Vice chairman of VNPayTV, Le Dinh Cuong, spoke with Dan Tri about negotiations over the English football Premier League’s broadcasting rights.

In early November, the Ministry of Communications and Information had to step into the bidding process after concerns were raised about escalating costs. It is predicted that the bid might reach USD100 million. The ministry asked the broadcasters to establish a joint negotiation committee.

The Vietnam Association of Pay TV proposed that local TV stations should not buy the rights if the price is more than 20% higher than the last time. It was also suggested that whichever station managed to obtain the rights could share the games with the other stations at a cheaper price. All negotiations and the auction for the broadcasting rights will be concluded in May.

Vice chairman of VNPayTV Le Dinh Cuong

Can you tell us the latest development about the negotiation to buy the broadcasting right for the English Premier League?

After learning that MP&Silva, a London-based sports media company, won distribution rights to the Premier League for the 2016-2019 season to 28 countries in the Far East and Southeast Asia, we took actions to ensure we got a good price. However MP&Silva’s response on April 1 showed that they knew the value of their product and seem unwilling to offer a discount.

They emphasised that they will choose which TV station they want in Vietnam and had the freedom to make offers to any station they wanted. They are seeking to diversify their copyright package to meet the demand of any Vietnamese TV station.

Will this affect your negotiation plan?

A lot. Because they do not want to meet and negotiate, we'll have to find another solution.

What did you think when K+ Channel expressed its desire to enter private negotiations?

We have reached agreement that no TV station will enter private negotiation in anyway. We'll report this to the Ministry of Communications and Information, Government Office and other TV stations.

What will you do in case MP&Silva do want to negotiate?

We won’t pay more than 20% more for the package than for the contract that covered the last three seasons. If they can't accept the deal then we'll say no. I think many people will support us because we can't spend so much money. I think there are a lot of exciting leagues other than the Premier League.