Legal move creates impacts on pay TV landscape

The three channels belong to The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia and were distributed in Vietnam via MSky Company through diverse pay TV services such as FPT Play, TV360, ClipTV, and VTC.

In November, Amazon Prime also stopped their video service provision in Vietnam.

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It is the latest in a long list of exits from the segment in Vietnam. In late 2021, a dozen TV channels under the possession of Disney Networks Group Asia-Pacific, including a wide range of movies, sports, and cartoon channels such as Fox Movies, Fox Sports, Disney Junior, and others announced the end of streaming in the region.

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Lam said that several international film and entertainment companies, including Disney, believe that the future lies with video-on-demand services rather than traditional television. For example, since launching Disney Plus, Disney has invested heavily in the platform.

Amazon Prime and other services available in Vietnam are opting to comply with Article 21 of the Law on Cinematography on the dissemination of films in cyberspace, Lam said.

To avoid having to comply with the Law on Cinematography and broadcasting regulations at the same time, these services have removed non-film programmes from their platforms to avoid having to comply with the law and broadcasting regulations simultaneously.

Le Quang Tu Do, director general of the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) noted that trans-boundary streaming platforms need to clearly identify their business models in Vietnam by either providing movies or TV services.

Movie services need to follow the Law on Cinematography and remove TV content, whereas TV content needs to obey Decree No.71/2022/ND-CP on the management, provision, and use of radio and television services, which came into effect in October 2022.

“After receiving drastic requirements from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the MIC, Netflix has chosen to provide both movies and pay TV services, while most of the remaining streaming services opt out of movies provision and put TV programmes on an over-the-top platform,” said Do.

Do unveiled that after finding that the current business model incompatible, Amazon Prime Video was removed from Vietnam, while Netflix has filled in records asking to form a business in Vietnam. The procedures are currently being worked on.

“These movements reflect the willingness for legal compliance of transboundary streaming services when setting foot in Vietnam,” said Do.

By last month, all six foreign players engaged in on-demand content service provision in Vietnam (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, WeTV, iQIYI, and MangoTV) had sent reports to the MIC about temporarily maintaining movie provision only following regulations in the Law on Cinematography. They noted that they would meet the necessary steps for the requirements of provision of pay TV and broadcasting services in the country.

Last year, several relevant documents such as Decree 71 and MIC circulars supplemented new regulations to complete the legal corridor for pay broadcasting and television services, as well as on-demand content provision on the internet.

For the movies aspect, the Law on Cinematography 2022, Decree No.131/2022/ND-CP from December 2022, and an April 2023 circular from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism attempted to complete the legal corridor for film streaming on the internet.

To facilitate foreign players’ obedience to Vietnamese law, the MIC joined efforts with relevant management agencies to increase propagation and set up a close supervision mechanism of pay TV and broadcasting services to ensure obedience of the new regulations by foreign service providers, similar to local service providers.

The latest figures from the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information under the MIC shows that the broadcasting and television sector still raked in more than $940 million in total revenues in 2023, of which $443 million came from pay radio and TV streaming services, up more than 3 per cent on-year. There were nearly 22 million subscribers, showing a 19 per cent jump on-year, and budget contribution surpassing $42 million.

The over-the top (OTT) streaming segment, referring to technology platforms that deliver streamed content directly to viewers via internet-connected devices, continued to hold the spotlight. MIC figures indicate that OTT television revenue amounted to around $8.4 million in 2021, jumping to $31.2 million in 2022, and reaching as much as $65.4 million in the first half of 2023.

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