KONI hopeful TV stations will show Olympics

KONI hopeful TV stations will show Olympics

Musthofid and Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta

The National Sports Council (KONI), which is sending 39
athletes to the Athens Olympics, said on Friday it was keeping up
hopes that a TV station would make a last-ditch bid for the
Olympic broadcast package.

"I'm still hopeful that our TV stations will broadcast the
Olympics, although I'm not sure, because the price seems an
obstacle to them," KONI secretary-general Djohar Arifin Husin
said.

Asep Sulaeman, deputy manager of live broadcasting programs at
state-run TVRI, said even if a network did an about-face and was
willing to run the program, it was highly unlikely to
materialize, as the Olympics would begin in only a week.

"That'll be dependent on how stations can arrange their
promotional advertisement offers," Asep said.

Indonesian viewers may be deprived of Olympic telecasts, as
local stations seemed uninterested in purchasing the package
offered by the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) on the
pretext that it was too expensive, while it would not give
promising commercial gains.

"We met with officials from the ABU two months ago. All TV
stations were there. The ABU offered the package for US$1.5
million and no one was interested," said Asep.

"I hoped RCTI would take it, and then we could have shared the
cost as we did for the Sydney Olympics. But RCTI seemed to have
been run down by its Euro 2004 broadcast," Asep added.

Michael Payne, head of global broadcast media for the
International Olympic Committee (IOC), thought it strange that
Indonesian stations had backed off only because the Olympic
program lacked advertising interest.

"As things now stand, Indonesia risks being the only country
in the world not to have the Games. I met with all Indonesian
broadcasters with Mr. Barton earlier this year, and the
broadcasters assured the IOC that they did want to cover the
Games," Payne told the Post in an email, referring to head of ABU
broadcast operations John Barton.

"I have seen the press comments about lack of advertising
interest -- all I can say is that this is very, very strange.
Indonesia the only country in the world where there is no
interest in the Olympics, no support, etc.

"I wonder whether it is not more a case of broadcasters,
having spent all of the money on European soccer championships,
now hoping that they can get the Olympic rights free of charge?"
Payne said.

Local stations' backpedaling from the Olympic telecast has
drawn criticism from many quarters deploring the social
institution's failure to heed the public's right to information
and accusing them of being money-grubbers.

Other observers have approached the issue from the perspective
of the industry's financial straits, such as that raised by Toho
Cholik Mutohir, director general of sports agency at the national
education ministry.

"It's deplorable that we can't watch the Olympics, but I
understand the financial condition TV stations face. To be able
to broadcast the Olympics needs huge financial resources," he
said.

Looking ahead, Djohar and Toho agreed to start thinking about
tackling the issue for the sake of national sports.

"I hope this will not sap athletes' fighting spirit in
Athens," Toho said.