Practical issues to be addressed for TV and radio regulations

Among other things, the draft decree proposes a new requirement under Article 14(3) mandating the pre installation of Vietnam’s national digital platforms on all smartphones. This article discusses the underlying policy direction and the potential implications for smartphone manufacturers and traders.

Manh-Hung Tran, managing partner and Thai-Minh Le, legal assistant, BMVN

The proposed wording in the draft decree does not come as a surprise. Rather, it reflects a series of policy directions issued by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the prime minister over several years.

In March, the MCST outlined the need for a national digital platform to support political communication, digital transformation, and stronger state management of media. It also identified regulatory gaps in online broadcasting, called for enhanced state monitoring, and emphasised the importance of ensuring public access to official information.

The prime minister added momentum to this direction in 2025, indicating that the government had plans to deploy VTVgo on smart TVs. The goals included improving access to official content, advancing digital transformation, and strengthening domestic platforms against foreign competitors. At that time, the approach focused on smart TVs and voluntary cooperation with device manufacturers rather than imposing a binding legal obligation.

Earlier, in 2024, the Deputy Minister of what was then the Ministry of Information and Communications, Nguyen Thanh Lam, articulated the goal of developing Vietnam Television into a major online platform with significant revenue potential. At a 2023 national conference on the cultural industries, he also highlighted the rapid growth of international platforms and the limited economic benefits accruing to Vietnamese entities. This policy direction aims to rebalance the digital market and enhance the competitiveness of domestic services.

These policy directions have been articulated over the past few years and are now being reflected in more concrete regulatory proposals. The proposed Article 14(3) may be viewed as an effort to give regulatory effect to those earlier policy orientations, with a view to supporting the distribution and uptake of domestic digital platforms and facilitating their further development within the market.

However, it remains relevant to consider whether the proposed wording in the draft decree would be broadly convincing to relevant stakeholders. Attention has been drawn to potential practical considerations surrounding the implementation of the proposed regulatory change, including anticipated technical and commercial challenges in engaging with device manufacturers, as well as the costs that may be associated with a pre-installation requirement and its possible implications for platform operators.

There have also been observations regarding the need to take user experience into account. Beyond these operational aspects, the proposal may prompt legal considerations as to whether mandating the pre-installation of national applications could have implications for competitive conditions in the market, including by shaping the relative positioning of domestic and other digital services.

Trade law considerations may further complicate the issue. Vietnam’s free trade agreements with the EU, Japan, and South Korea all include provisions on market access and national treatment. In this context, a pre-installation mandate could potentially be seen as restricting market access for foreign service providers and may also be inconsistent with non-discrimination obligations under World Trade Organization law.

The regional picture also offers limited precedent in support of the measure. China regulates pre-installed applications primarily from a consumer protection standpoint, focusing on ensuring that users can uninstall them rather than mandating the inclusion of specific apps. Neither Indonesia nor Malaysia appears to impose a comparable requirement. This relative absence of analogous measures in comparable jurisdictions adds to questions about the necessity and proportionality of the proposed provision.

The positivity is that geopolitics has business flocking to Vietnam, and it is important to keep this momentum for Vietnam. In that context, any suggested changes to Vietnam’s laws in general, and the draft decree in particular, would need to take into account practical feasibility, alignment with international best practices, and consumer experience.

Although the proposed “pre-installation” obligation in the draft decree appears to stem from broad policy objectives, its final wording would benefit from further review to ensure that it is supported by a more detailed legal, technical, and economic assessment of its necessity and proportionality. This is intended to enable businesses, particularly device manufacturers, platform operators, and foreign service providers, to assess their regulatory exposure and ensure full compliance once the draft decree comes to life.