Strategy for improving game show quality in yeah1 channel at yeah1 company

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

NGUYEN TRUONG AN

STRATEGY FOR IMPROVING
GAME SHOW QUALITY IN YEAH1
CHANNEL AT YEAH1 COMPANY

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

NGUYEN TRUONG AN

STRATEGY FOR IMPROVING
GAME SHOW QUALITY IN YEAH1
CHANNEL AT YEAH1 COMPANY

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: PROF. TRAN HA MINH QUAN

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019

SUPERVISOR’S REPORT ON THE THESIS SUBMITTED
FOR DEGREE OF MASTER of BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

The thesis proposal title:

STRATEGY FOR IMPROVING GAME SHOW QUALITY AT YEAH1 CHANNEL
IN YEAH1 COMPANY

Student Name: Nguyen Truong An
Supervisor: Prof. Tran Ha Minh Quan
1. General comments
 Remarks on the student’s attitude:
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
 Remarks on the assignment’s academic quality:
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
2. Overall assessment:
Meet requirement for submitting
Not meet requirement for submitting
3. Other remarks:
-

Did the student follow the report schedule?
Yes

No

Other ………………………………

- The Turnitin plagiarism percentage:
Supervisor’s signature


TABLE OF CONTENT
EXECUTIVE SUMARY
PART I – INTRODUCTION
1. Company background
PART II - PROBLEM CONTEXT
PART III - PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
1. Intense competition
2. Audience intent to use digital platforms to watch game show
3. Poor service quality
PART IV - CAUSE VALIDATION
PART V – SOLUTIONS
1. Recuirting the quality consult to control a content of the game show as well as
fan page administrator
2. Outsourcing scriptwriter to have good content
3. Outsourcing game show manufacturing company while Yeah1 still broadcast
this game show
4. Solution selection
5. Action plan
PART VI – SUPPORTING INFORMATION
1. Appendix
2. Reference

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Executive Summary
In today's fiercely-competitive media and entertainment environment, television
ratings play a pivotal role not only for television stations to evaluate how efective their
investment is, but also for media agencies to assess how effective their marketing
campaign is. In the case of the studying joint stock company YEAH1 Group
corporation which has been using television ratings to decide whether game show
programs should be produced or bought from the third party to attract advertising
agencies.
Yeah1 company is facing a decrease in a rating of game show broadcasted on
television at the weekend. This symptom will negatively affect market share, a number
of advertising agencies, and even revenue. This problem is the unattractive content of
the game show which is directly produced by themselves. In the long-term, if this
unexpected situation is not solved, it would damage the mission of the company being
become one of the top television stations in Vietnam.
The mentioned solution to deal with this problem is a process of some activities:
re-researching the need of the audiences to keep up with the mainstream of the market
to help production team to generate new game show with better content. Along with
these activities, the company should boost the discuss about game show to create
debates and argues with the goals of enhancing game show image.

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Company background
YEAH1 GROUP CORPORATION has been established in Vietnam since
2006. YEAH1 consists of 15 subsidiary and affiliated companies, operating in two
separate segmentations: traditional and digital channels.
 In this traditional channel, the company generates revenue through:
 Providing the advertising services through some television channels

the company owns such as Yeah1 TV, Yeah1 Family, iMovie TV, and
UNI Channel
 The advertising agency for television stations such as HTV, THVL and
so on.
 Investment, production or marketing for movie theaters.
 For the digital channel, YEAH1 owns one of the most popular Multi-Channel
Network. YEAH1 is also Youtube’s partner. The revenue is generated by:
 Advertising on a Youtube digital platform.
 Advertising on YEAH1 and YEAH1’s partner.
YEAH1’s mission is to become a leading company in providing advertising
services in the traditional and digital platforms. This paper will primarily focus on the
traditional channel. More specific, YEAH1 will broadcast advertising through the
Yeah1 TV channel.

