|
Viewers accuse pay TV operators of failing to deliver
Many Ho Chi Minh City residents are livid after being sweet-talked into subscribing to pay television only to find that their channel reception is often poor to nonexistent.
There are two cable pay TV operators with some 700,000 subscribers in the city - Saigon Tourist Cable Television (SCTV), a joint venture between Saigontourist and Vietnam Television, and Ho Chi Minh City Cable Television (HTVC).
Each now broadcasts around 70 channels, but as the number of channels has climbed, the quality of reception has plummeted.
Xuan Lam of District 3 says the quality of the SCTV channel reception started to get worse several months ago, while the quality of some foreign channels like MTV and CCTV have become too poor to watch.
“The reception is so awful that I find it uncomfortable to look at the screen,” Lam said.
Dang Dung of District 7 remembers many times watching Fashion TV, Star Sports or Cinebox when the screen went blank.
Vietnam Television channels broadcast by SCTV are also notorious for their poor quality, according to some viewers.
“I’m fed up,” Dung said. “I’ve thought about switching to another provider but I doubt there is anything better.”
HTVC subscribers Ngoc Bach and Nhat Thien of District 7 are also sick and tired of the blurred pictures, clutter and interference that didn’t happen when they first subscribed to pay television two years ago.
Dang Tan Mau, former chief technician of Ho Chi Minh City Television, says the problem is that providers are broadcasting in analog, rather than digital or cable signals.
Mau says local cable TV providers often broadcast the signals they receive from other stations immediately and make no effort to improve the picture quality.
In addition, they broadcast several free but “boring” channels so that they can boast “we broadcast up to 70 channels.”
Then there’s the screen message saying “we have to stop broadcasting temporarily due to technical problems” that viewers are all too familiar with.
SCTV customer Nguyen Van Duong originally intended to subscribe to HTVC but changed his mind and decided to wait for a “more professional provider.”
After SCTV went off air without notice several times last month, Duong phoned to find out why and was told that the system was being upgraded.
“SCTV really disappoints me,” he said.
HTVC Director Le Duc Hung attributes the poor signals to bad weather, rusted cables on the users’ end, and interference from the many other stations in the city.
As far as he is concerned, the interference problem is a matter for the Radio Frequency Directorate and the Department of Information and Communications.
“It’s nothing to do with us,” he said.
Pay TV subscriber Nguyen Trong Duy finds this answer unacceptable. “HTVC can surely get rid of the interference, or at least urge the authorities to end it,” he said.
Earlier this month, people who had bought Vietnam cable Television (VTC) digital signal receivers in 2005 complained of being locked out of 14 channels, mostly foreign.
Now they must buy new receivers such as HDTV for high definition television signals and SDTV for satellite television signals, plus pay a monthly subscription to view those channels.
VTC defends itself by saying that it has to buy the broadcasting rights from the foreign stations, hence the extra expense for subscribers.
Thanh Nien,TT
|
