Local TV lacks originality

The state-owned TV network TVRI and two of the now five private TV stations celebrate their founding anniversaries this month. There have been many changes in the local TV world in the past year -- and more are expected with the debut of several stations scheduled before the year is out -- but have these been for the better of the viewing public? The Jakarta Post's Hera Diani tunes in to find out if quantity, not quality, still dominates what we see on the tube.

JAKARTA (JP): It has been 12 years since the country's first private television station, RCTI, went on the air.

Back then, for a public bored of the old-fashioned and dull TV programs screened by TVRI since 1962, the new station was a dazzling revelation.

Finally, we could watch shows that were popular on the other side of the world and see for ourselves what the fuss was all about, instead of just reading reports in magazines and newspapers.

Even the commercials, banned from TVRI since the early 1980s, were a feast for the eyes. In short, it was no longer a question of staying home to watch the same old stuff. TV finally had something to offer.

Fast forward to today, and a lot has changed in the local TV pool. There are now five private TV stations, with the latest, Metro TV, starting its news and magazine heavy 24-hour programming last November.

Several other TV stations, including Trans TV, are slated to begin broadcasts later this year.

While they may be increasing in number, are local TV stations succeeding in entertaining, serving as sources of information and educating their audience?

Do a bit of channel surfing on any day of the week, and you are likely to be met by a sea of sameness. Although there are exceptions, such as the phenomenal success of quiz show Siapa Berani in attracting advertising to an early morning slot, critics say the TV stations have taken the same approach to their programming; if a particular type of show was a hit on one station, it is almost guaranteed other stations will soon present a similar program.

First there was the trend for mid-morning Indian movies, then Latin American telenovela (soap operas), followed by dangdut music shows. Today, there is a glut of big-money game shows and sex discussion programs.

Natalia, 26, said that she preferred the programs on private TV stations in their early years. Today, she added, they are trying to grasp at what they think the public wants but failing miserably.

"The TV stations are trying to be creative by presenting local shows like sinetron (soap operas) and entertainment news programs, but it can hardly be called entertaining," said the employee of a private company.

The soaps, she said, have weak scenarios and only rely on the name value of famous stars, while the entertainment shows are too "nosy".

"I think it's OK if we have more imported programs because they're more educative," Natalia said.

Veven Sp Wardhana, the coordinator of the Media Watch Program at the Institute of Studies on the Free Flow of Information (ISAI), said that the content of television in the country had yet to improve.

"The companies are growing, but not the content. There is hardly any variety. You can't distinguish the shows from different TV stations as all of them are similar," he told The Jakarta Post.

Film director and TV observer Garin Nugroho said that TV stations were still caught up in the euphoria of making it onto the air, but they had yet to get down to the real business of producing quality shows.

"They only make programs which sell, but none of them dare to focus on a market. They have similar segmentations," he said.

That means, Garin asserted, the television industry was still "half-baked" and within the period of over a decade, it had failed to transform itself from a "handicraft" industry to a modern one.

TV stations do not have the ability and courage to diversify their programming, he added. Part of the problem is the people factor.

"The industry has failed to produce qualified human resources (with creative ideas). For example, most of the quiz shows are adapted (from foreign shows)," he said.

The head of the public relations department of SCTV, Uki Hastama, said that the station was aware of the criticism.

"The problem is that our studio facility to produce our own programs is limited. Therefore, we rely so much on production houses," he said.

It is a vicious cycle because the number of production houses is also limited.

"It's still dominated by certain production houses which produce sinetron. Other houses only produce entertainment information programs," Uki asserted.

As competition became tighter in the past two years, especially with the launching of Metro TV, Uki said the key to survival was to give the public what it wants, including sinetron, which many critics pan as having little connection to the lives of most Indonesians.

"Local programs have high ratings," he argued.

Veven questioned the accuracy of the ratings system.

"Producers said that it was based on market demand, on ratings. But I'm not sure about it because they never do research."

Openness

TV stations are now dealing with the opportunities and openness of the reform era, a stark contrast to the environment when they started a decade ago.

It shows in how they present the news.

Stations now compete with each other to present the latest developments, such as during the tense Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly, and supplement it with talk shows discussing the events.

According to former director of TVRI and TPI, Ishadi SK, the programs are good for providing political education for the audience.

"In the political process, the programs are very educative. We get to see who's credible and who's not," he said.

"The talk shows, however, have yet to be in depth."

However, Veven said that all of the stations were still unable to dig deeper to explore what the news they report is really all about.

"Like recently, all of the attention was focused on Gus Dur, while there were still many angles that could be explored."

The new openness has also brought in the freer discussion of once taboo subjects, including sex.

Veven said the programs discussing sex were sensationalist and not intended to provide a public service.

"Sex programs on western television explore, besides exploiting, (the subject) so it's also educative. While here, it's merely exploitation," he said.

Future

Garin said TV stations in the future would be expected to be more professional as the public becomes more discerning.

"The euphoria of quiz shows and telenovela has decreased. People are no longer amazed at those programs and they will look for programs that are really watchable. So, the stations need to be more creative," he said.

For the moment, he added, creativity was on the back burner as stations thought about their bottom line and there were still no public institutions to act as a TV watch dog.

Ishadi said that in addition to broadcasting schools to improve human resources, more TV channels were needed to improve creativity.

TV personality Helmi Yahya, who is a successful game show producer, including Siapa Berani, agreed that more stations would push the creativity button to keep viewers tuning in.

"That's the test for creativity. A new market is a good sign as it will cause competition. Hopefully, it can produce more creative people," he said.