VietNamNet Bridge – The average revenue per user (ARPU) in the Vietnamese pay-TV market is the lowest among ASEAN countries, which could harm the market in the long term.

In 2013, the ARPU in Vietnam was $4-5, which, according to Jacques–Aymar de Roquefeuil, deputy general director of K+, was lower than in any other ASEAN country.

The rates were $32 in Singapore, $30 in Malaysia, $11 in Indonesia, $11 in Thailand, $10 in Cambodia, $10 in Myanmar and $9 in the Philippines.

He said the ARPU in Africa is relatively high at 20 euros a month.

The monthly subscription fees in Vietnam have always been low, because pay-TV service providers are reluctant to raise the fees as they have to compete with each other for subscribers.

However, an analyst noted that the problem lies in the TV program content. There is no exclusive TV channel in Vietnam, and most of the channels provide similar content. As a result, they can only compete in service fees, which explains why the service fees are low.

In the short term, the low ARPU would help the pay-TV market develop strongly with the number of subscribers increasing rapidly. However, this will do harm to the market in the long term as service providers do not have money for re-investments.

While TV royalties and other expenses are increasing, the subscription fees are on the decrease. As a result, television channels will not pour money into improving program content.

The pay-TV service providers need to increase the ARPU in order to have more money to spend on TV royalties and production of high-quality TV programs.

Nguyen Hanh, CEO of Qnet, agrees that the ARPU in Vietnam is too low, which is “unfair for content creation”.

Vietnamese only have to pay VND60,000-70,000 a month to be able to watch hundreds of TV channels.

The subscription fee, according to Hanh, is just equal to the sum of money urbanites pay for one breakfast.

Hanh noted that content service providers should take full advantage of digital technology to increase ARPU, stressing that only digital TV can solve the problem, because it can provide small diversified services and many added-value services.

The service diversification will give more choices to TV watchers.

Low-cost service packages will fit low-income earners, while those, who can pay higher fees, will be able to pay for 3-4-5 service packages at the same time.

As such, the poor will only be able to access pay-TV services thanks to the digital technology.

Jacques –Aymar de Roquefeuil said K+ launched multi-room package on September 11, with which K+ subscribers only have to pay VND25,000 more for the second and subsequent TV of the same families, and enjoy a lower price when buying the second and subsequent set top boxes.

Nguyen Van Tan, deputy director of VASC, the owner of MyTV, agrees that it would be better to design many different service packages to satisfy customers’ different tastes.

Buu Dien