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2.PROBLEM CONTEXT
In the media industry, the rating is defined as an average audience watching
television at every time unit. The purpose of this rating allows television stations like
YEAH1 to know exactly how many audiences watching YEAH1’s game show in the
primetime period. Television stations spend a number of money producing or
purchasing famous game shows to attract and retain viewers. Therefore, game shows
have to be carefully invested to accommodate the needs of the audiences to increase
viewership measured through ratings. This figure is also considered as reference data
for an advertising agencies to allocate marketing expenses and purchase
advertisement.
The data from the research company indicated that there is a gradual
decrease in YEAH1’s game show ratings which is broadcasted in the primetime period
between 8 p.m to 10 p.m at weekend in 2018.

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Figure 2.1 Game show average rating from week 1/2018 to week 51/2018
YEAH1’s game show ratings are approximately 0.7% in the first week of
the year 2018. It decreases gradually to 0.5% in week 27 of the year before going
down under 0.5% in the last week of the year 2018. While ratings of a game show in
VTV3, HTV2, HTV7 and THVL1 channels is an upward trend in the same year 2018.
Moreover, the rating of YEAH1 is lowest compared with their competitors, which

8


proves that the average number of audience of YEAH1 watching game show is
intending to watch the game show on other television stations.

Rating of television channels from 2015
to 2018
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0

VTV3

VTVcab 17 Yeah1TV
2015

HTV2-Vie Channel
2016

2017

HTV7 (TH
TP.HCM)

THVL1 (PTTH Vinh
Long)

2018

Figure 2.2 Game show ratings from 2015 to 2018

To be specific, ratings of HTV7 increase from 2015 to 2016, especially going up
significantly between 2016 and 2018 to over 4% in 2018. HTV7 is owned by the state,
being well-known for broadcasting a variety of top game shows such as Giọng Ải
Giọng Ai, Thách Thức Danh Hài, Nhanh Như Chớp, Người Bí Ẩn, Vì Yêu Mà Đến
which reach the high average. HTV2 is also among state, the rating of HTV2
gradually increases year-by-year. Television station which is familiar with people
living in Mekong Delta is Vĩnh Long station which owns 2 famous game show such as
Cười xuyên Việt, Ca sĩ giấu mặt. There is an increase in the rating of THVL1 from
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over 1% to just over 3%. Similarly, from 2015 to 2018 witnessed an increase by
national television channel (VTV3). In the contrast, after raising from 2015 to 2016,
Yeah1TV goes down between 2016 and 2018. To sum up, while there is an upward
trend in the rating of competitors, Yeah1TV shows ineffective performance.
It is inevitable that a decrease in rating negatively affects the Yeah1 company.

Share of television channels
16

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

0
THVL1 (PTTH Vinh HTV7 (TH TP.HCM) HTV2-Vie Channel
Long)
Year 2015

Year 2016

Year 2017

VTV3

VTVcab 17 Yeah1TV

Year 2018

Figure 2.2 Shares from 2015 to 2018

While the market share of competing companies goes up from 2015 to 2018,
Yeah1TV, in contrast, reduces from over 2% in 2015 to approximately 1% in 2018.

10


With the decrease in ratings, advertising agencies are leaving the YEAH1
channel and switching to other television stations.

Month

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Number
of

12

12

12

11

11

11

11

11

10

10

10

10

agencies

Figure 2.2 Number of agencies from January to December (2018)

Apart from the film series, the game show is one of the programs that bring high
revenue to YEAH1, which makes up over 20% of total revenue. Therefore, with regard
to the important role of ratings as I mentioned before, therefore decrease in game show
ratings is a prominent symptom YEAH1 company should pay more attention.

3. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Qualitative research will help to prove the information I received before without
bias through depth-interview. The participants include:
 Audiences
 Production Director
 Marketing Director
 CEO

