Vietnam and Japan plan workshop on smart TV

HANOI — Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications and Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications hosted a Vietnam-Japan policy dialogue on information and communications technology (ICT) in Hanoi on January 16, 2015. The meeting focused on the introduction of digital terrestrial television broadcasting in Vietnam, including next generation technologies such as smart TV and 4K/8K Ultra HD.

The two sides have agreed to organise a workshop on smart TV to be held in VietNam in March.

Vietnam has a national plan to convert its terrestrial television to digital by 2020, with the first 5 cities of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Haiphong, Da Nang and Can Tho to be converted by December 31, 2015. Since April 1, 2014, all TV products made in Vietnam, or imported into Vietnam, have had to be DVB-T2 compliant.

There are around 22 million television households in Vietnam with 2.6 million cable TV subscribers, 3.3 million satellite TV subscribers, 12.5 million with analogue terrestrial TV, and 3.5 million with older DVB-T digital terrestrial technology.