Pay TV operators see potential in local market

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The Jakarta Post
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Local Pay TV operators are confiden they can lure 6 percent of the 34 million households with TV sets to subscribe to their services. Arya Sinulingga, corporate secretary of satellite operator Indovision, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday they could meet their target because pay TV use was still low.

He said there were only 700,000 subscribers to pay TV out of 32 million households with TVs, about 2 percent of the market.

"People are fed up with Indonesian soap operas and mystical shows. THey want other programs that are more entertaining, and want more options to meet their needs."

"We want to reach 2.2 million potential subscribers, as their awareness of pay TV improves with their incomes and lifestyles," he said.
An increase in subscribers will automatically reduce fees for pay TV services as customers share the cost of the distribution network.

There are two types of pay TV systems in Indonesia - satellite and cable. Providers like Indovision, Indosat IM2 and Malaysian based Astro TV use satellite technology, while First Media uses a cable network, and Telkom Vision uses both.

Around 500,000 households subscribe to satellite providers, while the remaining 200,000 use cable.

Subscribers to the five local operators grew from 476,000 in 2006 to 700,000 last year
. There are another 15 pay TV broadcasters in Indonesia's provinces, who have not yet obtained licenses to expand their services nationally.

"Indonesia still has the lowest awareness of pay TV in the Asia Pacific region, but subscriber rates will gradually increase every year," Arya said. Pay TV was first launched just before the 1997 Asian financial crisis, he said.

Ade Armando, a media observer and lecturer from the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Indonesia, said the govenment should support the growth of pay TV by not allowing providers to monopolize any programs.

"Let us compete fairly by increasing our services and quality, not by monopolizing the most popular programs," he said. (rff)