Hanoi (VNA) – As digital piracy continues to inflict heavy losses on the content sector, experts said effective copyright protection is not only essential to safeguarding revenues, but also a key driver for the development of Vietnam’s cultural and digital content industries.
To promote copyright protection, Vietnam is accelerating efforts to master core technologies and build integrated platforms capable of receiving, processing, distributing and protecting digital content on a unified system.
Online piracy poses existential challenge
Amid rapid growth of the global digital economy and content industry, copyright infringement has emerged as one of the most serious threats facing Vietnam’s television, entertainment and digital content sectors.
According to international reports and Vietnamese regulators, online piracy in the country has evolved far beyond isolated violations into highly organised, cross-border operations attracting billions of visits annually.
Data from authorities and anti-piracy organisations showed that Vietnam currently hosts more than 400 Vietnamese-language websites distributing pirated films, television programmes and digital content. Illegal football streaming websites alone recorded over 1.5 billion visits during 2022–2023, while more than 200 pirated movie sites attracted around 120 million monthly views.
Vietnam is estimated to lose approximately 350 million USD each year due to digital copyright violations.
Beyond undermining the revenues of broadcasters and OTT platforms, piracy has also significantly weakened incentives for long-term investment in high-quality content production. Recent reports indicated that Vietnam’s publishing and digital content sectors could be losing up to 7 trillion VND (266.04 million USD) annually from copyright violations involving ebooks, audiobooks and other digital products.
Vietnam has recently intensified efforts to dismantle illegal streaming networks, particularly in the film and sports sectors.
In 2024, authorities cracked down on the global piracy network Fmovies, in what was described as the largest online copyright enforcement case ever publicly announced in Vietnam. Investigators found that the system hosted nearly 50,000 pirated films and generated more than 6.7 billion global visits in the first six months of 2024 alone through affiliated websites including Bflixz, Movies7, Myflixer and Flixtorz.
The main suspects were prosecuted for copyright infringement, while prosecutors in Hanoi later stated that the group had earned around 400,000 USD in illicit advertising revenue from international sources.
From late 2025 through 2026, Vietnam also stepped up action against illegal football streaming platforms such as “Xoi lac TV”, “Ro phim”, “Mot phim”, “90phut”, “ThapcamTV” and “tructiep bong da”, with authorities implementing DNS blocks, domain suspensions and criminal investigations over unauthorised broadcasts of competitions including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup 2026.
The measures reflected Vietnam’s increasingly stringent oversight of cross-border content distribution via OTT and streaming platforms.
Technology platforms drive digital content industry
Against this backdrop, the emergence of Sigma OTT End-to-End has been viewed as a significant development for Vietnam’s digital content ecosystem.
Industry observers described the platform as the first fully integrated OTT solution entirely mastered by a Vietnamese enterprise, offering a comprehensive answer to the long-standing problem of fragmented technology systems in digital television and OTT content distribution.
Unlike conventional models relying on multiple foreign technologies, Sigma OTT End-to-End provides an integrated ecosystem covering signal reception, processing, distribution, user management and digital copyright protection on a single unified platform.
The system enables broadcasters, telecom operators and digital content providers to significantly reduce investment costs while strengthening control over digital assets and content security.
A key component of the ecosystem is Sigma Multi-DRM, which has been described as a “technological shield” for digital copyright protection.
The solution is currently the only Vietnamese digital rights management (DRM) technology verified by international organisation Cartesian, with the capability to encrypt and protect content in real time across multiple platforms and devices.
As piracy methods become increasingly sophisticated, DRM technology is no longer considered optional but rather an essential infrastructure component for protecting revenues and maintaining sustainable digital content business models.
As the Government intensifies anti-piracy campaigns and promotes the development of the digital cultural industry, Sigma OTT End-to-End is being viewed as a potential foundation for a “Make in Vietnam” digital content infrastructure capable of competing regionally.
Originally developed for digital television services, the platform is now expected to expand into other sectors including T-commerce, security camera systems, digital education and smart city applications, demonstrating the growing capacity of Vietnamese technology firms to build scalable digital infrastructure platforms for both domestic and Southeast Asian markets./.
VNA
