VTV24: CFI introduces Vietnam’s first news channel to French news production teams

A VTV delegation visited Paris from 14-18 July 2014 to meet executives from BFMTV, iTélé and France24 and take inspiration from French models. Launching a channel that will broadcast news programmes 24 hours a day is a bold step in a country where the media is still tightly controlled.

A week with French TV news teams

Six VTV managers, led by VTV24 project head Ms Le Binh, were in Paris from 14-18 July.
CFI had prepared an intensive schedule for them, centred in particular on issues related to editorial lines, business models and process organisation and on the various specialist jobs which make up the production team of a permanent news channel, via conversations with professional staff from BFMTV, i>Télé and France 24. Cécilia Ragueneau and Céline Pigalle from i>Télé, BFMTV's Grégoire de Vaissières, and Thierry Fanchon, Frédéric Bonnardand Antoine Cormery from France 24 each presented the structure and technical set-up of their respective channels to their Vietnamese counterparts.

In addition, CFI also offered the Vietmanese team the opportunity to sit in on the production of two of France's best news programmes: C dans l'air (France 5), as guests of Lagardère Entertainment COO Christophe Thoral, and TéléMatin (France 2), where their guide was Emmanuel Vannier.

Over the course of their week in Paris, the VTV24 managers heard their French counterparts give frank and detailed accounts of a variety of positive and negative experiences, which will undoubtedly enable them to expand their range of ideas.
The Vietnamese team were impressed in particular by the hybrid model followed by French news channels, which marries US-style hard news with a more generalist approach, especially as regards the quality of reporting and the attention paid to visuals. They also took a particular interest in the relationships between different editorial terms in a single organisation and in the concept of a "news factory", a role which VTV24 ultimately expects to play in the VTV group.

Fifty-five weeks of training to ensure the complete creation of an all-news channel

At the end of the visit, CFI signed a memorandum of understanding with VTV to provide 55 weeks of training in support of the VTV24 project. Spread over 14 months, this training will cover a variety of TV production jobs, in particular editing, management and organisation, training journalists and designing and directing the programming schedule, as well as the set-up and content of the website.
The new news channel is set to employ between 200 and 250 staff, will have 9 production units, and plans to broadcast news programmes across Vietnam 24 hours a day.

In a country where the demand for news is growing exponentially, especially on social networks, VTV24 represents a vital component of VTV's group strategy. The success of the channel will enable the group to strengthen its influence in Vietnam.

This project is being financed partly by VTV and partly by French government assistance in the form of development aid funds made available to CFI by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development. It will end with the launch of VTV24 in September 2015.

The overall aim of the project is to prepare for the launch of a 24-hour news channel that can produce high-quality professional news coverage and establish itself as a key news source in Vietnam, in a political environment which is not the same as our own. CFI is proud to have been chosen to assist VTV24, which draws on a dynamic and ambitious team of young Vietnamese professionals, comments CFI Managing Director Etienne Fiatte.