TV channels Laos

Laos' television grew late but vigorously: from the first state broadcasts of the 1980s it has become a field where national general channels stand beside music, entertainment and shopping services.

How television came to Laos

Laos was the last country in Indochina to get television: before any local station existed, viewers along the Mekong border already watched overspill signals from Thailand. Lao National Television began broadcasting from Vientiane on 1 December 1983, built with Soviet support and starting with pilot broadcasts two evenings a week, two to three hours a night; its logo is still Pha That Luang, the national symbol. The state broadcaster held a monopoly until 2008, when Lao Star Television became the first private channel; satellite stations such as Lao PSTV, MV Lao and TV Lao followed in the early 2010s, and the Defence Ministry opened Lao Army TV in 2020. Today the state network runs two channels, LNTV1 and LNTV3, broadcasting in Lao with output in English, French and Khmu.

A crowded dial

Behind the transmitters stands a mixed infrastructure. Cable networks have operated since 1998, and analogue cable still carries dozens of channels while digital conversion continues. The Lao Digital TV platform, a joint venture with Chinese partners using the Chinese DTMB standard, has run since 2007; two satellite platforms, InfoSat-Laos and Laosat, both launched in 2016, each carry well over a hundred channels. In 2015 Laos also put its own communications satellite, LaoSat-1, into orbit with Chinese backing, and in 2019 LNTV's Channel 3 moved to high-definition production.

General channels

The general side of the lineup is carried by Lao Net TV, ISTV, Dao Lane Xang TV and Oh Muang Lao TV, with news represented by Brian TV - together they follow the events of the whole country, from Vientiane to the provincial towns. Vientiane's municipal station, VTE9, completes the public side.

Music, entertainment and shopping

Look Thoong TV plays music in the luk thung tradition that Laos shares with its Thai neighbours, Ning TV and Vati Lao carry entertainment, and LS TV is the shopping channel of the lineup. All broadcast under the country's 2008 Media Law, which defines the media as the voice of the ruling party.