Teletext geared toward markets of tomorrow
Teletext geared toward markets of tomorrow
By Ati Nurbaiti
JAKARTA (JP): Here's some good news: There's now a way to slightly help reduce traffic congestion!
Check your TV set for information for shopping, recreation, medical help, and stock trading before jamming the streets with indefinite destinations in mind.
Called teletext, it may also be a small start towards more control of information by "the smallest player in the new global order," as noted forecaster John Naisbitt said, referring to the radical changes brought by telecommunications break-throughs.
For advertisers, it means a "more effective, cheaper, instant" media to direct creative intuitions.
Teletext is electronically transmitted "yellow pages" available on TV sets of certain, relatively expensive models, and displayed on a TV station's air-time.
If information and commercial messages can reach only a few now, consider it good news anyway for future applications.
"We were looking ahead, not to the present market," said former director of the state-owned TVRI, Ishadi, of the new teletext services on TVRI, which began last year on the privately-owned RCTI.
"It's not only in the interest of stock investors. Within five years a wider group like students will need teletext to check on, say, train schedules," said Ishadi, now the head of the research and development section at the Ministry of Information.
Eddy Limantoro, who is responsible for the operation of "TVRI Text", says that in the future, it will include traffic information similar to what you can now get from private radio stations.
Ishadi added that the idea of teletext came up in the 1990s among TVRI staff, when the main obstacle was the absence of especially equipped TV sets on the local market.
RCTI director M.S. Rali Siregar echoes Ishadi's vision, and does not counter the present estimations of very limited consumer use.
"We must look at the benefits in the long run," he said at the recent joint-launching of teletext by RCTI and Sony distributor, PT Amcol Graha.
Like TVRI, RCTI people say they did not conduct a formal market survey and relied on observations that viewers are in need of alternative media at their finger tips, or simply that Indonesia should catch up with other countries looking at more advanced telecommunications like interactive TV.
"We saw teletext as an additional way to provide information through our still idle slots," said RCTI business development manager, Jilal Mardhani.
'TVRItext' is operated by the privately-owned PT Pilar Komala Jaya, which has bought the "Softel" software from England. Both stations subscribe to Antara news agency which also arranges subscriptions to the British Reuter news agency.
Each invested at least Rp2 billion, including for rent of Antara's parabolas, and expect a break even point "within five years."
Apart from non-commercial information like emergency units and updated flight schedules, spaces are provided at certain rates for hotels, elite hospitals, retailers to vacancy announcements.
Target
Currently, the staff at Survey Research Indonesia (SRI) doesn't have any figures on those who would want this facility badly enough to get new TV sets. But until teletext finds a tangible market, stock investors are constantly cited as the main target for the new media service.
Because gambling is illegal here, "teletext has lost one potential market," says Tanzania Tobing of SRI.
He adds that out of Indonesia's population of 180 million, an estimated 50 million viewers have access to 10 million TV sets.
Observers say the TV service is popular among gamblers in Hong Kong and among horse race fanatics in Sydney.
Among stock traders, interested parties are also yet to be identified.
"Several traders say teletext has helped them," says Tientje Widiada of a broker company at the Jakarta Stock Exchange, located in Central Jakarta.
"At least they get an initial picture at home though they know the data will be a little different when they get here."
An investor focusing on the trading floor with his binoculars said he is not interested in changing his TV set.
"I would still have to come here (from either of his two homes in East Jakarta) to decide whether to buy or sell," said Noto Abiprojo.
Media moguls and TV distributors must wait for computerization at the Stock Exchange to be able to boast of providing up-to-the- minute information.
RCTI updates stock data twice a day, while TVRI claims their data will only be "a few moments" behind the actual scene, as long as it takes to have the person at the Stock Exchange punch changing stock prices into the computer from the big board.
"I would rather subscribe to a broker for on-line information than get a new TV," Abiprojo said.
Because such link-up to his computer costs a monthly US$220, he will still be joining in the traffic jams and the crowd at the Exchange's gallery "as long as I'm not playing big enough" to find it "cost effective" to subscribe to the brokers' services.
Limited
There is a question of the benefits of teletext outside business professionals.
"Beyond business professionals, who needs all that information?" asks mass communication expert Astrid Susanto.
Responding to RCTI promotion talks that housewives may want to look up discounts before going shopping, "viewers with access to teletext wouldn't be those who care about price cuts," she said. She added that they might check up information about exclusive items only.
With a limited market of individual families who would want to check on news briefs, for instance, through especially equipped sets, she said it would be more useful that business units including media should have access to teletext.
With its potential of generating income from "instant" advertising, teletext was once an attractive option for news agencies, says an executive of the state-owned Antara.
"We can't live on selling plain news (to print media) only," said technical director Mohammad Cholil.
"So we offered RCTI six years ago to provide news in teletext format - they only had to use their idle (slots)."
RCTI did not show enthusiasm so he moved to SCTV - "I was trying to sell and they suggested we pay for broadcasting!"
"But we gave up the idea a few years ago after more observation," Cholil said, citing Australia's national AAP network and the Malaysian Bernama agency.
Alternative media targeted to those with specific needs is a more realistic option for media institutions looking for additional revenue, he said.
For Antara, this would include holding the right of on-line data distribution from the Jakarta Stock Exchange once it is computerized, for traders through their personal computers, "since our satellite network is the most established and nationwide."
Ishadi also said a possible choice for TVRI would be cooperation with the state-owned postal service, Perum Pos dan Giro.
"They could use TVRI's transmission facilities when it is no longer on the air to send urgent messages on-screen, much faster than telegrams," he said quoting earlier proposals.
Given the uncertainty of general viewers, retailers seem to "wait and see" before more of them decide to put up commercial messages.
"When I put up ads in the Kompas daily (with a circulation of 600,000) I can calculate the cost per reader - I have no idea what it is with teletext," said a retailer at the launching of RCTI's teletext, though he had heard Sony distributor Budiono of PT Amcol Graha saying that sales of multi-system TV sets have gone up by 20 percent recently.
Regarding information content, Ishadi and Astrid see no need for rules except for, say, gambling.
"Who would want to control TV for 24 hours?" Astrid said.
The observers also see no problem with TVRI airing commercials, contrary to its decade-long ban, as the responsibility lies with the appointed private party.
"We don't use persuasive words, only straight facts and the brand name," said Limantoro of Pilar Kumala Jaya.
Viewers, nevertheless, now have a new toy while programmers continue to seek practical information.
Office boy "Mardi" was so happy when he found his 20-inch Sony set which he bought last year for less than Rp1 million is equipped with teletext.
"Oh, we just watch it," he said when asked what information is useful for his family, "The 24-hour doctors? Nothing wrong with us. And who are we to use all that stuff about hotels?"