Balance of subscription packages and advertising
The biggest reason why a part of Vietnamese audiences accept the risk of "cing around" national football in general and the World Cup in particular is the lack of fees.
Instead of having to pay a few hundred thousand VND/month, many fans choose to access through unofficial sources on the internet so as not to have to pay any fees.
This is a decisive factor that makes Vietnamese stations always disadvantaged compared to "illegal" sources on the internet. Because one side has to pay a very high fee to get the rights to broadcast the World Cup, EURO, Premier League in Vietnam. The other side used tricks to get a source for the match's broadcast abroad and broadcast it over the internet.
In the face of the above situation, in addition to professional measures to prevent copyright infringement, Vietnamese broadcasters must also consider revenue options.
Coordinating with benefactors, offering advertisements... is a common option when the station is looking to buy the copyright to broadcast the world tournament. For example, at the 2022 World Cup, Vietnam Television (VTV) asked for the help of 2 corporations and 4 banks in purchasing broadcasting rights for up to 15 million USD.
Also at this tournament, the Television Advertising and Service Center must also actively operate to ensure profits. It is known that for the 2022 World Cup final alone, businesses must pay 400 million VND for 10 seconds of advertising and 800 million VND for 30 seconds. Thus, each minute of advertising in the final match will bring VTV from 1.5 to 2.5 billion VND.
In addition, the comments and closing ceremony of the 2022 World Cup also have high selling prices, from 375 million VND to 750 million VND with a duration of 10 seconds and 30 seconds. Meanwhile, the matches in the group stage have the price of 10 seconds is 100 million VND, 15 seconds is 120 million VND, 20 seconds is 150 million VND and 30 seconds is 200 million VND.
2 years later at EURO 2024, Viettel is the owner of the tournament broadcasting rights. This unit promotes a EURO viewing package for the whole month for only 20,000 VND/month to watch EURO without consuming space, with ads and 150 high-end TV channels. In addition, Viettel also promotes the ability of audiences to watch EURO 2024 for free on 2 channel platforms in the TV360 system.
In addition to the small source of revenue from the above package, this media unit clearly wants to attract users to identify more about the 360 TV channels produced by this unit. The number of subscribers is also something Viettel is interested in, in order to develop a sequel after EURO 2024, with the station holding the copyright.
Focus on approach, comment quality
Another reason why a part of the audience chooses unofficial sources when watching the World Cup or EURO is the importancy and interactivity. Unlike the traditional way of watching on TV as before, fans want to access a match using mobile devices (laptop, phone, tablet).
In addition, direct interaction through comments while watching the match is also something that makes the audience excited when choosing this form of "illegal viewing".
Based on this, Vietnamese stations have somewhat actively developed digital platforms when broadcasting live football matches. In addition to the YouTube platform (based on a copyright purchase contract with the tournament distributor), the Vietnamese station also focuses on investing and building strong enough infrastructure to bring diverse matches, from traditional television to OTT platforms (online digital content provision services via the internet). This helps users not be attracted to unofficial sources.
The positive point is that in the past 3 years, with the cooperation of Google, the sources of copyright ownership of match broadcasting in Vietnam such as the World Cup, EURO, Champions League... have always been displayed priority in the audience search category. Thanks to that, the "brokerage" of fans has also gradually decreased.
Stations such as VTV, FPT Play or TV360 are also ready to exploit the match with two different commentary flows including official and emotional. In which, official comments serve a large number of popular fans, while emotional comments are directed to audiences who like to interact directly, want to hear shares from an entertainment perspective...
Therefore, the current team of commentators of the broadcasters is also trained and built from two perspectives. veteran and veteran commentators continue to stick with the legitimate commentary genre. Meanwhile, young, lively commentators are chosen to serve the dynamic audience on the internet.
