Indonesia’s public television broadcaster, TVRI has signed a contract for the free-to-air coverage of the Beijing Summer Olympics. The contract was concluded at a signing ceremony in Jakarta between the President Director of TVRI, Dr I.G.N Arsana, and the Secretary-General of the ABU, David Astley. The deal was the last to be finalized between the ABU and the 27 members of the ABU pool. Some of the region’s major markets negotiate their contracts directly with the International Olympic Committee. Astley said negotiations had taken a long time to conclude because many stations in Indonesia had expressed interest in carrying the coverage, but there had been difficulties reaching agreement on price. “In the end, we had to split the free-to-air and pay-TV rights to get the deals away,” he said, adding that the pay-TV rights for Indonesia had also been sold. In 2004, Indonesia was the only country in the region that did not have free-to-air coverage of the Athens Olympics, and there had been speculation in recent weeks that the country might miss out again in 2008.