TV schedules slowly return back to normal

TV schedules slowly return back to normal

JAKARTA (JP): State-run TVRI and the five commercial
television stations will resume their regular schedules after two
days of covering the death of First Lady Mrs. Tien Soeharto and
her funeral to the exclusion of all else.

TV executives however said that in observance of the seven
days of national mourning, they will continue to air special
programs relating to the death of Mrs. Tien in between their
regular programs.

They are also cutting down or even eliminating some of their
programs.

"We're not airing any comedies," Erwin Ario Darma, RCTI's
spokesman told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

RCTI will also perform special programs related to Mrs. Tien
Soeharto, Erwin said.

Since Sunday afternoon until last night, the six commercial
stations -- TVRI, RCTI, SCTV, TPI, ANteve and
Indosiar have been broadcasting only news of Mrs. Tien's death
and her elaborate state funeral in Surakarta yesterday.

Led by RCTI, the six stations pooled their reporters,
newscasters and resources to bring up-to-date news to millions of
viewers across the archipelago.

The stations won praise for their very extensive coverage
although there was criticism of the poor quality of some of the
broadcasts.

"This is a very important national event," Eduard Depari, RCTI
public relations manager, told the Post.

The coverage involved 22 newscasters and 16 reporters in all,
Depari said.

He admitted that RCTI suffered huge financial losses as it had
scrapped all ads over the past two days. "The losses were quite
large but this important national event overrides all commercial
considerations," he explained.

RCTI is owned by businessman Bambang Trihatmodjo, the son of
President Soeharto. TPI is owned by Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, the
President's daughter.

This is the second time that the country's television stations
have coordinated their coverage in spite of stiff competition for
rating and advertising revenues. The first came during the summit
of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Bogor in November
1994.

Competition will resume today as the stations begin
broadcasting their normal programs although most have said they
would continue to run programs about Mrs. Tien.

"We are preparing the programs now," Erwin of RCTI said.

Indosiar also plans to show programs related to the death in
the remaining mourning days. "One of them is the presentation of
condolence messages which have been pouring in to our office by
telephone and facsimile," spokesman Andreas Ambesa said.

SCTV said it plans to run short films of Mrs. Tien's
activities in between its regular programs. "The news came so
suddenly we were not prepared," spokesman Budi Darmawan said.

TPI will delay airing its regular programs during the mourning
days ordered by the state secretariat. Instead it will run
special programs such as obituaries and profiles of Mrs. Tien,
and talk shows about Mrs. Tien.

"This is TPI's policy, " spokesman Farid Poniman said.

The stations all said the decision to concentrate exclusively
on this event all Sunday and Monday and to run programs about
Mrs. Tien over the next days was taken on their own initiative
and insisted that this had not been ordered by the Ministry of
Information.

"This is our way of showing respect to Mrs. Tien, who is a
national heroine," Andreas said. (01)