Let’s begin with Trans TV, one of the youngest television stations in Indonesia. Officially aired on 15 December 2001, Trans TV witnessed the ups and downs of media development in Indonesia after the fall of Soeharto. All of the shares in the television belonged to Chairul Tanjung. 99.9 percents of the shares was owned by PT Para Inti Investindo, while the rest was taken by PT Para Investindo, both belonged to Para Group business corporation owned by Tanjung.
Who is Chairul Tanjung? “He is purely a businessman. His main intention is business,” said Riza Primadi. Riza was the former journalists of BBC London, who worked for Astro Nusantara, a cable television provider. Riza took part in developing SCTV and Trans TV. When working on Trans TV, Riza cooperated with Alex Kumara, the former operational director of RCTI and IShadi SK, the former director of TVRI.
Riza felt that it was fine to work for Tanjung. “None of his companies were included in BPPN (), Tanjung himself was never charged of any crime cases, unlike most of our rich. To me, these are all things we can be proud of, no problem at all.”
Tanjung was born in Jakarta in 1962. Since his college days, he had initiated his business. Ten years later he owned a business corporation called Para Group, which initially dealt with exporting children shoes. The first share of 150 million rupiahs was borrowed from Exim bank.
Tanjung stretched his business empire through Bandung Supermall. He also took the biggest share in Bank Mega, which he bought in 1996 from Bapindo group. Bank Mega was very critical at that time, yet after being taken by Tanjung, it gradually improved. On the memorable 28 March 2001, the bank had for the first time successfully enlisted its shares in Jakarta Stock Market for 1.125 rupiah per sheet.
Two years later, interviewed by Warta Ekonomi magazine, Tanjung stated that Bank Mega became the biggest cash cow for Para Group. “With contribution around 40 percent.”
The contribution of Trans TV was considerably significant too. The station had at least reached its break event point in the second year after it operated. It means, the station did not need any fund from the owner. “It happened around May 2003,” Riza Primadi said.
Trans TV had revealed the sign of success even since the first quarter of 2002. According to the survey of Nielsen Media Research, Trans TV was the fifth stations that gained biggest earnings from advertisements. The value was 149,2 billion rupiah.
SCTV was also established and managed by incredibly rich businessman. The circles of “Cendana” – businessmen that were close to Soeharto family – such as Sudwikatmono, Peter Gontha, Henry Pribadi, Halimah Bambang Triatmodjo and Azis Mochtar had ever took biggest shares in the station. Now, SCTV was taken by another rich businessmen: the family of Sariaatmadja.
The family business dealt with information technology. They initially took their shares through Abhitama Mediatama Co. in 2002. Then, after purchasing the shares of Henri Pribadi’s Citrabumi Sacna and those of Agus Lasmono’s Indika Multimedia, they stood out as the main shareholder of Surya Citra Media Inc., the parent company of SCTV. Agus Lasmono was the son of Sudwikatmono.
In the structure of SCTV Commissary Board issued in 2003, the Sariaatmadjas was represented by Eddy Kusnadi Sariaatmadja and his brother, Fofo Sariatmadja. Eddy was 52, while Fofo 42. Both were masters of engineering science, graduated from University of New south Wales, Australia. Fofo has life philosophy of togetherness. His idol was Bill gates.
Beside Abhitama Mediatama Inc., Sariaatmadja business group also had several another companies that were affiliated to the group, such as Abhitama Cithra Abadi Inc., Abhimata Persada Inc., Bitnet Komunikasindo Inc., and Elang Mahkota Teknologi Inc.
All of these corporations were consolidated unfer the group of Elang Mahkota Teknologi – abbreviated as Emtek. In 1980s, Emtek is the single license holder of Compaq brand in Indonesia. This group was also assumed to supply computers and other needs of information technology in several departments during Soeharto’s presidency.
The rapid growth of television since the fall of Soeharto urged this family to take the hand of publishing group called Mugi Rekso Abadi (MRA). They established O Channel, a Jakarta local television that primarily exposed metropolitan living: food, parties, fashion and life style.
Amelia Hezkasary Day from Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) stated that Sariaatmadja group was also aided by Singleton Group from Australia, a business conglomerate in communication that owned radio and television network, public relation corporation and advertising agencies. In addition, they also moved in business operation and media financial management consultancies.
