New TV stations plan to broadcast in December<\/p>\n
Luas Samudera, Contributor, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Two of the four would-be commercial stations have succeeded in
\nrunning their color bars trial days before the government
\ndeadline of Oct. 25, but their fate remain unclear as most of
\nthem cite December as the best time to launch their service.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, Global TV, the station technically lacking in
\nmanpower and programs, has delivered a strong signal as a serious
\ncompetitor to the three other new stations with a successful
\ncolor bars trial two weeks before the deadline.<\/p>\n
Global TV project officer Satya Ganeshwara said the first
\ncolor bars broadcast had been successfully launched on Monday
\nOct. 8, 2001. Airing on UHF 51 frequency in Greater Jakarta, the
\ncolor bars broadcast lasted for about a week.<\/p>\n
He said the station, which was taken over by RCTI's parent
\ncompany Bimantara earlier this year, will meet the deadline and
\nbegin its trial broadcast on Oct. 25 with an initial two-hours
\nprograming daily before going at full commercial speed in
\nDecember.<\/p>\n
Satya said Global TV, which targets 15 year-old to 29 year-old
\nviewers, shares some technical facilities with RCTI.<\/p>\n
Observers, however, doubt that operations will be smooth by
\nDecember because there are no reports that the station has
\npurchased any programs.<\/p>\n
Following Global TV, is LaTV, owned by former minister Abdul
\nLatief who also owns the Pasaraya retail chain.<\/p>\n
It has tried a color bars trial, three days ahead of the
\ndeadline. Beaming its transmission from its 320-meter tower in
\nWest Jakarta, which is boasted as the highest in the country,
\nLaTV will keep broadcasting color bars until Nov. 21. It plans to
\nrun a three-hour daily trial program the following day until Dec.
\n1 when it will launch a seven-hour daily commercial broadcast.<\/p>\n
\"Full commercial broadcast is anticipated in March next year,\"
\nsaid Chrys Kelana, LaTV's managing director and former general
\nmanager of RCTI's news department Seputar Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Unlike initial predictions, the fate of the third station
\nTrans TV remains unclear.<\/p>\n
The third station, Trans TV, had not launched its color bar
\none day before the deadline.<\/p>\n
A late boost of a Rp 300 billion loan from Bank Mandiri is
\nexpected to help it meet the deadline. With technical facilities
\nnow properly installed, it expects to be on schedule.<\/p>\n
There is no question about the caliber of the people on its
\nboard of directors, such as former director general of state
\ntelevision Ishadi SK, former vice president of RCTI Alex Kumara
\nand former SCTV news director Riza Primadi.<\/p>\n
The station has also trained hundreds of fresh graduates to
\noperate the station both in TVRI's multimedia training ground in
\nYogyakarta and in a television studio environment owned by a
\nproduction house in South Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Ishadi said a month after the government deadline, it will air
\na four-hour daily program before going commercial on December 1.
\nHowever, full broadcast operations of 20 hours daily are expected
\nto commence in April 2002.<\/p>\n
\"We will do it step by step,\" Ishadi said. Trans TV is
\nreported to have acquired several blockbuster programs from major
\nU.S. distributors such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount and
\nColumbia Tristar.<\/p>\n
The fate of the last station TV7 is still questionable. The
\nstation's frequency slot at 49 UHF in Greater Jakarta, which was
\nacquired by arguably Indonesia's largest media group Gramedia, is
\ncurrently utilized by commercial television station Indosiar.<\/p>\n
\"We might try our color bars broadcast at night,\" a source at
\nthe station said.<\/p>\n
TV7 expects to run a five-hour daily program starting December
\n1 and launch full operations in March 2002, the source said.<\/p>\n
Indosiar's spokesman Gufroni Sakaril said the station would
\nleave the problem of the frequency to the related ministry to
\ndecide on.<\/p>\n
\"We will see whether we can stick to the frequency, or we have
\nto let it go to TV7,\" Gufroni said.<\/p>\n
So, the plan of the four budding commercial stations to join
\nthe fast track of advertising competition with existing stations
\nIndosiar, RCTI and SCTV is still far from reality.<\/p>\n
An analyst said it would take at least up until the end of the
\nyear before the four stations would be able to convince
\nadvertising agencies to run commercials, the backbone of the
\nindustry, on the four stations.<\/p>",
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