Hoang Huu Luong, Director General of the Press Department under the Ministry of Information and Communications, has recently made a statement on cutting down the broadcasting time of Chinese and South Korean movies.

“Local radio and TV stations need to improve the quality and number of domestic entertainment shows, as well as increase the broadcasting time of those shows, and limit the broadcasting of foreign movies, especially Chinese and Korean films,” the director frankly said at a meeting on August 16 with local press from the central and highlands regions.

In recent years local viewers have seen widespread airing of movies from China and South Korea. Currently, VTV1 is broadcasting two Chinese movie series, while VTV3 is showing three sets of South Korean films. For its part, VTV6 is also screening a Korean and a Taiwanese series. Even VTV2, the channel which specializes in scientific topics, is also showcasing a Chinese series.

Another channel, VTV9, broadcasts eight hours of foreign movies per day, most of which are Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean.

National channels aren’t the only broadcasters in this situation, as provincial stations and cable channels air an average of 7 - 8 hours of foreign movies per day as well.

There’s only one solution for Vietnamese viewers who do not enjoy these kinds of films, and that is to pick up their remotes and turn to other non-Korean-or-Chinese foreign channels.