Singleton Group Limited is the metamorphoses of John Singleton Advertising Limited (JSA) in 1996. Singleton Group itself actually had merged to the conglomeration of STW Communications group Limited, or commonly abbreviated as SGN. In the profile of this corporation listed the name of John singleton, the founder and the holder of majority shares. John Singleton, according to Miladay – the nick name of Amelia Hezkasary Day – was the friend of Sariaatmadja, when the latter went to college in Australia.
FRIDAY, last 30 September, ANTV jolted the circles of Batavia television with shock: in Executive Club, Hilton Hotel Jakarta, the chief director of Cakrawala Andalas Televisi Inc., ANTV’s parent company, Anindya Novyan Bakrie announced the purchasing of 20% of the shares by Star TV that was owned by global media conglomerate, Rupert Murdoch.
Anin was the eldest son of Aburizal Bakrie, now the Coordinator Ministry for People Welfare, from Bakrie Group, one of the biggest family corporations in Batavia. This group owned business in property run by Bakrieland, in finance consultancy by Bakrie Investindo and Bakrie International Finance, and in telecommunication by Bakrie Telecom Inc, the producer of Esia, a provider of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) cellular phones.
Anin stated that Murdoch bought new shares. The composition of old share holders did not changed at all. Who own the rest of the shares then?
According to the Note on Changes of Corporation’s Basic Statue issued by Cakrawala Andalas Televisi Inc in 2004, Bakrie Investindo, Inc. owned 191.443 shares, CMA Indonesia, Inc. 60.000 shares, Bune Era Mandiri, Inc. 53.880, Satria Cita Perkasa, Inc. 457.378 and Kencana Cita Kusuma, Inc. 72.222. Nirwan Dermawan Bakrie, Anin’s uncle, owned 87.108 shares.
CMA Indonesia, Inc. used to hold major shares when ANTV was drowned under the heap of 1,2 trillion rupiah debt in 2002. The fund management company was founded by credit providers who agreed to convert their unpaid credit into ownership shares. Anin was the chief director.
The infiltration of Murdoch to ANTV intensified fragmentation in television business. According to “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism”, a documentary directed by Robert Greenwald, Murdoch at least owned 300 television channels, several film companies and cinema network. In addition, Murdoch also owned News Corporation and Fox News, two biggest media conglomerates in the world. Three publishing companies : HarperCollins, Reagen Books and Zondervan Christian Publisher also stood out under Murdoch’s knees.
All Murdoch’s companies served at least third fourth of world population. Murdoch stretched his claws in hundreds of newspapers in Australis, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, England, and United States. Also in television industry by conquering Fox Station Group, BskyB in England, Sky Italia, Sky America Latin, Foxtel Australia, North and Latin AmericaDirectTV, and Star TV in Asia.
Murdoch clearly invested fewer shares in ANTV. Newsweek magazine investigated that Murdoch’s shares in ANTV valued less than 20 million US$. Yet, his presence in Jakarta marked the opened television market in Indonesia. The integration with global market was imminent. Murdoch had changed the map of television ownership in Indonesia rapidly, as it had suspected that other international companies such as Malaysian Astro TV would also do the same.
These investors, including Murdoch and Bakrie, spread their wings to television industry not to serve public, but to dig more money from this promising business. Imagine this: 220 million consumers centrally controlled with weak rule of law, easily bribed bureaucracy and not critical to media. The 2005 data of AC Nielsen Media Research implied that in 2004, 82% of media consumption was for television.
According to the similar source, television gained around 16 trillion rupiah, or around 70% of total advertisement expenses that reached 23 trillion rupiah in 2005. Newspapers and magazines were in the next line with 26% and 5%.
WHO owned Lativi? This television station was founded and dominated by Alatief Corporation, which was owned by Abdul Latief, a businessman and playboy Soeharto ever appointed as Minister of Manpower. Firstly aired in August 2001, this television station was formerly a company named Pasaraya Mediakarya which was founded by Latief to support his clothes retailer, Pasaraya. It was nearly the airing time that the name was changed into Lativi Mediakarya, Inc.
