'Raket Mania' gets kudos from fans

'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.