Initial Cause-effect Map will be built through data from an unstructured
interview guide.
The interview with some audiences helps understand to know the hobbies of
watching television and then choose properly audiences who have an activity of
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viewing the game show to find out the real reasons why they do not watch the game
show on the Yeah1 channel.
From the audience’s perspective
Starting to research, I conduct a depth-interview with some audiences. My
question is: “Do you watch television ?”
Audience 1 (Mr. Tài) shared his point of view: “I actually do not watch television
because I am busy with my work and family andIi like doing exercises which are good
for my health in my time off instead of sitting in from of the television”
From his mention, I could understand that one of the reasons audiences do not
watch the game show is that watching television is not their favorite activities which
leads them not to watch game show on television. Therefore, people who do not watch
television will not key interviewees to explore the cause of symptom as I mention in
the previous part. I will conduct a interview until we explore the newly proper
information.
We continue interviewing with audience 2 (Miss Huệ) said: “I have the habit of

watching television on the evening weekend. I often used to watch the game show in 2
or 3 years ago. However, I usually watch films series on VTV3 since game shows are
not interesting and unique. In contrast, film series on VTV3 generate drama and make
viewers curious.”
Audience 3 (Miss Ngọc) shared his point of view: “I am a big fan of a game
show. I often spend over an hour watching a game show on the television, but Yeah1’s
game show does not attract me. I like game shows on HTV and THVL with genres such
as comedy, music and so on.”
With two audience’s answers, I found that there are more two reasons why
audiences do not like watching the game show on the Yeah1 channel. The first one is
that people like viewing television, but they like watching movie series, music, sports
events, documentary and so on. The last one is that audiences like watching the game
show, however, there are a number of the game shows with many genres broadcasting
at the same time, audiences have a lot of choices of enjoying the game show which
leads to the decrease in Yeah1’s rating.
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I continue with the interview who is watching or will watch game show in the
future to understand why audiences do not watch YEAH1’s game show.
Audience 4 (Mrs. Thủy). She told: “My preference is watching game shows. I
usually enjoy it with her relatives on television at the weekend. I only watch the game
shows on HTV, VTV, and THVL because I am using K+ television network, Yeah1 TV
do not appear on K+ network.”
Audience 5 (Ms. Tiên) said: “Most of the game shows have the same format,
manufacturers find ways to draw viewers attention with many tricks, especially
scandals related to judges, players. While the contestants are increasingly exhausted
due to too many programs, which lead to the shortage of contestants as participating
in dozens of game shows, judges appear a lot on numerous game shows, even in the
same period of time. Therefore there is not something new to watch. I like the

previous master of ceremonies of YEAH1. They were so fun, they worked together to
make us smile. However, the new master of ceremonies is not as fun as. They are a
married couple, so not as hilarious as”.
From the mentions above, I continue exploring three reasons why audiences do
not watch Yeah1 channel. The first one is channel popularity which is still not
broadcasted on some television networks. It only appears on HTVC, VTVcab, SCTV.
The second one is the quality of the content of game show which is reducing gradually
because the game shows have been significantly increased, while the old game shows
bought from foreign format do not still launch, the new game show continues to buy
and produce.
Game shows are similar to the script and famous participants. The last one is the
master of ceremonies which makes audiences laugh, joyfulness. They are not graceful
enough to attract the audience.
I continue the interview with audience 6 (Ms. Hoa). She shared the point of view:
“I like watching the game show and YEAH1’ s game show, butIi do not have free time
at night weekend. I usually watch this game show on Youtube later or tomorrow after
the game show finished at night. Another reason I like watching the game show on
Youtube is that I can enjoy catching images and icons and skip advertisements I do not
waste my time”.
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From the information, I received from the interview. I found that audiences do
not the watch the game show because of the benefits of the digital platform created.
The first one is convenience. It is easy to enjoy the game show with the laptop, mobile
phone at any time, anywhere. Another reason is that the digital platform can completly
replace television because it can accommodate the need of audiences with better
quality or even better quality.
The interview with the producer is to know how well the quality of the current
television game show produced compared with previous game shows and their

