By Lan Dung

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Unfair competition will give more influence to enterprises in the pay TV market and harm the rights of consumers, said the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Competition Management Department, Nguyen Phuong Nam.

The statement was made at a conference in Ha Noi on Tuesday, which discussed the Law on Competition put into effect on July 1 in 2005.

Worker of K+ television installs cable equipment for a household in Binh Thanh District,HCM City.  K+ television is complained of not sharing the copyright of broadcasting the English Premier League. — Photo tuoitre

The Law requires pay TV providers to lodge registrations with the Competition Management Department by a due date soon. The deputy director said that only eight firms had registered with the department out of more than 40 enterprises operating in the industry; adding that the department had issued proposals to six other businesses.

At the moment, there are five categories of businesses operating in Viet Nam's pay TV market, including those providing television content; enterprises representing foreign channels; editing and translating channels; pay TV providers and enterprises providing pay TV subscribers.

According to the Authority of Broadcasting, Television and Electronic Information, pay TV first appeared in Viet Nam in 1993 with the birth of a multichannel distribution service (MMDS) in multiple locations. Saigontourist and VTV took the lead in providing this service. In 2004, VCTV (now VTVCab) launched its satellite television service, officially taking part in the pay TV market. Viet Nam Multimedia Corporation (VTC) and Audio Visual Global Joint Stock Company (AVG) joined the market in 2006 and 2011, respectively. Until now, the pay TV market has seen the evolution of four services: cable TV, satellite TV, digital terrestrial TV and mobile TV.

According to departmental statistics, in 2012 Saigontourist Cable Television Company (SCTV) topped the market with a 40 per cent market share. Viet Nam Cable Television (VTVCab) and Ho Chi Minh Cable Television (HTVC) were the second and third largest providers with 30 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.

Tran Phuong Lan, head of the department's Competition Supervision and Management Committee, said the fiercest competition was in buying broadcast rights.

"Market share is mostly is in the hands of state enterprises or member companies of central TV stations. The unequal share between the top firm and following enterprises has been increased remarkably," she said.

"The leading firm in the market is SCTV, with 40 percent. Meanwhile, Viet Nam Television (VTV) owns or contributes capital to a lot of firms, which results in a large market share - up to 70 per cent."

However, in accordance with the current competition Law, enterprises owning 30 per cent or more are considered a monopoly and deemed to possess undue influence in the market.

Lan said unfair competition in the Vietnamese market could take various forms, including the use of self-made channels to undermine competitors; abusing market power to coerce content providers in contract negotiations; and contracting with residential investors to provide exclusive cable services.

Attending the conference, Viet Nam Pay TV Association vice chairman Le Dinh Cuong, said that pay TV providers were now competing in customer care service. Improving infrastructure and developing transmission technology plays an important role in offering customers high-quality signal, he added.

"High demand for first-class entertainment programmes, copyrights on foreign movie channels and international tournaments have been becoming a driving force in promoting competition among pay TV providers in Viet Nam," he said.

The association's statistics show that at the beginning of 2013, pay TV had a coverage of 95 per cent of the country with six million high-use subscribers on mobile and Internet TV. — VNS