make products to the State’s orders, i.e. that the State would be responsible for the consumption of the products.

They said that if the State places orders with manufacturers and then gives STBs to the poor households, this would benefit all the involved parties. STB manufacturers can be sure about the sale, while the State can buy STBs at reasonable prices to give to the poor. If so, the implementation of the TV digitalization plan would be completed soon.

According to Ta Quang Son, CEO of Hanel, the STBs would not be sold well in big cities, where the majority of households use pay-TV already and they don’t need STBs to be able to watch digital TV.

Meanwhile, a senior executive of VTV said STB manufacturers would face the high risk from the existence of counterfeit products. In the first phase of the TV digitalization, the STB market would be very small. Therefore, no manufacturer would dare to organize large scale STB production.

Nguyen Hoang Phong from Digilink has affirmed that no one would venture to make products if they are not sure about the market scale and about the state’s policies.

Affirming that the state plays a very important role in the TV digitalization plan, Phong said the British, French and Dutch governments also had to come forward and buy STBs to give to people for free.

While Vietnamese manufacturers are still busy negotiating with the State about the production plans, Chinese STBs have been flooding the domestic market. Chinese DVB-T2 with APH, Quisheng brands are selling at VND600,000-700,000. However, the products’ quality has not been recognized as meeting Vietnamese standards.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Tran Viet Thanh confirmed that the tax incentives offered to STB manufacturers would not help Vietnamese products become competitive with Chinese in terms of prices, but would only help compete in quality.

Kim Chi