'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)