Betawi programs become favorite
Betawi programs become favorite
JAKARTA (JP): Rano Karno, producer and actor of the popular
television series Si Doel Anak Sekolahan (Doel, the Graduate),
was upset to discover that the series had been pirated abroad.
He said he was surprised to hear people calling him Doel when
he was on the pilgrimage to Mecca at the end of last year. The
series had never been broadcast on any Saudi Arabian television
stations, but it turned out that it had been widely circulated
there in the form of video tapes.
Indeed, this is a sad story in terms of finance and
copyrights. But, viewing it from another perspective, the
pirating shows the undeniable popularity of the film, which tells
of the way of life of Doel, a young Betawi (indigenous Jakartan)
man.
Si Doel is possibly a milestone among the success stories of
television series based on Betawi themes. A survey done by the
research and development center of the Kompas daily recently
indicates that 70 percent of Jakarta's nine million inhabitants
enjoy and appreciate Si Doel.
Still another survey was carried out by Survey Research
Indonesia (SRI), which is affiliated with the United States-based
Nielsens International, during the period of Jan. 29 to June 3
this year to determine the popularity of the various television
programs being broadcast. The results showed that Si Doel was the
outright rating winner. In response to such great appreciation
for the show, the privately-owned station, RCTI, started reruns
of Si Doel in May.
"The response is still good although this is not the first
showing. For each episode, we can still sell almost the whole
time allocated for commercials," said Iksan, who is on RCTI's
public relations department staff.
Adwin Wibisono of SRI, confirming Iksan's statement, told The
Jakarta Post that the episode of Si Doel, screened on the first
of May, reaped a total of Rp 134 million (around US$60,0000) from
21 commercials run for 11 minutes during the 62-minute show.
Iksan said that 12 minutes are allocated for commercials
during each episode of Si Doel.
Currently, the rate for running a 30-second commercial spot
during the episode of Si Doel is around Rp 6 million, or Rp 2
million more than the rate set when Si Doel was aired for the
first time early this year, Iksan revealed.
He added that despite its regional theme, Si Doel is loved not
only by the Betawi people and others living in Jakarta.
"We air this throughout the country and the response from
outside Greater Jakarta is good too," Iksan said.
Si Doel is not the only Betawi-rooted TV series to gain such a
popularity. Other programs such as Lenong Bocah, Hari Harry Mau
and Flamboyan 108, which are telecast respectively by the
privately-owned stations TPI, ANteve and Indosiar, have also
received good response. Only Erte Erwe, a spin-off of Si Doel
shown on RCTI, has not done as well as projected.
SRI found that during the period of May 28 to June 6,
Flamboyan 108 was the seventh most popular program in the
Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya areas.
"Maybe people like these Betawi programs because the Betawi
people portrayed are spontaneous, innocent and humorous. And the
Betawi people are like that," Iksan said. (als)