Local cable firm targets Holland

Local cable firm targets Holland

By Luas Samudera

JAKARTA (JP): In a bid to tap into the huge Indonesian-related
market in the Netherlands, Indonesian firm PT Candi Pandawa
Pratama is to introduce round-the-clock all Indonesian
programming cable channel Candi Television Network (CTN).

"We see a great market potential because nearly one million
people, still the biggest, most integrated people in our country,
are Indonesian related," said Jeroen Smeele, marketing and
communication manager of Mediakabel, a Dutch digital network
operator which will carry the service.

"CTN is to provide Indonesian people in Holland the channel
they want to see," Smeele said.

"We expect to launch the service in November 2001," said CTN
CEO Naratama Rukmananda, whose channel will be one of the premium
channels in Mediakabel. CTN is now in the process of clearing
cable rights for a thousand hours of Indonesian television
programs. The acquired programs will later be subtitled into
Dutch in CTN's studio here before being shipped to the
Netherlands.

Naratama said various segments will be produced such as talk
shows, variety shows, documentaries, music, info-tainment,
tourism, travel, drama and films.

Smeele claims Mediakabel has a 62 percent market share of
about 5.8 million television households in the Netherlands. It
carries about 110 channels including pay per view services. The
operator also provides channels in Arabic, Turkish and Hindi
languages.

Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands for hundreds of
years before declaring its independence in 1945. About 45,000
Indonesian people of first generation decent are residing in the
western European country. According to CTN, there are some
900,000 people related to Indonesia in the Netherlands and its
neighboring countries.

An industry consultant who prefers to remain anonymous said
the service will depend a lot on how many subscribers there are.

"Do they have all those people subscribed to the channel?" he
asked.

One obvious problem is how to obtain the rights for the
program. "You have to pay for the programs, mostly owned by
independent producers not television stations. And you have to
pay good money for them. You also have to pay for the tape and
shipping costs."

Smart move

However, Candi's move is seen by some as a smart move as the
cable industry at home is undergoing stagnant growth.

After two years of preparation, Indonesian cable front runner
PT Broadband Multimedia (under brand name Kabelvision) has
delayed its plan to introduce three local channels: women, kids
and sports channels.

"You have to run a local channel if you want to be
successful," the consultant said. Besides carrying locally
produced programs, local channels may be in the form of imported
programs broadcast in an Indonesian-dubbed version.

Kabelvision's subscribers have shown disappointing growth
levels in the capital Jakarta and in Surabaya. It claims a total
of 200,000 homepassed, but 153,000 of them are wasted. In order
to boost subscriber numbers, it has introduced a broadband
internet service in addition to more than 50 channels it provides
on its regular service. But it does not seem to be helping its
performance in general. It has attracted only 47,000 subscribers
so far, not even a quarter of its target this year.

Meanwhile, the first Indonesian pay-tv Indovision, subscribers
have stayed at around the 30,000 mark over the past two years.
The station is still struggling with repaying its debt to the
Indonesian Banking Restructuring Agency and to Hong Kong-based
STAR TV. The firm is not able to expand its business, a source
said, before the problem with debt is resolved.

Another player, Indonusa, is in the same boat. To attract
subscribers, it provides internet access in addition to multi-
channel services. Indonusa has joined forces with French Alcatel
to develop its multimedia businesses and has injected US$200
million earlier this year to provide the service in 10 major
cities in Indonesia.

By utilizing the state telecommunication company PT Telkom's
facilities such as the Telkom-1 satellite and fiber optic
network, Indonusa expects to bring in two million subscribers
from various cities in five years. Currently it has around 10,000
subscribers.

The firm's services include a broadband access and multi-
channel pay-tv platform.

Indonusa shares are owned by PT Telkom (45 percent), the first
commercial free television station RCTI (20 percent), PT
Telekomindo (10 percent) and Datakom Asia (25 percent).