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.