RI builds largest media center in Southeast Asia
RI builds largest media center in Southeast Asia
JAKARTA (JP): Privately owned PT Yasawirya Tama Cipta (YTC) is
building a US$25 million multimedia center, billed as the first
integrated and largest multimedia facility in Southeast Asia.
Company president, Youk Tanzil, said yesterday that the
facility, called Sentra Multimedia, would enable Indonesia to
save up to $40 million per year usually spent abroad for
commercial advertising production.
The 16-story center, located on a 3-hectare plot in Jati
Padang, South Jakarta, would have four international-standard
studios, a number of labs, as well as digital editing equipment,
he said.
"Sentra Multimedia will also be equipped with
telecommunications equipment which will be able to operate remote
production and broadcasting, allowing live broadcasts," Tanzil
told reporters after attending the first piling of the facility.
Production facilities in the center will include a Kodak film
processing laboratory, telecine color grader, computer graphics
and animation.
He said that Sentra Multimedia would be the answer for YTC in
facing a global free market. "Between $25 million and $40 million
is spent in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and other overseas
places for the production of commercials by local firms."
Tanzil said that Sentra Multimedia would also have prospective
domestic opportunities.
"With almost 100 hours of television broadcasting time per
day, the market potential is large," he said.
There are five private television stations in Indonesia,
ANteve, Indosiar, RCTI, SCTV and TPI, which are allowed to
broadcast commercials. The government bans commercials on state-
run TVRI.
"In Indonesia, the industry of multimedia, which is basically
the convergence of television broadcasting, telecommunications
and computers, has been growing following the rapid growth of
entertainment and telecommunications."
Implication
"The implication is that multimedia production will also
increase drastically, including projects for television,
advertising, Internet homepage software and other interactive
materials," he said.
YTC is 40 percent owned by state-owned international
telecommunications firm PT Indosat, 35 percent by Tanzil and 25
percent by PT Datakom Asia.
Datakom, a private firm controlled by Salim Group businessmen
Bambang Trihatmodjo and Peter Gontha, just acquired 25 percent of
YTC shares worth Rp 23 billion last week, Tanzil said.
He said that YTC, with current assets of Rp 70 billion, was
set up 19 years ago and became the first firm in Southeast Asia
able to produce film strips in 1979. "Garuda Indonesia's first
inflight entertainment was prepared by YTC."
Tanzil said that Sentra Multimedia would also operate digital
editing equipment, enabling it to produce films with animation
sequences, compared to such movies as Mission Impossible and
Independence Day.
He said that the facility, prepared with an investment of $25
million, was scheduled to start operations in the last quarter of
1998. (icn)