products of rivals
From Production Director’s perspective
I continued a interview with the Production Director, Mr. Hòa, and asked him:
According to you, how do you evaluate the game show this year compared with the
game show previuos years?
He said: “As you know, YEAH1’s game show is produced since 2008, therefore
the content is not new to attract and retain audiences. This is the reason why we suffer
difficulties in inviting famous actors, actresses, and singers to attend. Because they are
scared of losing their image to the public. However, the difficulty level will be
increased significantly to bring about the happiness to audiences through
communication between MC and contestants”.
Having a interview with the marketing manager to figure out how marketing
campaign work, which channel works efficiently to enhance or eliminate to reduce the
cost.
From the Marketing Director’s perspective
Based on a interview with Mr. Nghị, asked him: How you evaluate the
efficiencis of marketing channels using by the company bring about? He answered:
“Yeah1’s game show is introduced in both traditional methods and digital methods.
According to digital method, Yeah1 own multiple channel network with more 4 billion
views per month. It is completely clear that the teaser of Yeah1’s game show is
approached by audiences through statistical figures such as view, comment, reach and
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so on. For the traditional method, Yeah1’s game show is introduced on the two biggest
television networks (VTV cab and SCTV). This means that marketing campaign is
efficient”.

Interviewing with CEO depicts that what the stategy of the company is, reason
for the decrease in rating. That helps to know more about the problems the company

are suffering.
From the CEO’s perspective
Based on the interview with Phúc Trí – CEO, the cause of a decrease in game
show rating involve fierce competiton between television stations and channel
popularity.
“ There is a variety of game show broadcasted from Monday to Sunday. The
audiences may be bored with game show. In 4 or 5 years ago, the competition between
television stations is not much. Every television station exploits different customer
segmentations. However, these days they want to try to diversify their audiences
within one channel. In addition, the company is negotiating contracts with television
networks such as K+, FPT, VTC to broadcast YEAH1 channel”.
He also explained more that revenue from television makes up over 40 percent of
total revenue. The company continues to invest more in this area.
Based on the information I collected from the interview data, we have the Initial
Cause-Effect Map as below. There are 8 cause-effect found from the interview leading
to a decrease in game show rating. Firstly, audiences will watch a game show on the
digital platform like Youtube or Facebook at different times after it was broadcasted
on television in prime time. Secondly, audiences like to enjoy a short video on
Youtube and Facebook with more beautiful effects thanks to technology development.
Thirdly, outdated content makes the production department hard to invite famous
contestants. Fourthly, the communication between hosts and contestants is not
joufulness to maintain audiences.
Fifthly, Yeah1channel does not appear on television networks such as K+, FPT,
VTC. Therefore, audiences paying these television networks do not watch the YEAH1
game show.

Sixthly, there are a number of game show genres at the moment.
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Therefore, audiences have a lot of choices for their entertainment. Seventhly,
audiences’ preferences are also film series, music festivals, sport events and so on.
Last but not least, the audience’s behavior of watching television also affect the rating
of the game show because of the negative effects of watching television on their eye
cornea and watching television not being a hobbies

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Audiences intend
to use the digital
platforms such as
Youtube and
Facebook to
watch the game
show

Watch the game show
on Youtube after it
broadcasted
Watch a short video
with catching effects
on Youtube
Outdated the game
show content
manufactured by
YEAH1make it
difficult to invite
famous contestants,
MC and so on.

Poor service
qualities

Competition between
host and guest is not
joyfulness, which
leads to losing loyal
audiences that like
watching the game
show

Game show
ratings decrease
from 8 p.m to 10
p.m at the
weekend

Yeah1 channel does
not appear on
television network
such as K+, FPT, VTC

Audiences have a lot
of choices of game
show genres
Intense
competition
Audiences intend to
watch different

programs such as film
series, sport events

Audiences’
behavior

Watching television is
not their hobby as
effects on eye cornea,
preference and so on
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In the literature, I also found some theory relating to possible problems
3.1 Intense competition
Film serials and game show are considered as the gold formula for television
stations earning a number of money in a few decades. Therefore, the show game
exploded on television, especially from 2012 to 2016. It is especially popular in
channels: VTV3 (Vietnam Television), HTV (Ho Chi Minh City Television) and
THVL (Vinh Long Television Station). It is mainly a foreign format purchasing
program, in addition to some pure Vietnamese game shows. With the prospect of a
significant growth rate, YEAH1’s game show has to suffer severe competition from
other television stations. In more detail, there are 6 game shows broadcasting in the
same period of time with YEAH1’s game show. Moreover, YEAH1’s game show has
to compete with other programs such as film serials, live sports events and so on.
3.2 Audience intent to use digital platforms to watch game show
There are a number of theories that have been used to explain adoption of
technology. It includes the theory of planned behavior, the technology acceptance
model, and the innovation diffusion theory. According to Adams, Nelson and Todd
(1), there is a correlation between behaviors and intentions of audiences’ behavior in

