Kabelvision to show Olympics live in Jakarta

Musthofid, Jakarta

Due to the local TV stations' lack of interest in airing the Olympics, Kabelvision, a cable TV broadcaster, has stepped into the vacuum and made a deal with the Kuala Lumpur-based Asia- Pacific Broadcast Union (ABU) for the rights to the program.

"We are proud to announce that Kabelvision will broadcast the 2004 Olympics, the most prestigious global sporting spectacle, taking place in Athens," Anya Wenas, the manager of marketing communications, said in a release here on Saturday.

Anya said that the broadcasts would begin on Friday, Aug. 13 and the various events could be viewed on six channels.

ABU, whose broadcast package did not draw interest from local TV stations, confirmed the deal when contacted by The Jakarta Post.

"It was concluded last night," John Barton, ABU's head of broadcast operations, said.

Barton said that it still was not an ideal situation for the Indonesian people given that Kabelvision is only accessible to its limited number of subscribers and the coverage area is only in greater Jakarta.

Local TV stations decided not to show the general public the Olympics, after complaining of overly expensive broadcast rights and little interest by would-be local advertisers.

While the ABU declined to mention the value of the package, RCTI mentioned US$900,000. TVRI said that the starting price had been US$1.5 million.

A source close to the negotiations, however, said that the original price was over $2 million, which was then significantly trimmed to $400,000.

The ABU suggested that in the interest of Indonesian citizens, and from a cost management point of view, that the television stations should cooperate like tv station in Japan and Korea have.

"They declined," Barton said. "It is the policy of the IOC, and supported by the ABU, for the Olympic games to be seen by the widest audience possible, hence the desire for it to be broadcast on free television, by a country's national broadcaster, or a combination of them as is the case in Japan where five stations are sharing the telecast, and Korea, where all their country's broadcasters (three) are involved," Barton said.

The ABU made the latest offer but there was still not a positive response from the broadcasters.

"As late as yesterday (Friday) I offered a daily highlights program to Indonesian broadcasters but they still were not interested," Barton said.

"The program would feature all the medal events, ceremonies and other happenings on a daily basis," Barton said.

The highlight packaged was offered at just US$75,000.