'ASEAN TV' developers to promote understanding
'ASEAN TV' developers to promote understanding
JAKARTA (JP): ASEAN TV, which Ariobimo Ekakarma
is developing, will operate as a satellite TV network using a
transponder of Indonesia's Palapa C-2 satellite, Sharif C.
Sutardjo, president of the company, said over the weekend.
"The TV service is designed to communicate the various aspects
of the ASEAN countries as seen from the ASEAN perspective,"
Sharif added.
ASEAN TV, scheduled to start operation next year, will
introduce a cluster of TV channels for business, entertainment,
sports, music etc., Sharif said.
"We will start with business and current affairs programs," he
said.
Ariobimo Ekakarma is a joint venture of the Ariobimo business
group and Multi Eka Karma, the investment holding company which
was founded in 1989 by the Armed Forces-sponsored General
Sudirman Foundation.
"Our mission is to promote better understanding among the
ASEAN countries in the fields of business, culture, politics,
economy and other social aspects," added Sunil H. Bharwani, the
managing director of Ariobimo Ekakarma.
"ASEAN TV is very much needed to support the ASEAN Free Trade
Area in 2003," Bharwani noted.
How could you talk about an ASEAN economic community without
an effective communications forum, added Bharwani who is also the
chief operation officer of Multi Eka Karma.
Malaysian Information Minister Datuk Mohamed Rahmat said
recently his country fully supported the ASEAN TV project.
"It will be an alternative to the western-controlled stations
which now dominate satellite TV broadcast in the region," Datuk
Mohamed said.
As far as Malaysia is concerned, Datuk Mohamed added, his
ministry would channel the ASEAN TV programs to home viewers via
cable TV.
Indonesia's Minister of Information Harmoko and Aburizal
Bakrie, chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry and the ASEAN Chambers of Commerce, also have expressed
full support of ASEAN TV.
Sharif said ASEAN TV would set up a production and broadcast
center in Jakarta where editors, recruited from TV stations in
ASEAN countries, will select and edit program contents into a
summary in its original language.
"We plan to transmit multiple audio feeds which include
Indonesian and Malaysian as they are widely understood in most
ASEAN countries. But English also will be transmitted as a
primary language," Sharif said.
He said the final program of ASEAN TV would be digitally
broadcast from the Broadcast Center via satellite to other ASEAN
countries and other parts of Asia.
The receiving satellite signal will be down linked, broadcast
and redistributed through terrestrial and/or cable TV networks
already present in various countries.
Of more importance is the satellite-network services will
enable viewers to receive satellite-beamed ASEAN TV programs
without the need for satellite dishes, which in several ASEAN
countries are banned.
The majority of the programs will be produced in Indonesia
using local and ASEAN human resources as much as possible.
"Obviously, we will conduct training programs for the
production unit, cameramen, technicians, artists, comperes in
cooperation with world-renowned training institutes such as the
BBC Wood Norton," he said.
He said the start-up investment and the first two years of
operation would need an investment of US$35 million, which
includes transponder leasing and hardware.
"Of course, the venture should be self-financing, otherwise it
will not be sustainable," Sharif said.
He said revenue would come from the sale of airtime for
commercials, subscription fees from local cable TV networks, and
the sale of programs to nonaffiliated TV networks.
"Marketing, distribution networks are the keys to the success
of our project," Bharwani noted.
Ariobimo Ekakarma, therefore, will cooperate with the cable TV
networks in the ASEAN countries, Bharwani said. (vin)