Private televisions redrawing TV market More and more TV channels owned by private investors have been launched recently, creating a new TV market.   In early June, VTC HCM City, the digital television and View Media JSC launched a new TV channel – View TV. Targeting young families and viewers aged 18-45, View TV is positioned as a general information and entertainment TV channel. Sources said View TV is backed by Enter Asia, one of the well-known names in the Japanese TV industry. The owner of the new TV channel is also an unfamiliar name – Huy Huynh. The young director, who spent many years working in the US television industry, believes the Vietnamese market is full of opportunities and potential. Of the nearly 200 operational TV channels, only about 10 brands are well known to viewers. The number of privately run TV channels is very modest, with no channel targeting young families and niche markets. “The difficult period of the national economy is over. It is now the right time to join the market,” Huy said. Huy predicted that more and more investors would join the market in the near future and launch many more new TV channels. Meanwhile, a series of well-known TV channels have entered new stages of development after they changed hands. In July 2011, MTV channel officially broadcasted its first program. MTV brand appeared in Vietnam in 1997 with programs on Vietnam National Television’s VTV3 channel. Three years later, MTV Vietnam joined IMC Group as MTV’s investors ‘gave up the game’. With its experience from saving Today TV from bankruptcy, IMC believes it will be able to renew MTV and make it better known to viewers. Meanwhile, Info TV, a financial news TV channel, has been transferred to STV after Ocean Bank, the owner, gave up. It is expected that after the reform, Info TV will have more broadcasting hours per day, and it will not only provide financial news but also entertainment news and drama series. OTT power According to Le Dinh Trong, general director of STV, the reliance on the cable system makes it impossible to obtain a higher number of viewers. Digitalization proves to be the only solution. Once the digitalization process is completed, viewers will be able to watch OTT TV through two ways, either downloading apps to mobile devices, or watching TV directly through direct lines or VOD (video on demand). Vietnam has witnessed an OTT TV boom in the last year thanks to the strong development of 3G services and the popularity of Wi-Fi. This is expected to pave the way for the further development of privately run TV channels. DNSG