AVG, the holder of the broadcasting rights of the top
professional football league in Vietnam – the V-League – has not reached
agreements with other broadcasters to share the event copyright. V-League 2011
will start on January 22 but it is not fixed which channels will air it.

The
Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has sold the television copyright of the
V-League to AVG, a private group, for 20 years at the price of VND6 billion ($3
million) for the first year.

In
mid-December, AVG announced it would not collect copyright fees of V-League in
the first year – 2011. However, no other broadcaster has made public their
broadcast schedule for V-League, including the two largest broadcasters -
national television station VTV, which held the broadcast right of V-League
2010, and digital TV broadcaster VTC, which bought the broadcast right of 30
matches of V-League 2010.

AVG holds
the broadcast right but it doesn’t have its own TV channels so if AVG doesn’t
reach agreements with other broadcasters, Vietnamese fans may lose the chance to
enjoy the event.

AVG, in
its latest announcement to broadcasters, asked partners to answer before
December 15. In the announcement, AVG divided partners into three groups:
partners that want to purchase the broadcast right, those that air the event
free of charge and those that want to cooperate with AVG in production.

In a
meeting with representatives of VFF, football clubs and television broadcasters
on January 5, AVG said it has to pay VND6 billion of copyright fees for VFF in
2011 and it asked partners to offer reasonable prices for sharing V-League 2011
broadcast right.

Some
provincial broadcasters like Nghe An and An Giang asked AVG’s permission to air
live games that have the participation of the local teams.

“We can’t
afford to buy copyrights for these matches (13 matches of Song Lam Nghe An in
Vinh Stadium in Nghe An province). If AVG agrees, we would like to air live 13
games in Vinh Stadium. We won’t agree to transfer signals from AVG with 100
minutes for each game, plus advertisements. V-League is not a good product.
Broadcasters won’t get profit from it but it is a familiar cuisine of football
fans,” said a representative from the Nghe An province TV station.

VTC
representative questioned: “What will AVG do if several broadcasters want to air
the same match? Will AVG sell the match exclusively? How will AVG and VFF do if
a football club has its own TV channel?”

He said
VTC has broadcasted five consecutive V-League seasons and it still wants to
serve the audience but in this situation, it can’t reveal its decision any
earlier.

By January
5, only VTV and the Hanoi Television Station (HTV) reported reaching principle
agreements with AVG. HTV said it will air V-League 2011 on cable TV while VTV
didn’t announce the specific number of games for live broadcast.

Some
football clubs are worried because their sponsors asked to have games
broadcasted live.

VFF
representative said that it was not afraid if broadcasters are “sulky” and don’t
broadcast V-League because television is now a market and these broadcasters
will be at disadvantage if they do so.

About V-League

The
V-League is the top professional football league in Vietnam. Launched in 1980,
the league currently involves 14 teams. The official name V-League has been used
since the 2000-2001 season when the competition turned professional.

Competition format:
The V-League season starts in February and ends in August. In each season, each
club plays each of the other clubs twice, once at home and another away, for a
total of 26 games.

Teams are
ranked by total points, head-to-head, goal difference and goals scored. The top
team qualifies for the AFC Champions League qualifying rounds.

For 2010
season, the two bottom teams are relegated to the Vietnam First Division while
third lowest placed team goes to the play-offs with the third highest placed
team from the Vietnam First Division.

Rules
on foreign players:
The number of foreign players is restricted to five per team. A team can use
three foreigners on the field each game.

As 2009
statistics, about half of V-League foreign players are Brazilian and the rest
come from Argentina, Nigeria, Ghana, Czech Republic, Thailand and other
countries.

For recent
seasons, the V-League average attendance stands at around 10,000 spectators per
game. As of June 2010, the average attendance of V-League 2010 is 10,208.

V-League 2011 club:
Becamex Bình Dương; Ðồng Tâm Long An; Đồng Tháp; Hà Nội ACB; Hòa Phát Hà Nội;
Hoàng Anh Gia Lai; Khatoco Khánh Hoà; Lam Sơn Thanh Hóa; Navibank Sài Gòn;

SHB Ðà
Nẵng; Sông Lam Nghệ An; Hà Nội T&T; Xi Măng Hải Phòng; Vissai Ninh Binh

PV