This change was recorded in the Note on the Change of Company Statues of Pasaraya Mediakarya, Inc. that was signed in the presence of Vita Buena, a notary, on 7 August 2000, and was formally approved in Supplement to Gazette no.24/1837 2001.
I did not find the name of Abdul Latief in the document. On the other hand, I noticed the name of Usman Ja’far as the chief director. Usman Ja’far, a Malayan, one of Latief’s hands, used to take the position of Pasaraya commissary. Now, Ja’far was the governor of West Kalimantan.
The case of 1,5 trillion unpaid credit in Mandiri Bank in May 2005 marked the dark era of this television station, as it gained 328,52 million rupiah credit from the bank. The director of Lativi, Hasim Sumiana, the successor of Usman Ja’far, used to bring to court as one of the suspects. Abdul Latief and Usman acted as witnesses.
According to Gunawan Alif from advertisement magazine Cakram, Lativi was the eight position of televisions with highest advertisement income. This position is not fairly different from ANTV’s (the sixth) and TV7 (the seventh). “They hang on because of Spongebob show and programs exposing (a bit of) sexuality,” said Alif. Spongebob is a children cartoon about under-the-sea-animal-living.
“If they don’t manage to increase their rating, it will be difficult (for them to exist),” added Alif. “As the top five are old, established television.”
Amidst this critical situation, the news of international private fund’s entrance in Lativi – similar with what Murdoch did in ANTV – filled the air. This time, TV3 was the one coming. The television was owned by Malaysian Media Prima Berhad (MPB), who was also known to hold 43% of shares in New Strait Times daily.
Miladay from KPI argued that what TV3 did to Lativi was like foreign investment. TV3 injected his fund aid, and Lativi would restructure its debt, as well as its composition of ownership. But that was for later.
Similarly, TV7 used to be reported to being infiltrated by international fund. In terms of ownership structure, the station was different from others. TV7 was founded by Kompas Gramedia Group, a business corporation, one of potential players in media industry. But, is it true that media is their one and only playground? Not really. The corporation actually dealt with hotel and trade business and Gramedia Bookstore network.
Moreover, TV7 did not explicitly mentioned Kompas Gramedia Group as their owner. The television’s company statue mentioned six owners. Three corporations and three individuals.
Three individual shareholders were Sukoyo (3.000 shares or 1%), Yongky Sutanto (10.500 shares or 3,5%) and Lanny Irawati Lesmana (5,5%). While the three corporation shareholders were Teletransmedia, Co. (48%), Transito Tatamedia (38,7%), and Duta Panca Pesona, Co. (3,3%).
My investigation finally showed that Lanny Irawati Lesmana had familial relationship with Karna Brata Lesmana, the director president of Inter Delta, Co, a distributor for Canon and Kodak photographic utilities. In TV7, he was related to Duta Panca Pesona, Co. Sukoyo was a fishery businessman from East Java. He initially held the airing license of Duta Visual Nusantara, Co., the corporation of TV7. Then, Kompas Gramedia Group bought it and changed the name into Duta Visual Nusantara Tivi Tujuh. “Sukoyo himself gained great amount of money from this purchase,” Milady said. He then founded local television in Jakarta called Space Toon.
When Murdoch almost reached a deal with ANTV, news on the prospect of the media conglomerate buying TV7 emerged heavily. TV7 nevertheless claimed the news false. “ We had not so far gotten information from upper circles,” said Moko Pamungkas, the spokesperson of TV7 public relation to me.
Similarly, Uni Lubis, the vice-redactor of TV7, stated, “We always had meeting every Thursday in Palmerah (the headquarter of Kompas Group). But our leaders never mentioned anything about the matter,” said Uni. The composition of ownership was still the same.
IN ORDER TO secure the interest of Cendana clan, the first five television stations founded in the era of Soeharto were owned by members of the clan. From Bambang Triatmodo, Siti Hardijanti Rukmana, Sudwikatmono, Sudono Salim to Peter Gontha.
The wind now has blown to the direction of economic liberalization. Foreign players were free to enter the business, as guaranteed by article 17, 2002 Law on Broadcasting.
The law allowed foreign investors to own maximum 20% of the whole shares of television station. Yet, non-Indonesian citizens were allowed to take positions as technical-related and finance-related officers in the station.
