Vietnam’s national broadcaster Voice of Vietnam could launch an all sports radio station following its deal to broadcast Barclays Premier League matches.
Last month, VOV signed a deal with UK sports radio station talkSPORT, which owns the global audio rights to BPL matches.
As the new season draws closer, Asia Radio Today spoke to Mr Pham Trung Tuyen, Head of Programmes from VOV about the popularity of English football in Vietnam and current talks for more sport on the radio.
1. What drove your decision to run commentaries of Barclays Premier League games on VOV?
The Barclays Premier League has proven its global dominance and its popularity in Vietnam is no exception.
This has been well demonstrated by a large amounts of money that Vietnam’s television broadcasters have splashed out to buy the rights to screen the Premier League.
However it is obvious that viewers cannot sit watching live matches on the television while they are on the move.
In addition, the exclusive rights granted to only one TV channel makes it harder for the public to access the sport.
Therefore VOV decided to sign a distribution deal with talkSPORT to bring VOV listeners coverage of the most followed matches.
2. How many games will you broadcast each week?
VOV is allowed to broadcast up to 4 live matches per week on its two radio channels, VOV2 and VOV Traffic. Depending on each particular round, we will take the number of matches into consideration.
3. Can you tell me more about the Vietnamese team based in London?
Pham Trung Tuyen, Head of Programming, VOV’s Traffic Channel.
VOV and talkSPORT worked very closely to recruit the best qualified commentators from the Vietnamese community in the United Kingdom.
Those chosen are all young, football knowledgeable, passionate and importantly they have good voices to deliver football commentaries.
At present, we have successfully recruited eight commentators.
Over the past few months, they have been all thoroughly trained to meet both VOV and TalkSPORT’s standards of football commentators.
We are sure that these eight Vietnamese commentators are ready to bring new vitality to VOV airwaves through their commentaries.
4. What has the response been from your listeners?
They’re excited! Naturally Vietnamese listeners and football fans are keen on football commentaries on our radio stations.
VOV has had a long history of broadcasting football matches.
During the later half of the twentieth century, VOV’s famous commentators Hoai Son and Dinh Khai became legends in the mind of Vietnamese football fans.
However, due to the popularity of television, radio commentaries were neglected.
With advanced technology, the demand for following football games on different devices such as mobile applications or other multimedia devices is growing.
Therefore, Vietnamese listeners are very excited about VOV’s new project.
They believe that VOV’s footballcasters, complete with live broadcasts from British stadiums will inspire our listeners.
5. Do you broadcast a lot of live sports on VOV?
Up to now, soccer has been our top priority. However, based on our radio listener research, we are thinking about launching a sport radio channel in the upcoming years.
It is certain that other sports will also be popular on air.