Are Vietnamese TV dramas increasingly 'losing market share' in the hearts of audiences?

During the early 2000s, Vietnamese television dramas were an indispensable spiritual food for the mass audience. Famous names such as Criminal Police, The Sky Ahead, The Judge, Quynh Doll, Come Home, My Child All created small screen fevers, contributing to creating cultural memories for a generation of viewers.

However, in recent years, Vietnamese television dramas are gradually losing their appeal, giving way to other entertainment content.

According to a report from the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information, in 2024, the number of viewers of TV dramas on national channels decreased by nearly 30% compared to 2019. On the VTVGo platform, the number of visits to watch prime-time dramas has also decreased by an average of 18% per year since 2020. On social networks, Vietnamese TV dramas rarely make it to the top trending or become a hot topic of discussion like before.

Meanwhile, according to data from Statista, the average time each Vietnamese person spends watching content on OTT (Over-The-Top) platforms such as Netflix, VieON, FPT Play, TV360... increased from 56 minutes/day in 2020 to 104 minutes/day by the end of 2023. This clearly shows a strong shift in content consumption behavior, especially among the younger generation.

The explosion of online movie viewing platforms has brought a wide range of choices to audiences.

Obviously, the explosion of online movie viewing platforms brings rich choices to audiences, but at the same time, it also dilutes the attention given to traditional broadcast TV dramas.

Vietnam currently has more than 20 domestic and foreign OTT platforms actively operating. A survey by Decision Lab (2023) shows that 64% of users in Vietnam regularly use 3 or more OTT platforms for entertainment every week.

Each platform has its own content ecosystem, from blockbuster movies, international series, to carefully invested local content.

In that context, Vietnamese TV dramas – which are often broadcast at fixed times and have content spanning dozens of episodes – easily lose their foothold as audiences get used to choosing according to their personal preferences and watching at their own pace.

In addition, the short-form content model is dominating social media platforms such as TikTok and YouTube Shorts, making viewers increasingly impatient with long-form films. A report by We Are Social 2024 noted that Vietnamese people watch short-form video content for an average of 39 minutes per day, far exceeding the time spent watching traditional television.

Not only is the attention being "diluted" by entertainment apps, an undeniable reason is that the quality of Vietnamese TV dramas today does not meet the audience's expectations.

In terms of script, many films are considered to be long-winded, lacking in drama or repeating old motifs. Following the formula of dramatizing every situation without psychological depth or humanistic messages makes viewers feel bored. In 2023, out of more than 60 TV series broadcast on VTV, up to 40% received negative feedback from viewers about the content (according to VTV's internal statistics).

The movie "Walking in the Glorious Sky" caused a fever in the first episodes but gradually became "weakened".

For example, the movie Walk in the bright sky really impressive when reaching more than 11 billion views after 58 episodes but is a film that causes a lot of controversy about the script. As the last episodes go by, the film is criticized for being too "dramatic", illogical situations, and even considered weak in the script building stage.

The immaturity in the script of Vietnamese TV dramas was once recognized by director Trinh Le Phong: “The biggest difficulty for Vietnamese television dramas is the budget issue. In countries with developed television industries, the budget to produce a television drama is many times higher than ours. Only with a high budget can we have high requirements in related stages."

Screenwriter Quach Thuy Nhung also commented: "Vietnamese TV dramas will be very good and have stable quality if fully invested."

Meanwhile, screenwriter Pham Dinh Hai said that screenwriters of Vietnamese TV dramas have not kept close to real life, which leads to bad films.

“ As long as they stick to real life, filmmakers will always have something new to offer viewers. The so-called trends and tastes have not changed much in essence. For example, audiences always like a character who has a certain similarity to themselves, or is close to their dreams for the future.

Society develops, audiences also change, but that favorite trend never changes. We just need to understand our audience, then there will always be topics that suit their taste and attract viewers." The screenwriter said,

In addition, the cast – a factor that used to be a strong point of Vietnamese films – is now facing difficulties due to a lack of professional and well-trained personnel. The abuse of young actors, famous on social networks but lacking acting experience, has caused many films to lose points. A survey conducted by Vietnam Report in 2023 showed that 62% of viewers said that "awkward acting" was the reason why they stopped watching a Vietnamese film.

The fact that famous actors continuously appear in many film projects with the same character motif and acting style also makes the audience "bored".

For example, Manh Truong is considered the "male god" of the Vietnamese small screen, but when he appeared in Us 8 years later, He was criticized for "pretending to be young" because he kept showing the image of a romantic prince.

Or like Thu Quynh - who once caused a stir with her "blackened" scenes in Quynh Doll, Come Home My Child Now, viewers are "overwhelmed" by the scenes of eye-rolling and teeth-grinding. War Without Borders, My Father Is The One Who Stays Behind...

Thu Quynh's performance caused a lot of controversy in "My Father, the One Who Stays".

Meanwhile, international OTT platforms are increasingly promoting high-quality Asian content with Korean, Chinese, Thai films... which are invested in carefully from images, actors to communication strategies. Comparisons are inevitable, and unfortunately, Vietnamese films are falling far behind.

Faced with this situation, it is clear that Vietnamese television dramas need a major change to adapt and retain audiences. Vietnamese television dramas may be losing their appeal, but that does not mean losing opportunities if there are positive changes.

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/phim-truyen-hinh-viet-nam-ngay-cang-mat-thi-phan-trong-long-khan-gia-3356774.html