TV stations can programs as advertisers pull the plug

By Yogita Tahil Ramani

JAKARTA (JP): Taxi driver Sugeng does not ask for much. When he gets home at midnight from his exhausting 16-hour shifts behind the wheel, he only wants his wife to give him two things.

Dinner, and a full update on the plot of a favorite Hindi- language teleserial on private television station TPI.

During days off, he watches early morning Hindi movies, now dubbed in English, on local channels, catches the afternoon Indian matinee at the Rivoli movie theater and sometimes has dinner in front of the TV set watching another Indian flick.

Told that American movies and miniseries on TPI were being discontinued, he responded nonchalantly: "I couldn't care less."

But different market audiences have their own particular tastes. More concerned are upper-income bracket audiences, who lap up American feature programs like ice cream on a hot day.

Dejected viewers include two Jakarta teenagers, although the same cannot be said of their mothers.

Nur and Maria -- 40-something housewives and close friends -- had been unsuccessful in their attempts to unhook their kids from endless nights spent glued to the boob tube.

"You won't believe the things we have done to stop them from watching so late at night," Nur said.

"Maria once cut off the electricity circuit in her home. Her son coolly went to his friend's place -- my son is included in the gang -- and they watched television together."

Maria and Nur said their children ordinarily preferred watching midnight American sitcoms or movies on RCTI.

They were ecstatic at news that airtime on RCTI would probably be discontinued from midnight to 2 a.m.

Not so for the worried private TV stations reeling from loss of advertisements.

With TV's 55.8 percent slice of the advertising pie last year a fading memory, station representatives warn that it might be a long time before they can return to normal broadcast hours.

The four private TV stations' advertising revenue is down by an average 50 percent, except for TPI which has dropped by 30 percent. State-owned TVRI network discontinued commercials in 1981.

Saving

TV station SCTV was on the air for 21 hours daily until Feb. 16, when airtime was slashed by eight and a half hours.

SCTV Budi Dharmawan said this paring down involved "separating the watched programs from the unwatched...

"With one hour of airtime worth Rp 20 million, we save Rp 170 million daily".

The first to get the chop were unpopular shows.

"Those (programs) that were advertisement failures anyway were the local TV drama reruns and some Latin American soap operas like Kasih Abadi, for instance. They have been discontinued."

Despite the measure, the drop in commercials is being acutely felt.

"It's 50 percent this month," he said of the ad decrease. "In fact, our advertising budget for this year has been slashed by 50 percent."

Feature programs registering significantly high ratings naturally garner the most advertisements, therefore occupying prime-time positions.

Primetime usually has the highest number of advertising spots -- usually lasting 30 seconds each -- set aside for commercials. There are different fees for ads according to when they are aired.

Excepting TPI, all the TV stations have the same set prime- time hours.

Prime-time A occupies the 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. time slot, prime-time B is from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. and prime-time C from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

TV stations which formerly enjoyed fully booked advertising spots, are now locked in a bind.

"Prime-time A -- Rp 10 million to 12 million a spot -- once filled 20 to 24 spots. Now, it's down to from 10 to 15," Budi said.

"Prime-time B -- Rp 5 million to 8 million a spot -- now has around 10 to 12, from the usual 24."

But with 15 to 20 spots still occupied in the C category of Rp 4 million to Rp 7 million per spot, the situation is still manageable.

The search for solutions is also going on at RCTI.

With the commercial-drop rate peaking at between 50 percent to 60 percent this month, its usual 21 hours of airtime has been cut by two hours.

RCTI public relations manager Eduard Depari said that programs usually backed by the most sponsors were the prime-time teleserials and movies.

"We get the most sponsors for Layar Mas and Mega Sinema," Eduard said of two slots for foreign movies.

"For a 48-minute show (Mega Sinema), it used to be over 30-32 spots per program, now it's down to 12-15, while a 30-minute quiz show used to enjoy 12 spots. It's down to 6-8 now."

The station's 30-second spots for a quiz show come close to Rp 7 million a spot, while that for a talk show nears Rp 5 million. Spots occupied for a talk-show program ranged from none to just two to three spots.

"It's more or less Rp 13 million for a 30-second Mega Sinetron ad. A 15-second one would be charged 60 percent of the 30-second ad," Eduard said.

He added that the biggest commercial losers were sitcoms in the 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. time period.

"It used to be fully booked with 15 spots per episode. Now, it's only 3-4 spots for a 24-minute show, like Jin dan Jun," Eduard said.

The station is providing incentives to advertisers, he said.

"We give them bonus commercial slots in differing hours."

RCTI's advertising revenue for last year stood at a healthy Rp 340 billion over 1996's Rp 320 billion, despite the onset of the economic debacle last July.

Indosiar, the youngest of private TV stations, formerly aired for 18 hours on weekdays, but station spokesman Andreas Ambessa said airtime was cut to 11 hours beginning Feb. 9.

"On both Saturday and Sunday, we broadcast for all 24 hours because of traditional wayang (leather puppet) performances," Andreas said.

"Mondays to Thursdays, we begin from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., followed by a six-hour rest period. We begin again at 3 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. The same goes for Friday, except that our broadcast ends at 1:30 a.m."

He said there were savings. "With one hour of airtime coming to Rp 15 million, we save Rp 105 million daily."

While their ratings winners Catatan Si Boy and Saturday night movies still get the most advertising attention,Indosiar has canceled low-rated shows like the Tuesday-to-Thursday morning show called Pondok Pak John.

Indosiar's prime-time A category of Rp 8 million to Rp 15 million a spot was filled with 30 to 32 spots when the station went on the air three years ago.

"Now, it's down to 15 or 16. With B (costing at Rp 5 million to 8 million), it used to be 30 spots, not it's 20. With C (costing Rp 2 million to 5 million), it was 20 before, now it's half of that."

He added that Indosiar initially had 20 different advertisers backing the programs, but about five of these had pulled out.

"Our 1996 commercials' revenue hit Rp 140 billion and there might be a slight increase by 10 (percent) for 1997. The commercial-drop rate this month is 50 (percent)," Andreas said.

He said all TV stations were in the same dire straits.

ANteve begins broadcasts on weekdays at 5:30 a.m. until 10 a.m. when it breaks until 2 p.m. Station sign-off is at 12:30 a.m. on weekdays and 1:30 a.m. Saturdays.