Traditional TV stations in the era of new media: the Indonesia case

Introduction

In this essay I will discuss how traditional TV stations in Indonesia have been mediated and disrupted by developments in network media brought about by the internet. In this regard, I will also investigate how other players inthe internet industry have adopted and adapted the material produced by traditional TV stations for their own benefit. This study aims to understand how traditional TV stations in Indonesia grapple with the new players on the internet who re-broadcast the TV stations’ programs through online live streaming.

Indonesia’s major TV stations are still using radio frequency (UHF/VHF), TV cable subscription, and online live-streaming from their websites as their main broadcast mediums. These ‘traditional’ TV stations are RCTI, SCTV, Indosiar, TransTV, Trans7, GlobalTV, MNCTV, ANTV, TVOne, MetroTV, TVRI, Net, Kompas TV, and RTV. Using the broadcast medium, viewers are able to watch TV programs from these TV stations for free. As a result, advertising has become the main source of the TV stations’ revenues. Although, the TV stations have also provided free online streaming, the online platform does not generate revenues.

Foreign correspondents in an era of global media

Introduction

I was driving in my car when a news-gathering coordinator from TVOne’s main office in Jakarta called me in Australia with the instruction that I had to make a live report as soon as possible about new developments in the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. The news-gathering coordinator advised me that just a few minutes earlier the Australian Prime Minister had made a statement in parliament that flight MH370 might have gone missing in the Indian Ocean, about 3000 km south-west of Perth.

This event highlighted one of the key questions faced by a foreign correspondent working in today’s global media landscape. That is how a foreign correspondent based in Australia could be updated by someone far away in Jakarta about a particular issue that occurred much closer to the location of the correspondent? If they could monitor the event second by second from far away, why did they need someone to do a live report? They could even re-broadcast reports from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about this new development in the search.