The Ministry of Information and Communications has certified that K+ holds the exclusive broadcasting rights to Sunday matches of the English Premier League (EPL) in Vietnam. Bridge – After its meeting with K+ and MP & Silva on August 26, the Ministry of Information and Communications has certified that K+ holds the exclusive broadcasting rights to Sunday matches of the English Premier League (EPL) in Vietnam.

MP & Silva, the distributor of EPL broadcasting rights in Vietnam, announced that only FPT Telecom is allowed to air EPL Sunday matches, Serie A, and La Liga on its iTV channel.

MP & Silva holds the exclusive broadcasting rights to EPL matches in Vietnam and Japan for three seasons. In Vietnam, it distributed broadcasting rights of Saturday and Monday matches to several channels. Only VSTV, which owns K+ channel, bought the exclusive rights to air EPL Sunday matches. However, the Hanoi Cable Television (HCTV) channel and some provincial channels still air live Sunday matches from Thailand’s True Sport channel.

HCTV stated it will stop airing Sunday matches once K+ and MP & Silva prove their exclusive rights in Vietnam or prevent True Sport from airing Sunday matches in Vietnam.

MP & Silva asked to meet with the MoIC to prove its exclusive broadcasting rights of EPL matches in Vietnam. In the meeting on August 26, the firm showed the contract proving that it held exclusive broadcasting rights for EPL matches in Vietnam.

Luu Vu Hai, chief of MoIC’s Radio, Television, and Electronic Information Department, verified the contract, saying that MP & Silva couldn’t show the contract to the media because of business confidentiality issues.

Hai said the MoIC would send dispatches to TV channels asking them to obey copyright laws.

“True Sport is licensed in Vietnam, but they have to obey copyright rules. We will ask local broadcasters to not take EPL Sunday matches from True Sport,” Hai explained.

However, True Sport will not air EPL Sunday matches in Vietnam after working out an agreement with MP & Silva.

Though MP&Silva and K+ are right in this case, Hai stressed that the MoIC doesn’t support a monopoly in television broadcasting in Vietnam.

MP&Silva’s representative Beeatrice Lee said that her company didn’t want to sell exclusive broadcasting rights to any local channel. “We have shared up to 80 percent of EPL matches to Vietnamese broadcasters. We are glad if K+ reaches agreements to share Sunday matches with other broadcasters,” she said.

K+ said it is willing to share these matches as well as Liga or Serie A with other channels in Vietnam, but they have not reached an agreement in terms of broadcasting techniques, subscriber management, and other pertinent issues.

Vietnamese TV channels that broadcast the EPL: Saturday and Monday matches on Bong Da TV and The Thao TV (Vietnam Cable Television – VCTV), VTC-HD (VTC), HTV2 (HCM City Television), SCTV15 (Saigon Tourist Cable TV), K+ (VSTV) and H1 and H2 (Hanoi Television). EPL Sunday matches are only on K+ and FPT Telecom’s iTV. SCTV and HTVC from HCM City may reach agreements to share these matches with K+ very soon.

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