technological usage. With the study of Fishbein & Ajzen , they determined important
elements of audience decision making and their behavior will be behaved by their
intention (2). A number of researches applied this theory explain successfully human
behavior. However, this model shows some weakness when using the predict the
audiences’ behavior in media environment beacause of some technology nature on
technology adoption of human. But fortunately, technology acceptance model has been
designed for technology adoption and information system (3). The technology
acceptance model which is developed model of theory of reasoned action promoted by
Davis and Davis et al. (4). This model is mainly central to components of a system
considered as elements that exert the impacts plans and actual behavior when it comes
to utilizing technology system to predict intention of audience and actual behaviors.
This model mentioned that two indicators of future technology usage in both
organization and individual and actual behavior of audience include perceived
usefulness and ease of use. Innovation diffusion theory is another extension of theory
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of reasoned action. It is similar to technology acceptance model to predict technolgy
adoption of customers. This theory has been applied successfully in many areas such
as education, media, marketing and so on. This model consist of compatibility,
complexity, relative advantage and observability (5). According to Abelman (6),
thanks to the technology advances, there is an transition from traditional to digital
economy. Therefore, more and more people have tendency of utilizing digital
platforms for their entertainment purposes (7). The research find that digital channel
can replace traditional channel as digital channel is functionally similar to traditional
media such as entertainment, relaxation, pastime, information seeking and so on(8).
Moreover, digital channel has more relative advantage over traditional channel such as
content related attributes, technology related attributes and so on (9). The fact that the
digital technology has become prevalent among customers is inevitable because of the
significant benefits generated by this tendency(10).

Based on the interview data from audience 3, she said: Video online completely
replace television. It acommodates my needs as well as better quality. It beleives that it
will be a key trend in the future.
3.3 Poor service quality
According to Dawkins and Reichheld (11), offering quality service is considered
as important aspects of the companies if they want to succeed and survive in severe
competition environment. When customer’s assessment of service quality are high, the
behavioral intentions of customer are likely to be favorable, which could strengthen
the relationship with the company. While customer’s assessment service quality are
low, the behavioral intentions of customers are likely to be unfavorable and the
relationship is probably weak. Behavioral intentions can be considered as signs of
whether customers will remain with or leave from the company (12).The customers
repurchasing existingly and potentially is impacted directly by service quality.
Therefore, it is implied that poor service will diminish the intention of audiences.
This is completely true with the answer of production manager, Mr Hòa and audience
2. They mentioned that content of Yeah1’s game show is not attractive compared with
their rivals.

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To sum up, there are primary reasons that the audiences do not watch the
Yeah1’s game show based on the information we collected from in-depth interviews as
well as the theories. First one is the advantages of technology, Youtube bring about.
Second one is poor service quality. Last one is severe competition in media industry
that make audiences have lots of choice of enjoying televisions.
From analyzing theory and practical interviews, I find out three potential
problems which are presented in Updated Cause-effect map below:

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Watch game show on
Youtube after it
broadcasted
Audiences intend
to use digital
platforms such as
Youtube and
Facebook to
watch game show

Watch short video
with catching effects
on Youtube

Outdated game show
content manufactured
by YEAH1make them
difficult to invite
famous contestants,
MC and so on.

