HCMC - Local broadcasters, who have not hold the exclusive broadcasting rights of the English Premier League (EPL) in Vietnam, will stop airing EPL Sunday matches, Luu Vu Hai, chief of MoIC’s Radio, Television, and Electronic Information Department had concluded after its meeting with K+ channel and MP & Silva last week.
On behalf of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC), Hai has certified that MP & Silva distributed the exclusive broadcasting rights to EPL Sunday matches in Vietnam for only VSTV, which owns K+ channel.
MP & Silva asked to meet with the MoIC to prove its exclusive broadcasting rights of EPL matches in Vietnam. In the meeting on August 26, the Ministry of Information and Communications confirmed that K+ channel holds the exclusive broadcasting rights to Sunday matches of the EPL in Vietnam.
The Ministry of Information and Communications will announce an official statement to local broadcasters as well as Thailand’s True Sport channel to stop airing EPL Sunday matches in Vietnam soon. Though True Sport is licensed in Vietnam, but they have to obey copyright rules. MoIC will ask local broadcasters to not take EPL Sunday matches from True Sport, Hai explained.
MP & Silva’s representative Beatrice Lee said that her company was satisfied with the meeting’s result and pleased with local state agencies in their intervention in the copyrights law violation. MP & Silva are glad if K+ reaches agreements to share Sunday matches with other broadcasters, she said.
Beatrice Lee said her company is willing to distribute these matches as well as Liga or Serie A with other channels in Vietnam, but K+ bought the exclusive rights to air these matches.
In Vietnam, MP & Silva distributed broadcasting rights of Saturday and Monday matches to several channels. However, the Hanoi Cable Television (HCTV) channel and some provincial channels still air live Sunday matches from Thailand’s True Sport channel.
HCTV stated it will stop airing Sunday matches once K+ and MP & Silva prove their exclusive rights in Vietnam or prevent True Sport from airing Sunday matches in Vietnam.
K+ won a contract for a three-year exclusive right to broadcast the world’s most popular football leagues. When K+ holds the exclusive right, Vietnamese audience, though having paid for other paid TV services, will have to pay more VND1.5 million for a decoder and monthly subscription fee of VND 250,000 to K+ to see these matches.
Vietnamese TV channels that broadcast the EPL: Saturday and Monday matches on Bong Da TV and The Thao TV (Vietnam Cable Television – VCTV), VTC-HD (VTC), HTV2 (HCMC Television), SCTV15 (Saigon Tourist Cable TV), K+ (VSTV) and H1 and H2 (Hanoi Television).
