The Olympics have kicked off but will not air in Vietnam with none of the country’s television stations fronting up for the broadcasting rights, Lao Dong has reported. This makes Vietnam one of an estimated 67 countries out of 195 that have foregone buying the rights to broadcast the global sports carnival.
Notably, Vietnam was relatively late securing the rights to the Tokyo Olympics with a deal only made two-days before the opening ceremony. A last minute deal this time around, however, seems unlikely–it would be very last minute.
That said, it’s not clear there is a lot of interest in Vietnam in the Olympics anyway and it could be that cash strapped local media outlets are saving their money for sports, namely soccer, that are hugely popular in Vietnam and subsequently command much bigger audiences.
Of note, Thailand paid about US$11 million for the rights to the Paris Olympics which is just a little less than the US$12 million Vietnam paid for the World Cup rights in 2022.