HCM CITY — Cable television operators are sinking big money to stay ahead of what is a highly competitive field but consumers, who have got used to a good thing, are demanding more and more. Ha Noi Cable Television (HCATV), which now has 55,000 subscribers and has been growing since its launch in 2002, offers 18 Vietnamese and foreign channels.
Its biggest competitor is Viet Nam Television's VCTV, which launched in 1996 and offers 65 channels, including 21 international channels like Arirang, CNN, HBO and Star Movies.
Both have invested a lot of money to produce quality entertainment programmes.
In HCM City, the two leading providers, HTVC and SCTV, offer their own cultural programmes for both children and youngsters on channels like SaoTV, Yan TV, Yeah 1 TV, and HTVC Shopping.
Yan TV and Yeah 1 TV have Americans and Koreans producing reality shows like Style and Star, Yan Special-Yan Live, and Sao 24/7, which have become popular.
Le Dinh Cuong, a senior official at HCATV, says: "To attract more customers, we have to improve the quality of our programmes to meet the increasing demand of audiences, especially youngsters."
However, subscribers remain unsated with the quality of programmes, signal, and after-sales service.
Vu Thuy Ha, a subscriber in Ha Noi, says: "My provider, HCATV, offers a dozen entertainment programmes but most of them are old and poor.
"It rehashes film programmes, music, and dance in Vietnamese and foreign languages that were produced two decades ago."
SCTV subscribers have an even bigger complaint – that channels are arbitrarily taken off without notifying them about the reason.
Nguyen Le Son, who lives in HCM City's District 3, says: "For example, my favourite channel was Travel and Living but it was removed earlier this year.
"This causes customers to lose trust in the provider."
VCTV general director Nguyen Quoc Viet says: "We will soon produce a series of cultural and educational programmes offering latest information and reports and live shows."
VCTV sent some of its young producers and technicians to Singapore and Korea to improve their skills, he says.
The cable TV market, with 2 million subscribers, has been doubling every year for the last several years but the competition remains fierce, he adds. — VNS