'Raket Mania' gets kudos from fans
By Primastuti Handayani
JAKARTA (JP): Badminton is one of the most popular sports in Indonesia, sharing third position in the hearts of sports fans with basketball, just behind soccer and volleyball.
This fact encouraged private TV station RCTI to produce Raket Mania, a special sports program focusing on badminton, tennis and squash.
The 30-minute program is normally broadcast every Sunday at 1 p.m. It has drawn huge attention from sports fans, especially badminton fans, since it was first aired on Jan. 15 this year.
"I was very surprised by the fact that so many viewers send letters to us every week asking us to rerun the program," said assistant producer Herti Purba.
She said selecting Dessy Ilsanty to the host the program was not a difficult choice. "The criteria (for the host) was that she had to be good-looking, smart and sporty. And Desy possesses all three of these factors."
Badminton gets the most attention in the program, accounting for 60 percent of coverage, followed by tennis with 30 percent and squash with 10 percent.
However, these percentages can change depending on what events are taking place that week. When the French Open and Wimbledon were happening, Raket Mania focused its coverage on these major tennis events.
Raket Mania also offers gossip on athletes in the three sports and a special segment called Interval, which looks at their lives off the court. In this segment, viewers can see, for example, what Taufik Hidayat does during his spare time after his training sessions. They can also see what former national shuttler Ivana Lie is up to these days, besides managing her badminton school in Bandung.
In the Point segment, viewers get to see the results of any competitions held during the week. There is also a Trivia segment, which asks a question about one of the three sports and gives the answer at the end of the segment.
In Outball, viewers get a glimpse of athletes' lifestyles and hobbies. In one episode, Raket Mania covered women's shuttlers Deyana Lomban and Lidya Djaelawidjaja's collections of sunglasses. In other episode, viewers followed the two shuttlers as they dove into the latest fashion trends, including the latest in leisure footwear.
In the last segment of the show, Break, RCTI focuses on the less popular sport of squash by covering celebrities, including actor Primus Yustisio, playing the sport.
"We know that squash still lacks popularity in the country and we want to introduce the sport by featuring celebrities playing it," Herti said.
Because of the Sanyo Indonesia Open, being held at the Senayan Tennis Indoor Stadium since Wednesday, Raket Mania viewers will not be able to watch the program this week. Instead, RCTI will air Road to the Final, taking viewers back through the earlier action of the tournament. The station will broadcast the final of the tournament live at 7 p.m.
The popularity of Raket Mania has encouraged RCTI to nominate it for best sports program at the Asian Broadcasting Awards next year. They hope to duplicate the success of ANteve's Majalah Olahraga, which won the award in 1998 and 1999.