Sisindosat to establish cable television network

Sisindosat to establish cable television network

JAKARTA (JP): A new cable television network will enter
housing complexes in the near future as a telecommunications
company completes a feasibility study in Jakarta and its
surrounding areas.

PT Sisindosat, a subsidiary of the state-owned international
telecommunications company PT Indosat, plans to establish a cable
television network next year, the company's president, Henry
Kawilarang, announced here yesterday.

"We are conducting a feasibility study, whose completion is
scheduled before the end of this year, with assistance from a
Canadian company," he told reporters while attending a ceremony
for the introduction of Sisindosat's new subsidiary, PT Mutiara
Caraka Lintas, at the Shangri-La hotel.

Sisindosat's finance and administration manager, Arief A.
Soedjono, said the company will have to invest from US$5 million
to $10 million for the business.

Kawilarang said that Sisindosat, which possesses essential
telecommunications infrastructure, is ready for competition in
the cable television business.

"We will offer at least six programs. We may ask for a license
from PT Matahari Lintas Cakrawala (Malicak) for the programs," he
said.

Malicak, a subsidiary of the diversified business group
Bimantara, has the rights to marketing several American cable
networks in Indonesia, including CNN International, TNT, the
Cartoon Network, the Discovery Channel and HBO. All of these
cable services, now still accessible to owners of dish antennas,
will be scrambled beginning in September. After that viewers in
Indonesia must buy decoders provided by Malicak to get the
broadcasts. (icn)