New policy won't affect cable TV operators

JAKARTA (JP): Local pay television service companies Indovision and Kabelvision said on Wednesday that the government's decision to keep their business closed to foreign investment would not affect them.

Dicky Iskandar Di Nata, president of Matahari Lintas Cakrawala -- the company that owns Indovision -- said the ban would not necessarily cause problems at the company.

He said foreign direct investment in the cable TV industry had been on the negative list for years.

"Not a problem. We can still get new investment funds (from foreign investors) through the stock market," he told The Jakarta Post.

He said he was instead very pleased with the fact that Indovision, which now has about 50,000 subscribers, was fully owned by local investors.

"You see, bringing in huge foreign investment has a down side too, as the investors will likely insist on having an influence in company policy and management," he added.

Separately, Handoko A. Tanuadji, chief commissioner of publicly listed Broadband Multimedia -- the owner of Kabelvision -- said he was not worried because the decree did not affect the company.

"I don't see any reason why the decree will affect us because we are in fact a public company," he told the Post.

He also said the decree had had no impact on the existing foreign investors in the company, which has about 26,000 subscribers, because the investors came in before the decree was made.

According to company data, Lippo Group subsidiary Broadband Multimedia, which listed its shares on the Surabaya Stock Exchange in February, is mostly owned by foreign capital firm AcrossAsia Multimedia Limited with 57.62 percent of stakes.

Dicky and Handoko were commenting on the newly revised regulation on negative lists for foreign investment, which dropped information multimedia services, but kept pay and cable television services.

The revised decree totally closes radio and television broadcasting, printed mass media and movie production, making or distribution to foreign individual or corporate capital

Riza Primadi, deputy to the minister of investment and state enterprises, said the ban was not meant to discourage foreign investors since they could still invest here through the stock market.

He said that the regulation would only affect totally new foreign investments.

Dicky supported Riza's view, saying that the restriction for foreign players was needed -- particularly in the broadcasting business -- to help local broadcasting content developers grow.

"As you can see, the content of cable television services is very much dominated by foreign companies. Allowing them to open businesses here will only help them crush local players," he said. (cst)