TVRI considers reviving license fees on TV owners

TVRI considers reviving license fees on TV owners

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Dewi Santoso, Jakarta

State television channel TVRI said on Tuesday it was mulling
reinstating monthly license fees for television owners across the
country in order to collect the funds it needs before becoming a
public broadcaster in late 2005.

TVRI executive director Yazirwan Uyun told the House of
Representatives' Commission I for security and information
affairs here that a private sector company had told the state
broadcaster that it was willing to take over the license fee
collection service that had once been contracted out to PT
Mekatama Raya, a private company belonging to former president
Soeharto's son, Sigit Harjojudanto.

"We have received the proposal and will study it further," he
told reporters after the hearing.

Refusing to identify the firm, Yazirwan said the license fee
would be charged along with the householder's electricity bill.

Under the scheme, Yazirwan said, TV owners who fail to pay
their license fees will have their electricity temporarily
disconnected.

In the past, the license fee varied depending on the size of
the television set. The bigger the size of the TV, the higher the
fee.

Lawmakers supported the fund-raising scheme, saying that
Broadcasting Law No. 32/2002 allowed such fees to be imposed.

"Charging a license fee is just part of the implementation of
Law No. 32/2002 on broadcasting," said Effendi Choirie of the
National Awakening Party (PKB), who presided over the hearing.

Several House members, however, suggested that TVRI think out
the plan carefully. Otherwise, it could give rise to public
protests as had happened in the past. The state channel halted
the collection of license fees by PT Mekatama in 1992

TVRI is on the verge of bankruptcy, owing more than Rp 200
billion to the government, Yazirwan said.

Although TVRI already broadcasts commercials, it has
difficulties in competing with the country's 10 private TV
stations, which used to be required to pay some of their revenues
to the state broadcaster.

Yazirwan hoped the government would write off TVRI's debts in
order to help it focus on improving its programming amid stiff
competition in the world of broadcasting.

Effendi said the House would call on the government to seek
the best solution to the TVRI debt, including a proposed debt
write-off.

"But TVRI should also actively pursue those private television
stations that have not settled their debts with TVRI," he said.

Commenting on TVRI's plan to collect license fees from
television viewers, Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI)
chairwoman Indah Sukmaningsih said the fee was fair as long as
the company was transparent with the money.

"As long as it (TVRI) can offer educational programs and be
transparent about where the money goes, then the public should
support the plan," Indah told The Jakarta Post.

She said that TVRI offered better programs than other
television stations.

The other television stations, she asserted, did not provide
educational fare for children, and mostly concentrated on
celebrity shows, mysticism, reality shows and night-life shows.

"It is no longer clear what the television stations are aiming
at --helping avoid brutality and pornography, or promoting them?
Thus, if TVRI can come up with better programs, then I think we
should support the plan," she said.