'RCTI' criticized as 70m viewers miss World Cup<\/p>\n
Muhammad Nafik
\nand Kurniawan Hari
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Holding the sole rights in Indonesia to broadcast the World Cup
\non television could turn out to be a poisoned chalice for RCTI as
\nthe House of Representatives condemned the country's oldest
\nprivate television channel for ignoring the fate of 70 million
\npotential viewers who were missing out on the month-long
\nspectacular.<\/p>\n
Considering the number of viewers that RCTI was unable to
\nreach, the House urged the nation's largest private TV station to
\nshare the rights with state broadcaster TVRI, which could reach
\n80 percent of the country's viewers.<\/p>\n
\"RCTI should be willing to collaborate with TVRI or other
\ntelevision networks so that the public's rights can be adequately
\ncatered for,\" legislator Bambang Sadono told a hearing with State
\nMinister for Information and Communications Syamsul Mu'arif.<\/p>\n
\"This is not about only one or two people, but more than 70
\nmillion Indonesian viewers,\" Bambang added.<\/p>\n
The criticism came after dozens of people in the South
\nSulawesi capital of Makassar held a rally at the RCTI branch
\noffice there following technical problems that halted the
\nbroadcasting of several matches on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Happy Bone Zulkarnain, another House member, agreed with
\nBambang, suggesting that TVRI seek to cooperate with RCTI in
\nbroadcasting the World Cup so as to meet the public demand.<\/p>\n
\"The money for this could be set off against RCTI's debts to
\nTVRI,\" he added.<\/p>\n
TVRI president Sumita Tobing has said that RCTI owes the state
\nbroadcaster Rp 80.5 billion.<\/p>\n
Barita, a senior TVRI official who represented Sumita during
\nthe hearing, said the state-owned television company was ready to
\nbroadcast the international games, but the matter was largely in
\nthe hands of RCTI.<\/p>\n
RCTI spokesman Teguh Juwarno admitted that the private station
\ncould reach only 160 million Indonesian viewers.<\/p>\n
Asked about the 70 million viewers who were excluded from the
\nWorld Cup party, he simply said: \"That's the government's
\nbusiness. We should not be blamed for that\".<\/p>\n
He said RCTI had offered TVRI and the other private
\nbroadcasters the chance of jointly purchasing the broadcasting
\nrights from the world soccer body FIFA, but they were unable to
\nafford the cost.<\/p>\n
Teguh said the rights cost US$5 million and his company had to
\nspend another $5 million so as to cover the total operational
\nexpenses of broadcasting the games from May 31 through June 30.<\/p>\n
\"On paper, we've already broken even. All the revenue is
\ngenerated from advertisements,\" he said, but declined to reveal
\nthe potential profits from the venture.<\/p>\n
Teguh said the main sponsor was the energy drink producer
\nExtra Joss, which was contributing more than Rp 35 billion in
\nadvertising revenue to RCTI.<\/p>\n
Other main advertisers included the Panasonic electronics
\ncompany.<\/p>",
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