'Sinetron' and the television industry
'Sinetron' and the television industry
By Marselli Sumarno
JAKARTA (JP): Sinetron, the Indonesian acronym for sinema electronik which includes television dramas and mini-series, debuted in Indonesia in 1980.
The term is often misused to encompass non-cinematic TV programs like situation comedies.
This explains why Indonesian film directors like the late Arifin C. Noer do not agree with the title sinetron for TV movies or serial. They prefer lakon televisi (television drama).
Aside from terminology, sinetron is drawing negative attention. It first drew criticism from the selection committee of the 1994/1995 Indonesian Sinetron Festival, which claimed that the local productions could not meet stiff competition from imported products.
Despite the criticism, local sinetron productions have become immensely popular in Indonesia. In 1990, Indonesians produced 122 television dramas, which increased to 730 last year. This year the number is expected to exceed 1,000 since Indosiar, the newest Indonesian TV station, went on air last January.
Indonesian television made rapid progress in the past five years. Based on advertisement revenue projections in 1989, the government issued operating permits to five private TV stations. The state-owned TVRI took more than 30 years to fill 18 hours of airtime as it does now. The private stations did the same in just a few years.
More airtime resulted in a sharp increase in the number of TV programs. The easiest and cheapest way for broadcasters to satisfy public demand was to import programs. The MIPCOM TV fair in Cannes, France, is the favored market for Indonesian broadcasters to buy television and video programs.
According to a private TV program manager who has made repeated visits to MIPCOM, wide-screen films are available for between US$7,000 and $16,000; TV features are priced at $1,500 to $5,000. An one-hour TV feature, including TV serials, costs from $1,000 to $2,000 an episode. Prices range between $500 and $800 an episode for telenovellas and half-hour programs.
These prices are obviously cheaper than producing the programs in Indonesia. An half-hour sinetron, for example, cost Rp 25 million ($12,000) and an one-hour sinetron episode would absorb about Rp 40 million.
The government wants 80 percent of the programs shown on television to be locally produced.
Only TVRI, which subsists on viewers' subscription fees, claims that it acted on the government's appeal. One private TV station went so far as screening imported programs dubbed in Indonesian to make them seem local.
Compared with the impotent national film industry, the TV industry is in good shape. Indonesian television is backed by conglomerates allowing broadcasters and production houses to use the most sophisticated equipment available.
The sale of TV sets increased with the advent of private television stations and was estimated to be 18 million sets in 1994 compared to between seven and eight million in 1990.
No less important is the fact that the number of TV commercials increases every year. The amazing growth makes the sluggish sinetron business an anomaly.
Poor human resources and a lack of communication between TV stations and the production houses which produce the sinetron is the core of the problem.
Some film makers have been lured into television, but how many are really ready for the change? The new recruits must master the skills overnight to meet demand.
To overcome the shortage of professional writers, copying foreign TV programs or buying foreign manuscripts and then Indonesianizing them is standard practice. The production crew and actors remain Indonesian, but the story is never really Indonesian.
There are more than 300 production houses in Indonesia, but only 30 of them are active and even less are capable of developing the business.
Production houses suffer from weak bargaining power with television station managers. Most production houses can only market their products by sharing the proceeds from commercials. The television stations usually get 60 percent of the commercial revenue, making it very hard for production houses to fund their productions let alone make a profit.
Indonesian sinetron production might meet the same fate as the local film industry, with Indonesian audiences abandoning them for better imported programs. This would kill any hope of establishing a national film industry base.
Sinetron production is an industry so broadcasters must help production houses make higher quality local products.
Local programs must be high quality in order to be marketable overseas and increase the production houses' income. Only a few houses have succeeded in doing so, because marketing demands industrial management and smooth communication with distributors -- something totally foreign to Indonesians.
If the development of Indonesian sinetron production is stunted at an early stage, it might be because the industry is not prepared to enter the realm of private television.