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)