The national television broadcaster – Vietnam Television (VTV) – has bought the TV right of the Euro 2012 at very high price, which is much higher than the pay for previous football events, says a VTV official, Phan Ngoc Tien.

 

Earlier, the Ministry of Information and Communications told local TV broadcasters to appoint a representative to negotiate for the telecast right of the Euro 2012 in Vietnam. The Ministry’s request is only effective for state-owned TV stations. However, private firms did not compete for the right. VTV began negotiations with Sport Five, which holds the commercial right of Euro 2012, last April. Sport Five wanted $5 million while VTV only wanted to pay a half. The two sides reached agreement in March, 2012. VTV on March 15 announced to successfully buy the television right to broadcast Euro 2012.   Accordingly, Vietnamese football fans can watch all 31 matches of the tournament live on Vietnam Television's two channels VTV2 and VTV3. “The price is very high. UEFA places strict conditions so the negotiation was prolonged and very hard. We cannot make public the value of this contract. I can only say that VTV has to pay much more than what we had to pay for big tournaments in the past,” Mr. Tien says. It is now a big problem for VTV to regain its investment. Tien says that VTV would organize sideline programs to attract advertisement. Matches at 23h.00 (local time) will be broadcast for free on VTV3 and those at 01h45 of the following day on both VTV3 and VTV2 VTV will also have commentaries before, during and after each match with the participation of sport journalists. A large number of journalists working in the host countries of Poland and Ukraine will provide local viewers with news updates and images of the tournament. Some local TV broadcasters, like VTC and HTV, say that they will negotiate with VTV to share the broadcasting right of the top football tournament of Europe. The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2012, will be the 14th European Championship for national football teams sanctioned by UEFA. The final tournament will be hosted by Poland and Ukraine between June 8 and July 1, 2012. The final tournament features sixteen nations, the last European Championship to do so (from Euro 2016 onward, there will be 24 finalists). Qualification was contested by 51 nations between August 2010 and November 2011 to join the two host nations in the tournament. The winner of the tournament gains automatic entry to the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup hosted by Brazil.

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