TV stations face YouTube challenge

Television stations and channels are investing money and human resources to produce more shows on YouTube, with most of them targeting young Vietnamese viewers.
TV stations face YouTube challenge ảnh 1Vinh Long Television’s channel on YouTube has attracted more than 295 million viewers. (Source: VNA)

HCM City (VNA) - Television stations and channels are investing money and human resources to produce more shows on YouTube, with most of them targeting young Vietnamese viewers.

Vinh Long Television (THVL), which has four channels in addition to a channel on YouTube launched in 2014, has invested funds to produce quality reports, documentaries and entertainment programmes. 

From September 2014 to the end of this year’s first quarter, its YouTube channel attracted more than 295 million viewers, according to POPs Worldwide, a leading digital company and multi-channel network in Vietnam.

Last year, THVL won the 2015 POPS Awards for its YouTube channel, which attracted the highest number of viewers.

Its biggest competitor is Vietnam Television’s VTCTube, which launched in 2013. It offers dozens of theatre and music programmes as well as films produced by TV stations.

VTCTube now attracts more than 80 million viewers.

In HCM City, the leading cable provider, SCTV, is also working to produce a series of cultural and entertainment programmes on its YouTube channels, which is expected to launch this year.

SCTV, jointly owned by Vietnam Television and state-run Saigon Tourist Corporation, is the first domestic cable TV operator to receive approval to deploy its own telecommunications network infrastructure.

SCTV offers its own cultural programmes for children and young people on channels such as SaoTV, Yan TV, Yeah 1 TV, and Style TV.

“Viewers are willing to use YouTube anywhere and at anytime. We began producing programmes just for YouTube to meet the increasing demand of customers a few years ago and they have become popular,” said Hoang Anh, a PR representative of Yan TV.

Mai Duy Long, Deputy Director of IMC Group, which manages Today TV, said: “A show on YouTube would immediately attract several million viewers. So, YouTube is the fastest way to expand your programme to the public.”

“YouTube is changing everything,” he added.

Today, TV’s young producers and technicians are sent to Singapore and the Republic of Korea to improve their skills.

Though the local industry has developed rapidly in recent years, the task of balancing social responsibility and commercial success remains a difficult task to providers on YouTube.

The market tendency has led TV stations and channels to work with organisations and private companies to produce TV films, game shows and ads. In some cases, they have failed to provide products appropriate for the education level of young audiences.

Copyright infringement has occurred to many music and film shows on YouTube.

“This way of doing business has brought the industry down,” said a representative of SCTV.-VNA

VNA

See more

Participants at the official session of the City Partnership Forum – Da Nang 2025 held in the central coastal city on January 17. (Photo: VNA)

City Partnership Forum helps Da Nang boost global linkage

The official session of the City Partnership Forum – Da Nang 2025 has taken place in the central coastal city a hybrid format, drawing leaders from Vietnam’s ministries and agencies, representatives from 35 cities with current or planned ties to Da Nang, foreign ambassadors, consuls general, and delegations of international businesses and cultural groups.

Participants pose for a group photo at the “Xuan Que Huong” (Homeland Spring) programme in New Delhi, India on January 19, 2025).

Vietnamese in India, RoK, Japan, Hong Kong celebrate Lunar New Year

“Xuan Que Huong” (Homeland Spring), the biggest cultural event for overseas Vietnamese (OVs) when the Lunar New Year (Tet) come, has been held by the Vietnamese Embassies in India, the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Japan and the Consulate General in Hong Kong (China) to bring the Tet atmosphere to Vietnamese expats.

Participants at the homeland spring programme held in Brussels, on January 19 by the Vietnamese Embassy in Belgium, which is also in charge of Luxembourg. (Photo: VNA)

Overseas Vietnamese communities worldwide celebrate Tet

Vietnamese communities across the world, including in Belgium, Luxembourg, Russia, the Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, and the UK, have celebrated the upcoming Lunar New Year (Tet), the largest traditional festival of the home country.

Tran Nhat Hoang, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism in an interview with VNA (Photo: VNA)

EXPO 2025 opens doors for Vietnamese enterprises to connect to world

A Vietnamese delegation has attended the International Participants Meeting (IPM) for EXPO 2025 in Hyogo prefecture of Japan, which aimed to brief participating governments and international organisations on plans for exhibitions and pavilions at EXPO 2025 Osaka, Kansai.

A representative of Tran De fishing port, Soc Trang is checking fishing vessel monitoring devices (Photo; VNA)

Soc Trang subsidises satellite fees for fishing vessels

The Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang is rolling out a new policy to subsidise satellite subscription fees for fishing vessel monitoring devices, part of a resolution passed in December 2024 by the provincial People's Council.

At the meeting (Photo: VNA)

Overseas Vietnamese honoured for contributions to homeland, community

Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee Do Van Chien chaired a meeting in Hanoi on January 19 to honour outstanding collectives and individuals from the overseas Vietnamese (OV) community who returned home for the annual programme Homeland Spring 2025.

Le Trung Thanh, a PhD candidate and President of the Vietnamese Students Association in Beijing. (Photo: VNA)

OVs hope for enhanced exchange, connection between Vietnamese, Chinese youths

Vietnamese students in China have expressed their aspirations for a stronger, more substantive partnership between Vietnam and China, aiming to bring tangible benefits to their people as the two countries are celebrating the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the Year of Vietnam-China Humanistic Exchanges.