Television and Mobile Ubiquitous In Vietnam

Ninety-eight percent of Vietnamese households own a television, and nearly nine in 10 have a mobile phone in their household. These are among the findings issued by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and Gallup from a nationally representative, face-to-face survey of Vietnamese adults about media use habits in their country.

In addition to questions about programming and media, the survey asked respondents to name issues that were important to them. Topics that were found to be most of interest included the weather, environmental concerns, and territorial issues with China. “It is vital for us on the Board to have this kind of research, and this partnership with Gallup,” said Governor Michael Meehan of the BBG. “This is the kind of information we need in order to prioritize and set policy on how to best connect with people in more than 100 countries across the world.” Overall, Vietnamese are avid news consumers; nine in 10 (89.8%) say they access news at least daily, while nearly 94% do so at least once a week. Access to TV news varies little by gender, education or urban vs. rural residence. This in part reflects the finding that televisions are ubiquitous throughout the country, including in both urban (98.6%) and rural (97.0%) households. “Vietnam has a vibrant television market,” said Jinling Elliott, Digital Media Research Analyst at the International Broadcasting Bureau. “People may have a tiny house, they may not have furniture, but they do have a TV.” The data find that nearly nine in 10 (87%) have a mobile phone in their household, and more than three-quarters of adults (77.6%) say they personally own a mobile phone. Although most of these are low-end phones without Internet capability, 27.5% of mobile owners (21.3% of all Vietnamese adults) do have web-capable phones. Past-week Internet use was highest with Vietnamese under age 25 (58%) and those with a post-high school education (60%). Internet-capable phones are also most likely to be owned by those under 25.