Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Two new television stations have hit the Indonesian airwaves in the last fortnight, and another two will start broadcasting before the end of the year.

But these newcomers will face tough competition from the six existing private television stations to grab a share of the advertising market.

In addition, the state-run TVRI, which has the widest reach in the country, declared that it has gone commercial from this month, running advertisements after 20 non-profitable years in a bid to rescue itself from the brink of bankruptcy.

Analysts have said that the advertising budget for next year is unlikely to grow significantly from this year's expected 9.7 trillion rupiah (S$.1.7 billion).

Salim Group's Indosiar station now enjoys the highest revenues from advertisements, followed by RCTI and SCTV, both of which are owned by the Bimantara Group.

Television analyst J.B. Wahyudi said: "This means the advertising pie will be fought over by 11 stations, instead of seven, by next year." Even now, the new television stations have admitted that they are facing financial difficulties, causing them to delay their launching date.

TransTV, owned by businessman Chairul Tandjung of the ParaGroup, finally went on the air last week, but only in major cities in Java. This happened after the government threatened to revoke the broadcasting licences of all the new stations if they did not start operations by October.

Global TV, a sister company of the oldest private television station RCTI, has started its trial broadcasts since last month. TV7, owned by the Kompas-Gramedia group, has scheduled a "soft launch" on November 25. It will start formal operations sometime next year. Lativi, which is owned by former Cabinet minister and businessman Abdul Latief, plans to hit the airwaves around the same time.

Critics have pointed out that the new television stations lacked originality in their content. All the stations, except for the all-news Metro TV that started operating last November, are heavy on entertainment programmes, with news making up between 20 per cent and 35 per cent of their content. "What will end up happening is that we will have the same kind of soap operas and game shows on every TV channel," said media observer Garin Nugroho.

Following the fall of former President Suharto and the easing of restrictions on new broadcast licences, companies jumped onto the bandwagon and invested their money on new channels. But now that the initial euphoria has died down, they have discovered that television may not be as lucrative a business as they had anticipated.

The Association of Indonesian Advertising Company predicted that the advertising pie would grow by 30 per cent, but many raised their doubts following the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the United States that affected the global economy.

The private stations' losses have forced them to seek investors following a relaxation on foreign investment in the television industry.