Poor service
qualities

Competition between
host and guesst is not
joyfullness, which
lead to losing loyal

audiences that like
watching game show

Game show
ratings decrease
from 8pm to
10pm at the
weekend

Yeah1 channel do not
appear on television
network such as K+,
FPT, VTC

Intense
competition

Audiences have a lot
of choices of game
show genres

Audiences intend to
watch different
programs such as film
series, sport events

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According to new research conducted by market research company TNS about

source of information affecting to purchasing decision, 79 percent of interviewees said
that television is main source of information to help them make decisions. This result
prove that utilizing digital platforms is still future’s story watching television is main
activity to meet their purposes.The media and entertainment industry is rapidly
growing in few decades, competition is inevitable. Therefore I will come up with the
YEAH1’scentral problem which is Poor service quality
4. CAUSE VALIDATION
I will mainly concentrate on finding real cause of problem “poor service quality”.
Both brand-building effort and brand value management are considered as key
elements to lead to the game show success. In the case of entertainment products,
entertainment, experience are the salient dimensions in the game show. In the today’s
severe media environment, every television game show position and provide different
value to audiences (13). Therefore the success of television game shows heavily
depend on the serial programmes which attract and retain sponsors and audiences.
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Game show means that individual, members of team or team play the game on
television, answering quick questions, competing with other rivals to get good results,
high score

to gain then high prize which could be a cash, holidays, products or

service provided by sponsors. Therefore, game shows need multiple episodes to retain
viewers and brand value and popularity. Before determining the factors leading to the
success of television game shows, definition of value of brand will assess first.
According to Doyle (14), brand value is considered as long-term result of investment
to generate sustainable competitive advantage. In the fast-growing media industry, the
key purpose of entertainment experts is to maximize brand value. This is especially
true in case of television game show serials, the life-cycle of media products is shorter,

so the requirements of managing brand value have to be effective to get profits from
investments within short time.
In the studies of Stobart (15), there are some researches measuring the brand
value in consumer goods and financial areas such as costs, present and future earnings
and cash flows. However, there is few researches in brand management for media and
entertainment products. Regarding to Hennig-Thurau et al. (16), he defines brand
value include two types of service qualities, quasi-search service qualities and
experience service qualities plays important role in appealing and maintaining the
audiences viewing. In more detail, quasi-search service qualities refers to factors
related to game show audiences may interpret without watching game show.
Experience service qualities means factors related to game show audiences may
interpret only when watching it.
Host popularity have strong correlation with channel popularity to create the interest of
audiences. In more detail, the more popular channel is, the more popular the television
game show becomes. The host popularity also positively affect the viewership. The
viewership in return make host popularity popular. Game show organizers concentrate
on design attractive content and provide expected prize money to contestants to raise
viewing population. Increased interest result in increased viewership.

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From the above theory and practical, I have some causes of problem below:

Host popularity

Channel
popularity

Quasi-search

service qualities

Prize money
Poor service
quality

Game
show
ratings
decrease

Content
Experience
qualities
Difficulty level

In the subsequent rounds of interview with Mr Hòa (Producer), I ask him,
according to audiences comments, quality of game show this year is not appealing.
How do you feel?
He said: I will talk about MC first. We have two well-known MC (Khởi My and
Hoàng Phi) thanks to this reputation of YEAH1’s game show. They are humorous to
make audiences joyful. Hoang Phi left game show, we have to invite person who is
Khoi My’s husband. However, audiences commented that they are not as hilariuous as
previous MC. I think why game show is not attractive is content. Game show have
survived over 10 year, audiences are really familar with format, structure and situation
happening in game show.
From analyzing, we found that host popularity and channel popularity positively
affect the viewership of audiences. However, it just in short-term period. The revenue
usually come from advertising expense and sponsorship, therefore expected prize

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money is not high to balance to revenue. Finally, content is a main cause to lead to
attract well-known host as well as audiences.
From the above theory and practical, the company need to mainly focus on
content to increase the Yeah1’s game show rating.

Host popularity

Channel
popularity

Quasi-search
service qualities

Prize money

Poor service
quality

Game
show
ratings
decrease

Content
Experience
qualities
Difficulty level

Figure 4.1: Final map

5. Solutions
According to close examination above,poor content is the main cause of this
problem. Therefore, Yeah1’s purpose is to producing good content to attract as well as
maintain viewers.
According to Hennig-Thurau (17), good content includes 4 criteria:
 Emotion: How do people feel when watching game show ?
The success of media products are mostly attributable to an emotional experience
of audiences. Due to contagious feelings, people will experience in different way and
affect other people. Therefore, the content of media products and services directly
trigger emotion viewers and go viral.
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