More players to liven up the TV industry

By Gatot

JAKARTA (JP): In Indonesia, privatization of television has been rapid since 1989, when the first private pay-TV service was introduced.

There are now six private channels (RCTI, SCTV, TPI, Indosiar, ANteve and MetroTV) and one government channel (TVRI).

Metro TV, the newcomer, which made its debut as the country's first round-the-clock news channel on Nov. 25 last year, was one of five new TV stations granted an operating license by the government in 1998.

So far, the other four players have yet to disclose plans on how they are going to liven up the broadcasting competition. But it is believed that one or two of them would go on air this year or next year at the latest.

Indonesian TV broadcasters operate at the UHF channel using PAL system.

PAL TV broadcasters in Indonesia use VHF and UHF radio waves as audio video signal carriers when transmitting to any TV VHF which has 11 channels in the 47 MHz - 230 MHz range. TVRI Pusat Jakarta is located at channel 6 at the 182.25 - 187,75 MHz range.

In this country, audio carrier signals of every broadcaster are modulated by an audio carrier, which is 5,5 MHz higher than video carrier frequency signals.

RCTI, for instance, located at channel 43, has a video carrier signal of frequency 647,25 MHz and its audio carrier frequency is 652,75 MHz.

Frequencies at Indostar, a five-transponder bent-pipe satellite for Indonesian TV broadcasting, also caters for TV broadcasting in Asia.

Using X-band uplinks and S-band downlinks, Indostar is Orbital Sciences Corporation's (OSC) first GEO and its largest commercial project.

OSC, which recently acquired CTA Space Systems, is known primarily as a maker of one-of-a-kind small satellites for DOD and NASA.

Indonesia will need to construct and launch at least two new satellites before the end of the decade to replace Palapa B2R and Palapa B4, which will soon reach the end of their mission lifetimes.

So we will just have to wait for the new players, namely PRTV, Global TV, Duta Visual TV and Transformasi TV to come.