An archipelago of more than 13,000 islands, Indonesia has a population of around 237million and based on research done by CASBAA, more than half the households in Indonesia have a TV in their homes. Although the Indonesian TV market only grew by 4.5% in 2015, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA), its market has seen a significant growth in the recent years in areas such as ad sales and subscription revenues from pay-tv.

Ulama Nusantara, a historical documentary travelogue was ranked twice as the number one show on Metro TV in Jakarta, Indonesia barely four weeks since it was first broadcasted on 9th October 2016 in the neighbouring country. With 20.3% increased viewership since its first episode, Ulama Nusantara made it to the top five list of most watched programme during its slot, against 15 other local and national stations for the first four episodes. The second episode of the documentary had impressively garnered 859, 000 viewership in cities that are covered by Nielsen namely Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Medan, Makassar, Palembang, Semarang, Surabaya, Denpasar, Banjarmasin and Surakarta. The 13-episode documentary was produced by Primeworks Studios in collaboration with the Department of Arabic and Islamic Civilisational Studies. This documentary explored six countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, Egypt and Turkey, which took the production team three years to complete the project. New Programmes Channel NewsAsia’s Indonesia’s Game Changers is a 4-part series that delves into the lives of inspiring figures, whose inventiveness, creativity and perseverance have brought about changes not only to their immediate surroundings but also to the country.

The first episode features the Mayors of Bandung and Surabaya sharing ideas and breakthroughs in the national political scene with their innovative leaderships. While the second episode is about two young technology entrepreneurs, who use digital technology to assist small and medium enterprises to access the lucrative digital market and streamline the healthcare system. Indonesia’s Rotasi directed by Destian Rendra is the grand winner of the inaugural “The 5-Min Video Challenge” organised by the Singtel Group. Rotasi (Rotates) beat 11 other entries from Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Tanzania to take home the first prize at the Regional Finals award ceremony held at Grand Hyatt Singapore. Destian Rendra also received US$3K for winning the popular vote for Rotasi. Key developments PlayBox Technology has completed its broadcast playout system expansion. There has been three AirBox servers deployed at the Biznet Techno village on the outskirts of Jakarta have been upgraded to the latest AirBox Neo. “All the AirBox Neo servers are operated remotely via optical fibre links from our playout suite in central Jakarta, handling three programme channels. One of these, Kids Channel, carries audio in English, Japanese, Korean and Thai.” PlayBox Technology CEO Pavlin Rahnev adds that the Neo series now comprises eleven separate elements which can be integrated and configured to match practically any workflow and any required level of backup security. Sarana Media Vision (SMV) launched its premiere nationwide Free-to-View DTH satellite television service called “SMV FreeSat TV” in Indonesia. The new platform is available across all of Indonesia via the ABS satellites covering Indonesia. SMV FreeSat TV will be free-to-view and will initially feature over 60 domestic and international channels with plans to expand to over 100 channels in the coming months. It has a diverse genre of programming including entertainment, kids, movies, music, religion, news, ethnic and educational content, which will appeal to every member of the family.