Vietnamese fans risk 'abstaining from watching' the Premier League

Fans are wondering whether they will be able to watch the English Premier League next season as the Vietnam Pay Television Association and VSTV Company (owner of K+ channel) are unable to reach a consensus on purchasing the copyright for the most attractive tournament in the world.

The English Premier League always attracts Vietnamese fans - Photo: AFP

Copyright owner stalling?

In two consecutive Premier League seasons (from 2010 to 2016 combined), due to its strong financial potential, the joint venture between Vietnam Television and Canal - France Media Group (hereinafter referred to as K+) always won against other domestic opponents. In the 2016 - 2019 season, the situation was still quite complicated but in a different direction. For the first time, under the close direction of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), at the end of 2015, the Vietnam Pay TV Association (hereinafter referred to as the association) established a negotiating committee chaired by the association with 10 units, with the aim of negotiating with MP&Silva Company - which holds the broadcasting rights of the Premier League for the 2016 - 2019 season in Vietnam.

The negotiating board has committed to a unified viewpoint: 1. Not to buy the Premier League television rights at any cost, in this case not to buy at a price 20% higher than the price of the 2013 - 2016 seasons (only buy at a price of about 46 million USD or less). 2. Buy all matches of the tournament (without any form of exclusivity). 3. The units commit not to negotiate separately.

Although the negotiating committee has repeatedly urged in writing (from January 2016 to present), MP&Silva has not agreed to meet directly, causing the matter to be at a standstill, while the start of the new season is only a few months away. In an interview with Thanh Nien Newspaper on April 1, Mr. Le Dinh Cuong, Vice President and General Secretary of the association, said: “There is no deadlock at any stage. This is a form of stalling for time by MP&Silva. It is their business that they refuse to negotiate because perhaps no one would sell for less than 50 million USD while they themselves had to buy for 80 million USD. At the last minute they did not sell, and we do not need it. The Vietnamese side does not have to rush because the unit that needs to sell is MP&Silva, so they are impatient. This year the association will resolutely deal with this matter.”

Surprise when K+ goes its own way

Meanwhile, the only unit that is "sitting on fire" is K+, as evidenced by the fact that on March 31, K+ leaders signed an urgent dispatch to the association, with the main content being that K+ will buy the English Premier League television rights themselves because they cannot wait any longer.

In this document, K+ stated: “We have always affirmed that the direction of the Ministry of Information and Communications and the actions of the association in establishing a negotiating committee to purchase the copyright of the English Premier League in order to not buy at any price are correct. We have sent representatives to participate in the negotiating committee and have repeatedly requested that there should be a regulation for the negotiating committee as well as a specific joint purchasing plan.”

K+'s letter continued: "After more than 5 months of cooperation and patient waiting, we realized that the joint purchase plan is difficult to implement, and the way the association is implementing it is too risky. We clearly understand that the association cannot be responsible for the business results and damages to businesses and fans due to delays or failure to purchase copyrights." Therefore, K+ emphasized the request for the association to allow it to conduct negotiations on its own.

Mr. Le Dinh Cuong, Head of the Negotiation Committee, said quite harshly: "I have signed an official dispatch to K+, clearly stating that the "breakup" of the K+ negotiation committee will cause frustration and lead to unpredictable consequences."

In the document that Mr. Cuong just mentioned, the association also stated its opinion: "The association does not accept the "everyone does it their own way" approach and will do everything to prevent this dangerous practice."

Commitment not to buy at any price

Speaking to the press on the afternoon of April 1, Mr. Le Chi Cong, General Director of K+, said: “The negotiating board has not made any other move other than preventing units from buying separately, and there are even opinions that English football fans will “abstain” from watching the Premier League for the next 3 seasons. Therefore, while the board still has no operating regulations and no clear direction, we are forced to propose to the association to let units negotiate on their own to ensure business plans, on the basis of compliance with the law and instructions of the Ministry of Information and Communications as well as VTV on price ceilings, saving foreign currency, and not buying copyrights at all costs.”

According to Mr. Cong: “In previous seasons, although K+ bought the entire tournament, the number of exclusive matches only accounted for a small percentage, other stations still broadcast non-exclusive matches. Furthermore, we have a policy of co-distributing K+ channels with most other providers at quite affordable subscription prices.”

A television copyright expert analyzed: “Among the 10 units participating in the negotiation board, VNPT Media Corporation, Viettel Corporation, FPT Telecom Joint Stock Company do not produce content, nor do they have TV channels, so if they buy them, they will only be resold. VTC or HTV Hanoi certainly do not have enough money to pursue. Other channels such as VTVcab or SCTV, although they have a large number of subscribers, are VTV businesses like K+, so there will be no situation of “brothers killing each other”. Some other units do not have a need for different sports content, so they will not be too interested in the English Premier League. As for K+, if they cannot buy the copyright, they will suffer very heavy losses”.

According to Thanh Nien