Resilience and Optimism Shines in Vietnam Across the Video Industry | AFN News

The Asia Video Industry Association hosted its country-focused virtual conference, Vietnam in View, on September 8, to more than 320 international and local speakers and delegates, sharing great optimism in a country that arguably turned out to be one of the most resilient economies in Southeast Asia.

The conference opened with a presentation on the state of the television and video industry in Vietnam by Vu Tu Thanh, consultant, AVIA, and deputy managing director and regional representative, US-ASEAN Business Council. Over the past 3 years, Vietnam has seen significant developments with the completion of the complete digitization of its Free to Air (FTA) infrastructure. Competition has been found to be intensifying at all levels, between telecommunications operators and pay television operators, and between domestic industry and foreign services. Coupled with the rapid development of OTT platforms, and with over 26 million television households almost all having access to television and video, it has become a very promising market for the industry. In terms of revenue share, cable is still dominant and by far the biggest revenue generator with almost US $ 300 million in 2020, up 9% from 2019. However, OTT is the biggest winner in terms of subscriptions and revenue growth. Debate continues on the need and direction for regulation in the OTT sector, and it was believed that simplicity of licensing and censorship would be key, as well as registration and payment of cross-border taxes. .

Nguyen Hanh, president of Q.net, shared similar sentiments during her panel on the future of television. Hanh estimated that the industry as a whole is converging on streaming as the dominant business model, although the bulk of revenue still comes from pay TV, and FTA is by far the leader in local content. And content is what ultimately matters, with delivery and device simply being the method by which content is consumed. John Huddle, Director, Market Development, Asia, SES, also believes the industry must pivot and shift to a hybrid service and pay-TV operators who innovate will continue to be successful. “There is also room for consolidation and partnerships as a path for future growth,” added Huddle.

This innovation is certainly the key for pay TV platforms to reinvent themselves to take advantage of this explosive demand for content. Pham Thanh Phuong, vice director of the value-added service center, Viettel Telecom, said that the pay-TV platforms compete not only in terms of content, but also infrastructure and technology, to offer a better customer experience. This use of technology to deliver the best customer experience with the best content is the driving force behind Galaxy Play’s strategy, explained CFO Harini Gopalakrishnan. “If you deliver the right content with a great customer experience, users will pay,” Gopalakrishnan said.

However, with this increased consumption of content comes another major challenge in Vietnam, which is the pervasiveness of piracy, with Vietnam ranking almost No.1 in Asia. Mark Mulready, Vice President – Cyber ​​Services, Irdeto, said the hacking ecosystem is thriving and with entrenched hacking trends visible, education is a critical part of any anti-hacking strategy. piracy. But there has been substantial progress over the past 12 months, added Sean Godfrey, Senior Business Lawyer (APAC), Premier League, with the fledgling site blockage having had a relatively large impact. There is also a lot to learn from other successful strategies in the region, such as Indonesia.

Ultimately, while content is king, as market operators become more interdependent, there is also a greater sense of mutual accountability when it comes to taking content risks. , with a need to share across the spectrum, both for investment and recovery. . Summarizing this sentiment, Celeste Campbell-Pitt, Director of Policy at AVIA, said, “The more we can reduce the risk of a production, the better. Collaboration is the key to the prosperity of our industry.

Vietnam In View is generously supported by our presenting sponsor TV5MONDE and our sponsors Brightcove, Magnite, SES and YouTube.