New Indonesian TV station to air news in Mandarin
By Antariksawan Jusuf
JAKARTA (JP): A new TV station, Metro TV, will break the local television mold by adding Mandarin-language news broadcasts to its daily programming. This will be the first time news in Mandarin will be aired on local television.
As a news station, it will start broadcasting on Nov. 18, and on Nov. 25 it has an ambitious plan to run full-speed ahead with 24-hour broadcasts.
In its daily programming, Metro has scheduled a 60-minute Mandarin news broadcast twice daily on weekdays and two half-hour wrap ups on weekends.
Metro is one of five new commercial TV stations, to add to the existing five commercial stations. Four other new stations -- Trans TV, DVN TV, PR TV and Global TV -- must start broadcasting next year or forfeit their Rp 1 billion (US$108,695) guarantee.
The airing of news in Mandarin will be the first time since television came to Indonesia in 1962 when the state TVRI aired the Asian Games. Private stations started operating in 1989 with the introduction of RCTI.
The use of the Mandarin language was banned nationwide from 1965 to 1994 after the Indonesian government accused China of complicity in a failed coup. Up until now, there has been no news in Mandarin on Indonesian television even after the ban was lifted. Jakarta froze relations with Beijing in 1967 but resumed ties in 1990.
Besides news in Mandarin, anchored by three presenters, Metro will air several imported current affairs programs from CNNI, APTN and documentaries such as Beyond 2000.
The station, which will broadcast at 57 UHF in Greater Jakarta, is backed by businessman Surya Paloh, owner and publisher of Media Indonesia daily.
Metro operations director Zsa Zsa Yusharyahya earlier said the station would lease space on RCTI's 200-meter high tower to install a transmission antenna.
This facility-sharing has led to speculation that Bimantara, a major shareholder of RCTI, is also behind Metro TV. "No it's not true. RCTI does not have any share here. It all belongs to Surya Paloh," Zsa Zsa said.
Metro's coverage area in the first phase will include Greater Jakarta. It can also be picked up throughout the country by satellite dish. In the second phase, coverage is expected to reach several other cities such as Bandung, Surabaya, Semarang, Surakarta, Makassar and Medan.
It expects to fill in 80 percent of the slots with in-house programs. "Headlines will be given every hour, on the hour," Zsa Zsa said, adding that other programs will include talk shows and imported documentaries.
Although running against the stream by narrow casting and targeting a niche market, Metro is optimistic it will survive. And as far as news in Mandarin is concerned, the market is there ready to cultivate.
Although Chinese-Indonesians comprise only about 3 percent of the population, there are people who speak Mandarin and refer to Mandarin news as a news source.
"I don't speak English. So I watch Beijing TV for international news," admits Hendrik Linan, a China-born Indonesian.
Linan, who is president director of production house Cakrawala Kencana Produksi, said there are seven new Mandarin language newspapers. Apart from the government-controlled Harian Indonesia, which was exempt from the ban on Chinese culture, there are three others in Jakarta, two in East Java's capital Surabaya, and one in Medan.
Since Metro will initially be available only in Jakarta, we will have to wait to see whether it can seize a slice of the market.