National Geographic stops broadcasting in Vietnam

By Luu Quy   October 1, 2023 | 05:53 am PT
National Geographic stops broadcasting in Vietnam
The logo of the National Geographic HD channel on a TV in Vietnam. Photo by VnExpress/Luu Quy
The National Geographic channel, along with Nat Geo Wild and Baby TV, has stopped broadcasting on Vietnamese televisions as part of Disney's move to close linear TV channels in Southeast Asia.

Certain cable network users in Vietnam have reported not being able to access the channels for a few days prior, instead only being notified that "the program was disrupted due to technical reasons". By Sunday, the signal from all three channels were no longer available in all services in Vietnam.

National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild are channels focused on science, nature and exploration. Baby TV is a channel geared towards children's contents. All three belong to The Walt Disney Company.

The three channels were distributed in Vietnam through MSky company and were available in several broadcasting services, like FPT Play, TV360, ClipTV and VTC, according to the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information.

Domestic services however have not mentioned about adding new channels to replace the Disney channels.

In June, Disney announced it would stop broadcasting its six remaining linear TV channels National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, Star Chinese Movies, Star Chinese Channel, Star Movies and Star World in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea, to focus on direct-to-consumer streaming, Variety reported.

In 2021, Disney also stopped broadcasting 12 TV channels in Vietnam: Fox, Fox Movies, Fox Family Movies, Fox Action Movies, Fox Life, Fox Crime, Fox Sports, Fox Sports 2, Fox Sports 3, FX, Channel V and National Geographic People.

 
 
go to top