Indonesian provinces gear up for more local TV stations

Indonesian provinces gear up for more local TV stations

Luas Samudera, Contributor, Jakarta

The new autonomy law introduced last year immediately
encouraged many Indonesians to set up television stations in
remote cities far away from the bustling capital, where the
current nationwide stations dominate the landscape of free-TV.

Broadcast Law No. 24 issued in 1997, which said permits for
broadcast frequencies were under the authority of the ministry of
information, remains ineffective because the ministry was
disbanded in 1999.

Furthermore, according to Hinca Pandjaitan from
nongovernmental organization Media Law and Policy Center, there
will be no more new licenses issued for nationwide television
stations because under the autonomy law, as far as permits are
concerned, the ball is now in the court of the local government.

"It's true that there's confusion because several local
governments are not aware of this situation and instead they
direct businesspeople seeking permits to the transportation
ministry," Pandjaitan, who is also a media law ombudsperson,
said.

That situation has triggered the setting up of several local
television stations, which cater for limited regional
viewerships.

One of the new local television stations, JTV, a subsidiary of
one of the largest media groups, Jawa Pos, made its maiden
broadcast in November last year in Surabaya, East Java.

The Jawa Pos group has earmarked US$1.5 million for the
station, whose launch date on Nov. 10 coincided with national
Heroes Day. The celebration of that day commemorates the
patriotic war during the struggle against the Dutch in 1945 in
Surabaya, later known locally as the City of Heroes.

With a "footprint" limited to East Java only, the station now
transmits for an average of 7.5 hours daily, with a disappointing
performance. After being on the air for five months, none of its
programs has gained any rating points at all, including its
Sunday prime time Ketawa Ala Kartolo (a comedy featuring
Surabaya's most well-known traditional opera, or Ludruk stage
performer, Kartolo). Using data from research firm AC Nielsen,
and in the words of a layman, it can be said no one watches JTV
programs.

But that fact has not discouraged other provinces from running
their own television stations.

The Jawa Pos subsidiary, Riau Pos Media, introduced Riau-TV in
the oil-rich province of Riau, near Singapore, to add to the
choice of Jakarta-based terrestrial stations and an existing
local station, Pekanbaru TV, which went on air a year earlier.

"RTV was set up in response to the Vision Riau 2020, which is
to make Riau a Malay cultural development center," said Riau Pos
Media Group CEO Rida Liamsi.

Pekanbaru, the provincial capital of Riau, also hosts the
headquarters of oil firm Caltex, which already subscribes to one
pay-tv service.

Unlike nationwide free-TV stations, which spend millions of
dollars on programming acquisitions, these stations are not
really concerned about program content. What is more important to
them is to get their signal on the air.

In the South Kalimantan town of Hulu Sungai Utara, the local
government set up early in May a television station under a brand
name Amuntai TV (AMteve). It broadcasts local TV programs for one
hour per day, twice a week. The station's main function is to
relay the transmissions of four terrestrial stations RCTI, SCTV,
Indosiar and TPI which were previously accessible only via a
satellite dish.

"The broadcast time is flexible. If the regency head (bupati)
is not home yet, we delay the broadcast," said AMteve operations
director Nuralim Priswantara, who also serves as a cameraman,
floor director and technician simultaneously.

Sometimes there are not even commercial considerations. Having
a population of only two million relatively primitive people,
mostly in less well-developed areas, the Indonesian easternmost
province of Papua, formerly Irian Jaya, has also launched its own
local television station Televisi Papua Indonesia Network (TPIN).

For a 30-minute broadcast, the station needs an average of Rp
70 million. And for 30-minute? commercial broadcast, it must
provide Rp 100 to Rp 150 million. There is no possible way of
making money, considering the size of the local economy. But yet,
it plans to run for 24 hours per day, said TPIN president
director Yesaya C. Santoso, while refusing to elaborate on the
source of his financial backup.

While in Makassar (formerly Ujung Pandang), a firm -- PT
Makassar Lintasvisual Cemerlang -- expects its newly established
station Makassar-TV to be on the air in June this year for a
five-month trial period. President director Andrey Arief Bulu
said the firm had earmarked Rp 5 billion ($500,000) for the
setting up of the station, which relies 70 percent on local
content. There are no immediate details available of what the
local content will be about.

But certainly, some businesspeople see a light at the end of
the tunnel. For example, Nurcholis, from a sleepy little town,
Banyuwangi, at the eastern tip of Java. Having a technical
background, a spirit of entrepreneurship and armed with a VHS
handycam, Nurcholis has set up his own station Escape Television.
Running on VHF frequency and without a formal license, Escape
Television has served viewers in Srono district for about five
hours per day since July 2000. The content? Whatever is happening
in the community, from a live wedding party to song requests to a
pigeon-flying contest. Nurcholis makes millions of rupiah from
his service every month.

So, who wants to be a millionaire?