Voxtoll Internet TV is a Vietnamese television service that offers free-to-air digital television via broadband from broadband providers like DSL, cable or satellite. The name of the company is VTV and it is owned by Star India Limited. Voxtoll TV was one of the first internet television services in Asia, offering free-to-air (FTA) digital television to the people of Vietnam. It was not long before other Asian countries, especially South Korea, Canada, Malaysia and Singapore started offering digital free-to-air television as well.
VTV Online is also known as Vic tv. Voxtoll is the brand of the service provider. Vicissant is the brand name of the network. VTV Online was first launched in India and Asia in 1998 with the plan to offer free-to-air digital television services to the local market.
Currently, Voxtoll has signed deals with cable and satellite operators in over 20 countries. In Asia, it offers the most popular Asian cable television stations including China TV, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, Malaysian and Vietnamese. VTV online provides access to more than two hundred channels. The subscriber must have a broadband internet connection and have a VoIP enabled phone to be able to avail the service. This is because in Asia, where VoIP is quite new, mobile and other communication devices are still relatively expensive. Therefore, a broadband connection is of utmost importance.
Currently, VTV online is available for download on websites in English, French, German, and Spanish. It is also available on iTunes, a digital music distribution website. The subscription fees are usually very affordable. The average monthly subscription fee ranges from $8.50 in Australia to $20 in the US.
The US version of VTV online offers the service for free. This is due to the generous freebies that cable companies offer to subscribers who use VTV in the US. However, this version also offers the same channels as the other types of VTV, namely live sports, movie channels, music channels, news, cartoons, and educational videos. The VTV online package includes all the standard features of the normal VTV package, such as outbound calling, email, fast Internet, voice mail, multi-room watching, special feature videos, high definition video, and premium channels.
As mentioned earlier, there are different types of VTV service providers in Asia. They include cable television operators in Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Apart from the US, the Chinese version of VTV is referred to as CFT or China Free TV. There are many channels on CFT that are not available anywhere else in the world, such as drama and comedy series, soap operas, reality shows, music channels, films, and home shopping and lifestyle programs.
Each service provider of VTV differs in terms of the number of packages it offers and its regional reach. Some of these service providers also offer additional services. These include on-air English interpreters for Mandarin-speaking customers. A Chinese service provider may also allow the customer to surf the Internet using the Chinese local servers. These packages vary from one Asian country to another, with some of them covering more than one country, including the US, Canada, and some European countries. Most of the Asian countries have widespread access to VTV service.
Prices of VTV packages differ from one service provider to another. Usually, VTV subscription fees are a lot lower in Asia than in other parts of the world. This is probably because of lower costs associated with labor, transportation, and distribution. It is also likely that Asian countries experience less economic pressures and thus can afford to provide more VTV programming and services, at lower costs than its counterparts.