Production houses booming amid growing need for stars
Production houses booming amid growing need for stars
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
"There's no business like show business" is perhaps a good
phrase to describe the current rosy situation in the Indonesian
television industry.
All television stations are vying to create the "most
entertaining" programs to lure viewers and as such attract
advertisers.
With 12 national TV stations and several regional TV stations
now on air, certainly competition to grab a slice of the
advertisement cake has become tighter. For the TV stations, there
is no alternative but to produce the best programs to succeed in
the competition.
While news programs are sometimes able to attract
advertisements, most are broadcast during the commercial breaks
of entertainment programs.
Such programs be they infotainment, reality shows (including
contests of singers and comedians), and soap operas locally known
as sinetron are all vying for advertisements.
It would be impossible for the TV stations to make all of
their entertainment programs by themselves. They depend mostly on
production houses for the programs.
One of the nation's largest and oldest production houses is
Multivision Plus, which is owned by the "king" of sinetron Raam
Punjabi.
In his book titled Panggung Kehidupan Raam Punjabi (The life
stage of Raam Punjabi), Raam recalled that his production house
started to get many orders following the establishment of the
country's first television station RCTI in the 1990s.
Since then Raam's sinetrons -- which were often criticized for
not reflecting the reality of life in Indonesian -- could be seen
on almost all TV stations. Attractive actors, luxurious houses
and cars, love and tragedy are common features.
"I know that my viewers are middle- to lower-class people,"
Raam said. "But I can't use their problems as story ideas. It
would only depress them."
Dozens of wannabe stars can be seen daily at Multivision's
five-story office in the Roxy area, West Jakarta, waiting for an
audition.
Following the success of Multivision, dozens of new production
houses, big and small, have been established in Jakarta and other
big cities, seeking to meet the growing demand of the TV industry
for entertainment programs. They are recruiting new stars, mostly
based on their looks.
Avicom production house operational director Maman Suherman
admitted that many wannabe stars were ready to give all they have
to be cast in a sinetron.
"Some parents are also ready to pay in order that their
children get a role in a sinetron. There are many nasty stories
related to the casting. But I always tell my men to be
professional," Maman told The Jakarta Post recently.
Two years ago, a producer was arrested for fraudulently
casting several girls as models of a soap product. The man filmed
the young women naked.
Being an advertising model is believed to be the first step to
become a television star. Normally, production houses or TV
stations would give priority to advertising models in the
selection with the expectation that companies that use their
modeling services would be willing to place ads during the airing
of the sinetron
For one episode of a sinetron series, a popular star can get
up to Rp 50 million, while a beginner may receive only a
"transportation fee" for a few minutes appearance on the
sinetron.
Production houses usually sell an episode of a sinetron series
at between Rp 200 million to Rp 250 million to a TV station. They
usually sign a contract for the screening of 13 episodes. The TV
stations will extend the contract, if rating agency AC Nielsen
says the rating of the sinetron is high and will end it if
Nielsen says the sinetron is bad.
"All television stations and advertisers depend on the ratings
issued by AC Nielsen. If a program gains a low rating, it would
be dropped as the prospects of getting advertising for the
program would be slim," Asaf Antariksa, ANTeve's planning and
scheduling manager, told the Post.