'TNT & Cartoon Network' struggling in Indonesia

'TNT & Cartoon Network' struggling in Indonesia

By Johannes Simbolon

HONG KONG (JP): Within one year, the TNT & Cartoon Network has
invaded many countries in the Asia-Pacific region, but it has to
work harder before capitalizing on the Indonesian market.

The entertainment service, owned by American magnate Ted
Turner, was launched in the region in October, 1994. Early this
month, it celebrated its first anniversary in its townbase of
Hong Kong.

Distributed on the Palapa B2P, AsStar 1, PanAmSat 2 and PanAm
4 satellites, the service can now be seen in around 1,780,000
households and 13,400 hotels via cable and pay TV throughout the
region, including in Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia,
Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand,
Vietnam and Malaysia.

"We are pleased at the phenomenal growth," said Ted McFarland,
president of Turner International, Asia Pacific.

"Through working closely with cable affiliates to bring this
quality entertainment network to more television viewers, Turner
not only looks forward to expanding its market but also
contributing to the growth of the cable and industry in this
region," he addressed reporters from across the region during the
anniversary celebrations.

The global success has obviously added to the magnitude of the
Ted Turner's business empire, which includes the famous TV news
channel CNN.

TNT & Cartoon Network consist of two parts: the TNT (Turner
Network Television), which features classical movies, and the
cartoon program. In the U.S. and Latin America, both programs are
aired through two different channels. In Europe and Asia-Pacific,
they are combined. The cartoon program runs from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
and the classical movie program from 8 p.m. to 6 p.m. (Hong Kong
time for Asia-Pacific).

The service was first launched in the U.S. in 1988, then in
Latin America in 1991, followed by Europe in 1993. Today it can
be seen in more than 27 million homes worldwide.

Hanna-Barbera

Turner has a rich libraries of classics and cartoons to make
its channel a must for many.

In 1986, Turner obtained a license to administer and
distribute the collection of over 3,000 classical movies produced
by MGM, Warner Bros. and RKO, including those featuring such
legendary stars of Hollywood as Bete Davis, Ingrid Bergman, Grace
Kelly, John Wayne, Glenn Ford, Elvis Presley, and others.

His movie collection became richer when Castle Rock
Entertainment and New Line Cinema joined his business empire in
1993. Castle Rock Entertainment produced such box offices like In
the Line of Fire, When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers and
Shawshank Redemption. New Line Cinema produced among others The
Mask, Dumb and Dumber and Hoop Dreams.

Turner's collection of cartoons is no less cornucopian. In
1991, he acquired the entertainment assets of Hanna-Barbera,
including their 3,000-episode library, distribution right and
production facility. The Hanna-Barbera collection includes such
time-weathered characters as Tomy & Jerry, The Flintstones, Yogi
Bear and The Jetsons. With the cartoons he acquired from MGM and
Warner Bros., Turner's cartoon library has a total of 8,500.

This doesn't mean that TNT & Cartoon Network only airs old
stuff. Hanna-Barbera continues to produce new "toons" for the
service. With the new cartoons, the service tries to keep its
viewers in step with current issues.

To commemorate World Environmental Day, Hanna-Barbera made a
series of Captain Planet, an environmental superhero. For
International Children's Day, it cooperated with UNICEF to
produce a TV serial entitled Meena, designed to promote community
values to children.

"Our programming and marketing also reflect our efforts to
build viewers' sensitivity to social causes as well," said Celia
Wong, senior vice president and general manager, TNT & Cartoon
Network, Asia Pacific.

TNT & Cartoon Network's success is not only because of those
vast libraries. Turner's long experience in building the global
news channel CNN should be considered, too. Like CNN, which no
one expected to survive, much less gain success as it has, the
cartoon network, which was considered to have too limited a fan
base, was expected to fail.

"When we started with CNN (Cable News Network) in the 80s,
people called it 'Chicken News Network'. But Ted (Turner) then
had a vision of making CNN a global TV. When none would think
about it, CNN International was launched in 1985. As it turned
out, we made it," said Robert Ross, president of Turner
International Inc.

Turner has also refuted the perception that cartoons are only
enjoyed by kids. According to the 1994 survey, adults make up 39
percent of viewers of Turner's cartoon programs.

Indonesia

TNT & Cartoon Network may have gained success in many parts of
the world, but not in Indonesia.

In the Asia-Pacific area, it has netted the largest number of
viewers in Taiwan, where the service is received in 1,550,000
households. It is followed by China with 150,000 households and
the Philippines with 32,260 households. In Indonesia, there are
only 6,000 household subscribers, plus 5,778 hotels.

The distribution here is managed by Indovision, operated by PT
Matahari Lintas Cakrawala (Malicak), the sole authorized pay TV
distributor in Indonesia. It sells TNT & Cartoon Network in a
combined package together with three other services outside of
Turner, i.e. HBO, ESPN, and Discovery. Subscribers should buy
four of them in a package, as opposed to many other countries
where TNT & Cartoon Network is sold in a single package.

Subscribers in Indonesia need a 2.7-meter dish antenna, and
pay Rp 660,000 for the decoder and an additional Rp 63,250
monthly subscription fee.

Thus far, Turner's people are still at a loss over the cause
of the low sales.

Many thought it might be caused by Indovision's monopoly. TNT
& Cartoon Network has no alternative but to wholly depend on the
company in marketing their products.

The monopoly isn't the only reason for poor sales.

According to a random survey conducted by Indovision among its
dealers in September this year, the favorite program offered by
Indovision is HBO, followed by ESPN.

In promoting their service, the management of TNT & Cartoon
Network must face the fact that Indonesian children have long
been used to cartoons dubbed into Indonesian on commercial
television stations, but Turner's cartoon programs are only
available in English, Mandarin and Thai.

Also, they must compete with commercial television which air
cartoons of comparable quality. Indosiar, for example, airs Walt
Disney's best cartoons once a week. RCTI airs Doraemon, the
Japanese cartoon, which has so far remained the number one
favorite cartoon and has survived for more than five years.

Another factor is the widespread distribution of comic books
containing popular cartoon characters. In Indonesia and maybe
elsewhere, comics help popularize cartoon characters, and as such
lure children to watch them on television. The comics sold here
are also dominated by Walt Disney's characters and Japanese's
cartoon characters. Comics on Hanna-Barbera's characters are not
available here.

But, maybe the most important factor is that people prefer to
watch free cartoon programs to paying for something that is
available on commercial television.