As the brawl of the exclusive rights over the English Premier League (EPL) in Vietnam has not been settled for months, local TV stations have begun rushing headlong into another fight for the rights of Euro 2016.

The Ministry of Information and Communications has confirmed that they would not meddle in business affairs of TV stations in the negotiation for the rights of Euro 2016 as what they had done in the EPL rights.

Early this year, the ministry sent an instruction to appoint the Vietnam Television (VTV) as head of the negotiation team, which included many other local TV stations in a bid to prevent their competitions by raising the price. But later, VTV was blamed of playing deceptive game by letting K+, a joint venture that VTV holds a 51 percent stake, buy the rights at a doubling price of US$40 million.

The new fight

July 4 was the deadline for TV stations in Vietnam to reply CAA Eleven, a US-based company having legal sales representative of Euro 2016 in Vietnam, for attending an auction to buy the rights. VTV and many other Vietnamese stations confirmed they will join the bid.

CAA Eleven offered the Euro 2016 rights for $8 million, doubling that in 2012, according to VTV deputy general director Nguyen Thanh Luong.

Luong added VTV will tender for the rights with a logical price.

“Any agent winning the rights in the auction must be clever and experienced,” Luong said.

So far, the Ministry of Information and Communications has had no instruction to local stations regarding the purchase of the rights, he added.

Hoang Vinh Bao, head of the department of broadcasting and TV management under the ministry, explained that, “The purchase of the rights is the private business affair of stations. Before, the ministry had interfered into the matter in the EPL rights because VTV asked for permission to lead the negotiation team.”