Yet, some big television stations, say Indosiar and RCTI, had not yet released from the web of Cendana.
Indosiar, for example, could not be detached from the business trace of Sudono Salim, the biggest conglomerate during the era of Soeharto. The second generation of Salims, Andree Halim and Anthony Salim were recorded as the owners of the television in 1999. Their share portions were almost the same. Fifty fifty.
During the crisis of economy, Salim Group tumbled. Their debt was enormous. Their assets, such as BCA, were confiscated by BPPN (Comission for Healthy National Banking). Indosiar was, too. BPPN then created a holding company named Holkindo Perkasa, Co. to put together all Salim Group’s companies.
In 1999, Holdiko entered Indosiar and held half of Indosiar’s whole shares. The young Salims owned the rest. This time, they did not appear as individual, but using other companies named Prima Visualindo, Inc, where the siblings, Andree and Anthony, held 33,3% of shares each. As a closed company, Indosiar had not yet registered in Stock Market at that time.
In 2001, Holdiko held 67,37% of the shares, while Prima Visualindo 32,67%. Very imbalanced.
Like a gas baloon, Holdiko shrank as time goes by. As I cited from Proposal of Providing Service in BPPN issued by Trimegah Securities, Inc., it was at the same year that Holdiko’s shares shrank into 8,26%. Trust magazine supposed Salim was behind this case.
To take some proofs, Salim also held the major shares in Prima Visualindo, Co., which owned 27,7% of shares in Indosiar. Salim was not recorded in the documents of company foundation, but Widodo Purnomosidhi, the chief director of Prima Visualindo when it was founded in 1990, was.
Purnomosidhi was also one of the founders of Indosiar beside Karel Budiman. In the archive of Apa Kabar Mailing List, I found that the duos worked for Pertiwi Asri, Inc., which used to have conflict with the Department of Forestry.
Through TDM Asset Management, Inc., Salim had 29,02% of shares in Indosiar. Thus, Salim had managed to reclaim the ownership of Indosiar and had full control over the station. Indosiar had already been enlisted in Stock Market at that time, with the holding name of PT Indosiar Visual mandiri. It used IDSR as its stock ticker symbol. Public held the rest of 43,2%.
As if not enough, Salim kept striking back. After successfully taking over Indosiar with its two companies, now Salim launched another strategy: lessening public ownership, and adding its own portion. A new holding company was then established to replace IDSR in stock market. Monday, 4 October 2004, Indosiat Karya Media Inc. emerged. IDKM was enlisted as stock ticker symbol. Indosiar Visual Mandiri was delisted.
Angky handono, the chief sirector of Indonsiar stated, “The shift of holding company is aimed to facilitate the company to expand to other multimedia sector easily.”
Yet, some analysts assumed that all of this was all tricks to cover Salim’s expansion. The most recent fact showed that Prima Visualino Inc. held 95,24%, the majority of the shares. Here comes the episode of Salim’s domination over Indosiar.
What about RCTI? The circles of Cendana family were clearly around in the television. Particularly when RCTI, TPI and Global TV were synergized under one giant media company: Media Nusantara Citra, Inc. from Bimantara Citra, Inc.
Bimantara was a company founded in Jakarta in 1981 by Bambang Triatmodjo, the third child of Soeharto, and his two school mates, Rosano Barrack and M. Tachril Sapi’ie.
The fall of Soeharto scattered his children’s business. Together with the father’s chronicles, they were dragged to the courts. Investors avoided business with them. Bimantara Citra, Ltd also experienced it, as their alleged association with Cendana family – through Bambang Triatmodjo – did not wither whatsoever. Their share price was stagnant. Investors were anxious of pro-Soeharto label. The regime itself was considered anti-democracy, corrupted and involved in murder of thousands of people.
Up to 2001, Bambang Tri held major share, 31, 49%. He used Asriland, Inc.
Such condition actually did not affect Bambang Hary Iswanto Tanoesoedibjo- familiarly called Hary Tanoe, a young Chinese broker from Surabaya. Hary Tanoe, on the other hand, entered the show and became a hero. “Hary Tanoe did not originally come from media. He was a fund manager who knew very well how to distribute money,” said Miladay from KPI.
