In Jakarta
THE corporate feud between Malaysia's largest pay-TV operator Astro All Asia Network and Lippo Group has taken its toll on the Indonesian soccer fans.
Lots of more than 100,000 customers of PT Direct Vision, their Jakarta-based venture, are really disappointed as they can now only watch the Barclays Premier League soccer games a day late, or after they read news of a match and finding out what the final score was.
It's definitely no fun.
Astro, which has the right to broadcast live games of the world's supposedly most admired league for the Indonesian fans, has stopped allowing Direct Vision to exercise such right this year. This year's season started last week. Astro TV was the only station that offered Barclays Premier Leage's live games in Indonesia last year, and was going to be the only one again this year.
Now Direct Vision, which may soon lose the Astro brand in Indonesia, only broadcasts delayed matches where Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool play. It doesn't broadcast other matches that do not involve these three tems.
The Astro-Lippo partnership began in early 2005 when both groups agreed to set up a joint venture to operate a pay-TV business in Indonesia through Direct Vision, a Lippo subsidiary that owned a multimedia licence awarded by the government. Parent companies are now tussling as both have been blaming each other for causing the dispute.
Astro TV subscribers in Indonesia surged from around 30,000 to more than a hundred thousand soon after it became the only broadcaster that offer Barclays Premier League. Astro-Lippo venture had worked out so well as the venture managed to become the third largest opeartor in Indonesia just within a few years, beating Telkom Vision, owned by Indonesia's largest phone company. The two biggest operators are PT Indovision and PT First Media.
Indonesia, with more than 220 million in population, is attractive to foreign pay-TV operators as the penetration rate remains low, at about 2 per cent. But at the same time, Indonesia is also among the countries with the world's largest number of free-to-air televisions.
Eleven free-to-air national TV stations are luring viewers with programmes ranging from soap operas, quizes, to city news, as they compete to get a higher rating from AC Nielsen's local operation in Jakarta. Advertisers in Indonesia read Ac Nielsen reports before buying TV space for their ads.
So it makes sense that most Indonesians would want to sit back and settle for these free channels, and forget about offers made by those pay-TV companies that currently charge 150,000 rupiah (S$22) a month for basic service.