HA NOI — French TV5MONDE Asie channel will be broadcast in Viet Nam with Vietnamese subtitles starting on Saturday from its third MeaSat-3 satellite feed for the Asia-Pacific Region.
The French-language network's CEO, Christine Saragosse, confirmed at a press conference yesterday that Vietnamese will be the first Asian language added to the channel and the 13th language on TV5MONDE globally.
"To mark this milestone, our channel will make an exception to its broadcasting policy and show a non-French language film, The Guava House, by Vietnamese director Dang Nhat Minh, in Vietnamese with French subtitles during the week of April 2 to 8," said Saragosse.
To celebrate the launch, the channel will also air a documentary called Chante! (Sing!) about an annual singing competition for local students organised by the French Cultural Centre in Ha Noi, as well as a 52-minute documentary on modern Viet Nam that emphasises its culture and amazing landscapes.
Subtitles will start during lifestyle programming blocks and evening movies. They will slowly be introduced during dramas and documentaries to reach an estimated 10 hours per day by the end of 2011.
The channel is currently available on all major platforms in Viet Nam – cable, satellite, IPTV and Digital Terrestrial Television. It is legally accessible to an estimated 5 million households in the country, making Viet Nam the second largest market for TV5MONDE in Asia after India with about 10 million. — VNS