More TV entertaining programs are being made by the private sector as the socialisation policies take hold.
After a hard day’s work at an industrial park, Mr Nguyen Van Bang returns home and straight away sits in front of his TV. As a labourer for around 30 years, with a low standard of living, the 50-year-old has not too much opportunity to enjoy other modern forms of entertainment after work and on the weekends. For him, watching TV is the sole means of relaxation.
Mr Bang is now much happier, as his relaxation options have diversified. Besides popular channels like VTV1, VTV2, and VTV3, he has just had cable TV connected, for a monthly fee of around $3.50, and has many more choices of channels. “My favourite is the news on VTV1 and I haven’t missed it for a long time,” he said. “I don’t have much information about the economy and society, except for what I see on TV, especially on the news. A new world opened up to me when I could afford cable TV and its many more channels, from economics and society to music, films, shopping and so on. Not only me, but my wife, who is a farmer, can also enjoy more. She can now watch more films and shopping programs at night.”
The boom in TV programs and channels provides a more meaningful life for many people like Mr Bang. With more and more people having TVs or even access to pay TV like cable or digital, the increasing number of channels adds much needed supply.
Private participation
According to Ms Nguyen Minh Phuong, Director of Motion Media, which produces TV programs such as Green Journey, Thang Long’s masterpiece, Market 24h and Traffic Safety, demand for better quality and quantity of TV programs has created space for private companies like hers to join the TV industry.
“Although the number of companies producing TV programs hasn’t been fully counted, more and more advertising and media firms consider it to be very good business, especially when the State promotes commercialisation in the field,” she said. “In fact, Vietnam has too many television stations, as every province has one of their own. In addition to the two biggest stations - Hanoi Television and Ho Chi Minh City Television - there are more and more stations to be developed. The large number gives rise to a need for TV programs and this opens the way for private companies to participate.
Recently, when many stations increased their broadcasting time and had higher viewer numbers, who don’t just want to see simple programs like in the past, there are more and more programs like films and game shows being developed. Many companies are now confident about their professionalism in making TV programs, rather than simply, like before, buying foreign programs and broadcasting them domestically.”
Profit is the simple answer in explaining the increasing number of private companies producing TV programs, according to Ms Nguyen Hong Mai, General Director of Ocean Media, which produces the economic channel InfoTV as well as TVShopping. “Private companies can invest in the sector and earn large profits,” she said.
Normally TV programs are made by private companies by either buying foreign copyrights or writing the format themselves, in exchange for advertising revenue. All costs are borne by these companies. So although production companies are free to choose program content, a TV program needs to be attractive to audiences in order to lure advertisers. But broadcasters - majorly TV stations - must be responsible for these programs’ content legally before being aired. The most popular are films, documentaries, and game shows, or even creating a totally new channel featuring films, music, financial information, shopping, investment and so on.
Ms Phuong predicts even more private companies will join the field in the future. “It’s the same with the development of global television,” she said. “In addition to programs broadcast on popular channels, on many other channels the State has given full rights to produce programs, like VTC, the Lasta company’s VTC9 and Media Corp’s VTC7.”
Because of their experience, expertise and knowledge, media and advertising companies have the opportunity to do good business in the industry. As a media company with business activities ranging from branding, media, program production, events and advertisement to investment, PSC Media Company’s major revenue still comes mostly from program production. According to Mr Nguyen Anh Tuan, the company’s director, although it’s just one of many business activities, program production accounts for 60-65 per cent of the company income, and he estimates that this figure for 2009 may increase to 70 per cent.
So far PSC Media has produced around 20 TV programs, broadcast on several channels such as VTV1, VTV9, and HTV. “TV programs help to earn high revenue for the company as they relate to many other activities like advertising sales and events,” he said. “Besides profits from program production, our company can make also money from advertising. Normally, companies who want to advertise on TV don’t go directly to a TV station, but instead work with media companies like us. TV stations will discount a lower percentage on a single advertisement compared to our discount, because we are selling all of the advertising for a TV channel. We can, therefore, also help them with scheduling and provide them with the best services possible."
According to Ms Phuong, thanks to favourable mechanisms there are numerous companies now involved in the industry. Every sector, however, has competition, good and bad, and she believes that TV program producers must cooperate in their business activities with many partners, even foreign partners. There may be several partners cooperating in just one program, sharing the advertising and so on.
Important State role
Although commercial TV production is a good business, Ms Phuong said, smaller companies are still recording losses or earning small profits. The television industry is closely connected to the general market. When the economy shows signs of slowing down, revenue from advertising falls and directly affects the business activities of companies in the field.
The socialisation of television has been happening for many years, with numerous TV programs being made by the private sector. Although they have increased significantly in terms of quantity, State television still plays a vital role. Media companies like PSC Media, for example, which now produce dozens of programs, can only broadcast for about one hour a week while the trend for TV channels now is 24 hours a day broadcasting. According to Mr Tuan, private TV production companies now cover no more than 30 per cent of broadcasting time, with the remainder being broadcast by State TV.
Cost is the biggest reason. “To produce a weekly game show, the cost is relatively high, standing at several hundred thousand dollars,” said Mr Tuan. “More complex programs will, therefore, be more expensive. A company, however big it is, can not afford to produce so many programs at once, to say nothing about the amount they have to spend on setting up basic infrastructure like a studio, TV equipment and so on, which can cost millions of dollars. It’s far different from State TV, with their good infrastructure and support from the State budget.