In 2002, Hary Tanoe took some of Bambang Tri’s shares and directly took over 29,94
% of the shares through Bhakti Investama, Inc. The shares of Asriland shrank to 12,37%. As a result, Bimantara’s shares in stock market increased.The following years were the years of ups and downs. Asriland used to increase its shares into 14,20%, and Bhakti Investama 37,33%. In 2004, Bahkti Investama held 39,60% of the shares, while Asriland was in its anticlimax, holding only 11,39%. The rest of the shares was held by Almington asset Limited (10,89%), Astoria Development limited (5,59%), Sinarmas Sekuritas Inc (5,41%), Rizki Bukit Abadi Inc (4,51%), and Matra teguh Abadi Inc. (0,78%). The public and cooperatives owned 22,19% of the shares.
Bimantara was the sub-holding company for Bhakti Investama in the sector of media and broadcasting. In order to consolidate the business, they established Media Nusantara Citra Inc. of which 99,99% of its shares was taken by Bimantara Citra. The rest of 0,01% was held by Infokom Elektrindo Inc, the child company of Bimantara Citra. Now the sub-holding of Bhakti Investama held 100% of shares in RCTI and Global TV.
What was the trace of Bimantara in TPI? In the third oldest private television station, Bimantara left 25% of the shares for Siti Hardijanti Rukmana –a.k.a Tutut, the oldest daughter of Soeharto, who previously owned the station.
Artine Utomo, the chief executive operation of TPI told me that Bimantara entered TPI by the request of Tutut two and half years ago. It was Tutut that directly asked Bambang Tri. “This company was almost bankrupt because of debt. Then Bimantara came. It was a rescue operation, although many people thought we did take over the company,” she said.
“So, it was not Bimantara’s taking over?” I asked.
“So it was assumed formerly. We did not know when we decided to enter the television, now it became like this,”
Bimantara also plunged into the business of printed media by launching Trust magazine and appointed Artine as the magazine’s director. In addition, Bimantara also published Genie tabloid and Seputar Indonesia daily.
The expansion did not stop here. The company also owned Trijaya Network Radio Station which superseding Dangdut Radio 97.1 FM., Women Radio 94.3 FM, and Arif Rahman Hakim (ARH) Radio 88.4 FM.
Sari Widuri, the broadcaster of Women Radio, provided her own analysis on this ownership. “MNC is a giant who wanted to take over the media. They seem to consolidate radio and television. The segment of RCTI was made to pair with those of Trijaya and Women Radio. TPI with Dangdut Radio, and Global TV with ARH FM,” she said.
The radio stations were included in MNC Radio Network, of which 95% of the shares were owned by Media Nusantara Citra. The launching of this network on last 7 September was lively broadcasted by RCTI, Global TV and TPI for 90 minutes, as well as by the radio network, including women radio.
The impact of this broadcasting is flood of complaints directed to Indonesian Broadcasting Comission (KPI). “My cellphone inbox was filled by sms of complaint,” Said Milady. The commission argued on broadcasting monopoly. Sinansari Ecip, the vice-chief sent a letter of request for clarification to RCTI.
The reply came a week later. Gilang Iskandar, the deputy corporate of RCTI argued that, first, the show was one time off show, not permanent one, and second, referring to the survey of AC Nielsen, only 20% of audiences watched the show. Global TV 1%, RCTI 12% and TPI 7%.
Similarly, Artine Utomo from TPI stated that “ TPI has been included in MNC for almost two and half years. During the time we only had three or four times joint live shows. Your question refers to anxiety of having uniform shows in televisions? TPI has its own program and segments. So does RCTI and Global TV. You can monitor each station’s News program,” she said explosively.
“Therefore, your anxiety is relevant if such a show is broadcasted each week.”
Miladay refused the arguments of Iskandar and Artine Utomo. She argued that such action was a monopoly. “In Germany, 20% (share of audience) is a sign of monopoly, although it is one time off show. Because of the broadcasting of joint show, the public, for example, could not watch their usual program. Their needs are not accommodated.” She said.
“In Indonsia, however, we have not found the right model. We are looking for the data first. What is their concentration? All rights, they said their audience is 20% of all. What about Trijaya Radio Network? That makes more than 20%,” said Miladay rhetorically.
