New policy won't affect cable TV operators
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)