Vietnamese TV series have been replacing imported series during primetime hours on TV. Contrary to worries that these local products wouldn’t attract audiences, broadcasters are earning high profit from these domestic movies.

“Want to Cry for No Reason” series made a record of VND1.8 billion of advertising revenue for one episode.

Profit from commercials run during locally-made TV series is said to be very high for big TV stations like Vietnam Television (VTV), Hanoi Television and HCM City Television (HTV) since these series are broadcast during primetime.

Director Nguyen Huu Phan said each episode of his “Village’s Ghost” brought about 700 million dong ($41,000) in advertising revenue for VTV, from only 12 minutes of commercial time, 10 times more than the capital invested in one episode.

“Want to Cry for No Reason” series, also on VTV, is a phenomenon: The time for advertisements is almost as long as the show itself. The movie has been broadcast from 8pm to 9.30pm, though each episode is only 45 minute long. An anonymous source said that the highest revenue that VTV has earned from one episode is 1.8 billion dong ($106,000).

It was similar to the last episode of “Ugly Girl” series, on VTV as well. With over 170 episodes, “Ugly Girl” was not always attractive, but the audience was very curious about the movie’s ending. The sudden increase in viewers for the last ten episodes of “Ugly Girl” made the movie time stretch from 9.10 to 10.30pm, while it was only 50 minutes in length.

The producer of “Programming for the heart”, which is aired on VTV3 at present, revealed that the highest earnings from commercials for one episode in April was 1.7 billion dong.

It is said that advertising revenue from this series has exceeded the record high level of “Want to Cry for No Reason”. With too many advertising clips, VTV had to chop down the last song at the end of the film in the 19^th episode. VTV has ordered producers to make the second part of the series.

Director Vu Ngoc Dang of “Want to Cry for No Reason” and scriptwriter of “Programming to the Heart” Nguyen Thu Thuy said they earned nothing from advertising revenues on their series but they are afraid if their series don’t help broadcasters earn money, because without advertising revenue, it means that their products are unattractive to audiences.

However, Thuy is worried that too many commercials will turn off audiences. And the concern is well-founded as many people have complained about having to sit through too many commercials.

VTV’s director Khai Hung said the audience must accept advertisements because they are watching free movies. Broadcasters are no longer subsidised so they need income to re-invest in new movies to serve the public.

“The audience should be happy for us because many advertisements mean our programmes are valuable,” said Hoang Manh Cuong from Hanoi Television.

VietNamNet/VNE