There is absolutely nothing wrong if a businessman founded television stations. Yet, it became critical when television is used as part of business strategy, as a means to dig more gold. If that is so, then television moves to where money flows.
The difference between television and old newspaper industry lies in the essence of the industry. Ideally, a media company is a public institution, not a social institution that provides donation. It indeed needs to seek for benefit, but still serve public needs in order to – according to Bill Kovach, a thinker on journalism, - “be able to govern itself”.
The televisions in Jakarta tend to act as merely business institutions. When programs on crime were popular, almost all television station competes to present blood on their screen. And when sexuality themed shows gained great rating, all television station produced talk shows and (not funny) comedy on sex and sexuality. Now the trend has shifted to ghost stories, started from myth related reality show to soap operas on after-life realm.
I noted that such soap operas recently dominated prime-time show, from 19.00 to 21.00. Around 20 soap operas with similar themes were aired every week.
RCTI aired “Pintu Hidayah” and “Habibi dan Habibah”. TPI “Rahasia Ilahi” and “Takdir Ilahi”. Trans TV ”Taubat”, ”hidayah” and ”insyaf”. SCTV did not want to be left behind and aired ”Astaghfirullah”, ”Kuasa Ilahi”,”Suratan takdir” and ”Kiamat Sudah Dekat.” ANTV “Jalan ke Surga” and “Nauzubillah Minzalik”. Indosiar “Titipan Ilahi”.
The rating for these soap operas is considerably high. “Rahasia Illahi”, for example, used to reach 14,2 and reach 40% of audience share. “Takdir Ilahi” that was aired next, was able to reach the number of 12 even before its tenth episode was aired. “Taubat”, in less than 2 months, successfully reached 6,4.
Harianto from SCTV Public Relation told me that before airing a program, SCTV considered four criterions: audience share, variation of program, business and need. “These four aspects are related to each other,” he said. “A program may be of high quality, but public may say otherwise. Our Programming division must consider such a matter.”
“Our main consideration before airing a program is whether the market will like it or not,” said Eko Suprianto, the manager of Local Acquisition Programme in Lativi, as cited by Media Indonesia daily.
Public do not have any opportunities to consume various TV shows. Arswendo Atmowiloto, a cineaste, stated “The dumb one here is the management of television station. They are reluctant to provide alternative shows for their audiences. They are not able to explore alternatives, including airing healthy, beneficial and educative programs.”
Arswendo basically stated that these owners of televisions were dumb. Television often becomes the right hand of their owner – businessmen to promote their products.
In Trans TV, for example, we noticed that advertisement of Bank Mega was aired routinely. Esia was often advertised in ANTV, while Trijaya Radio Network, Trust magazine, Genie Tabloid and Seputar Indonesia daily in RCTI-TPI-Global TV. Indosiar routinely put “Gebyar BCA” on the show, referring to Salim Group owned bank.
Lativi is no difference. I used to pay close attention to “TopNews” program in Wednesday, 27 September 2005, midnight. The program included a news-like promotional report of Pasaraya Grande in Blok M. The report showed pictures of retail design, food court, children playground, and interview with Amelia Handayani, the business director of Pasaraya.
Adiences was fed with news on exquisite shopping center. Lativi guided the audiences’ opinion to a comfortable shopping center named Pasaraya Grande. It was not made known to public that the clothes retailer and Lativi belonged to the same group.
It is clearly unfair for television to serve its owner channels for promotion or means for harvesting money. Television had the capacity to invite audiences more than other medias, as it was accessed by most of Indonesian public.
Survei International Foundation for Election System (IFES) revealed, 85% of the people in Indonesia got any information from television. While Media Index Wave 2005 concluded that 92% of the people in Indonesia consumed television, while only 28% read newspapers and 19% magazines.
Where did the power derive from? Clearly from public frequency that was exploited to meet political and economical interest of television owners. Then, what did public get? “If television lied in the hands of businessmen, what remained was only money,” said Miladay.
WIDIYANTO works as an editor of Jentera Law Journal that is published by Pusat Studi Hukum dan Kebijakan Indonesia (Indonesia Centre for Law and Policy Studies). This article was published on Bisnis Indonesia, March 2006.
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