Discovery’s HGTV publicly joined the Thaole Entertainment family in Vietnam at a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City this month, digging in on its channel bouquet split between rival distributors Q.Net, which distributes Discovery-branded channels, and Thaole, which distributes former Scripps channel, Asian Food Channel (AFC), and now HGTV.

The former Scripps home/lifestyle brand has been testing with limited language customisation on VTVCab since November last year – six months after a renewal row between VTVCab and high-profile distributor Q.Net that left channels from HBO Asia, Disney, Fox Networks Group, Sony Pictures Television Networks Asia, Turner and Discovery off air.

Discovery channels are not yet back on air, although last month’s Lunar New Year peace deal put six linear channels – CNN, BBC World News, Bloomberg, Fashion TV, Fox Sports and Cartoon Network – back on the VTVCab/Viettel dial from 1 February. HGTV is also part of Viettel’s Next TV’s line up.

New shows on the March schedule include Property Brothers season seven (premieres 15 April), Flip or Flop Nashville (14 March premiere), Island Life season five (from 15 March).

Published on ContentAsia's eNewsletter 4 March 2019