House laments Athens TV debacle

House laments Athens TV debacle

Musthofid, Jakarta

Comments tinged with grief were in abundance on Thursday over the
country's Olympic non-telecast by at least two members of House
of Representatives.

Ferdiansyah and Anwar Arifin, both from Commission VI for
religion, education, culture, tourism and sports affairs, agreed
on the urgency for local TV stations to prioritize the people's
right to information over simply profit-making.

They joined in the criticism previously raised by local NGOs
and other sports fans, who commented that the motivational power
of a spectacle as grand as the Olympics and its potential to
encourage people to participate in sports could not be measured
by commercial profits alone.

However, a former TV sports producer revealed that idealism
was hardly practiced in the broadcast business, saying that TV
management personnel only looked at the bottom line.

"Idealism isn't even in the top-10 in terms of priorities.
What they have in mind is how the production cost can be covered
when they plan to buy a broadcast package," Anton Sanjoyo, former
sports programming producer with TV7, told The Jakarta Post.

TV7 was one of the 10 local TV stations bidding for the
Olympic broadcast package, but given the high price they, like
all the others, backed off.

After a "big discount", the cost was later reduced to
$900,000, but even RCTI, which is known for its telecasts of big
events, still was not interested, because they do not think they
can turn a profit from the advertisements.

Anwar Arifin, from the Golkar Party faction, however, came up
with an idealistic admonishment. Anwar said that monetary costs
should not be the only priority, but they should also consider
the people's right to information, especially the Olympics, as
the highest priority.

"It's deplorable that people will be deprived of the Olympics.
People's rights should be respected," he told the Post by phone.

His fellow Golkar member Ferdiansyah, however, could
understand the TV companies' rationale in failing to show the
Olympics.

Given the significance of the Olympics, in which Indonesia
will be one of the 220 countries with competitors in Athens,
Ferdiansyah did admit that the TV stations should have worked
together to share the costs.

"It is reasonable that the weak commercial value has deterred
TV stations from buying the package. This is business,"
Ferdiansyah said.

"But I also think that they could have come together to share
the cost. But they'll have that to think about that in the
future," he added.

At this late date, any thought of the stations now working
together seems infeasible given the competitiveness between them
and the inability to secure revenue from advertisers on such
short notice.

On the athletic front, Indonesia will be represented by 39
athletes competing in 14 sports in Athens. They have medal
hopefuls in badminton, weightlifting, taekwondo and archery, with
a windsurfer, a boxer and two tennis players Angelique Widjadja
and Wynne Prakuskya also having a slight chance to make some
noise.

Indonesia is the only nation sending athletes to the Games
that will not air it live for its citizens.