New Asia-Pac Feed for TV5MONDE

HONG KONG: TV5MONDE has launched a third feed in the Asia Pacific, for Southeast Asian markets, as well as added Vietnamese subtitles to the French-language network.

TV5MONDE’s CEO, Marie-Christine Saragosse, was in Hanoi for the launch of the third satellite feed on MEASAT-3. The new feed enables operators to choose which subtitling languages they wish to offer to their subscribers. Previously, TV5MONDE Asie, was only available free-to-air from AsiaSat-3S with embedded English subtitles. The first language to be added its Vietnamese, with TV5MONDE available on all major platforms in the territory, reaching 5 million homes (as legitimate subscribers in this piracy-riddled pay-TV market). At launch, subtitling efforts will be focused on lifestyle programming blocks and evening movies. Later, Vietnamese subtitles will be added to drama, documentaries and magazines, in order to reach the target of 10 hours per day by the end of the year.

Alexandre Muller, managing director for Asia-Pacific at TV5MONDE, commented, “With two parallel feeds for the region, we are now able to offer two levels of service to our platform partners: an encrypted paid service with strong added value [local-language subs in DVB and H264 image quality in 16/9 format] and the existing SD service with embedded English subs.”

To celebrate the new launch of the new feed, TV5MONDE Asie will air a non-French-language film, The Guava House by Vietnamese director Dang Nhat Minh, plus a documentary called Chante! (Sing!) on the annual singing competition for local students organized by the French Cultural Centre in Hanoi.