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)