The Vietnamese Television Association, also known as VNTV, was the first Vietnamese-language television program to broadcast in Australia and was established before Vietnamese TV networks such as SBTN and VietFace.

Since 1996, VNTV has aired twice-a-week on Melbourne’s community television station Channel 31 (C31), with each episode running for half-an-hour.

Last year, TiVi Tuan-san reported on the occasion of VNTV’s 19th anniversary, that the Federal Government said it would stop offering C31 as an agency for ethnic programs. Instead, the nation’s community television stations were given until the end of 2016 to move online in order to free-up the digital broadcast spectrum.

From left to right: C31 Board Chair Mike Zafiropoulos, VNTV founding president Dr. Kieu Tien Dung, Labor Senate candidate Jennifer Yang and TVTS editor Hong-Anh Nguyen. (Photo: TiVi Tuan-san)

Over the past two years, VNTV lobbied with other ethnic program makers to fight to maintain their spots in the television station but failed to find a result.

On Sunday, hundreds of people attended the event held at Happy Receptions restaurant in Ascot Vale.

VNTV founder and Chairman Dr. Kieu Tien Dung said tickets sold out immediately when VNTV announced the date for the dinner function, meaning audiences and friends showed a lot of love and support for the TV program.

Speaking to TiVi Tuan-San, Dr. Kieu Tien Dung said it would have been difficult to switch to online news because the majority of VNTV viewers were from the older generation. He said unlike the younger generation, seniors were not familiar with using the internet.

– TiVi Tuan-san