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.