Kompas TV launched amid warning

Friday 09 Sep 2011
Kompas Gramedia Group, Indonesia’s largest media conglomerate, launched Kompas TV on Friday, amid warning from the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) that its broadcasts might be illegal, The Jakarta Post reports.

This is the second attempt by Kompas to enter the broadcasting industry. It previously established the broadcaster TV7 in 2001, and sold it to Trans Corp in 2006.

The Kompas line-up will feature documentaries and news as well as entertainment and will steer clear of soap operas, reality television and celebrity gossip shows that have become a staple for most national television stations in the country.

But hours before Kompas TV aired its maiden broadcast on Friday evening, the KPI issued a statement calling on the new channel to rectify some issues before it went on air.

“They don’t have a broadcasting licence and there is a possibility that they could override the identities of local television stations that carry their programmes in the regions,” it said.

KPI also said that the cooperation between Kompas TV and local TV stations – a majority of which had not acquired broadcasting licences yet – cannot serve as a legal basis for the local stations to change their broadcasting format to the current one, which is largely dominated by Kompas TV programmes, the statement said.

Kompas TV chief editor Taufik Hidayat Mihardja said that his institution didn’t need a broadcasting licence as it was only acting as a content provider and not as a broadcaster.