Prodita Sabarini, Jakarta – The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan has marked the start of the seasonal prime time hours for Indonesian television stations: The wee hours before dawn. The sahur time, when fasting Muslims eat their first meal of the day before refraining from eating, drinking and having sexual relations from dawn to dusk, has always been a big opportunity for the country's television stations to reap profits from advertising time.

From year to year, the hours of 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. during the fasting month have been a battle field for television stations aiming to capture the greatest audience share, each airing their own Ramadan-related shows.

Indonesia has around 11 stations which broadcast nationwide. The 10 private ones are RCTI, Indosiar, SCTV, ANTV, TPI, TRANS TV, TV 7, Global TV, Metro TV and TV One, and the one public station is TVRI. Cities also have local stations.

The Ramadan month is a time of fortune for stations as more people watch television during this time of year.

Trans TV spokesperson A. Hadiansyah Lubis said the stations always experienced increases in advertising income during Ramadan.

"During Ramadan, advertising income can increase by 20 percent," he said. "It is one of the revenue makers, along with the badminton Thomas and Uber Championship and the station's anniversary."

According to AGB Nielsen Media Research, since the first week of Ramadan, beginning Sept. 1, there has been a 28 percent increase in television viewers compared to the week before.

"The average number of television viewers at the beginning of Ramadan is 5.8 million people over the age of five or 13.5 percent of the surveyed population," AGB Nielsen Media Research spokeswoman Andini Wijendaru said.

This year, AGB Nielsen surveyed 10 cities with a total television viewer population of 42.6 million. "The week before (Aug. 25 to 31), the average number of viewers was 4.5 million people," she said. That means entering Ramadan this year an additional 1.3 million people are tuning into their electronic tubes.

This might appear as positive for televisions stations; however, compared to last year, television stations are actually losing viewers.

According to AGB Nielsen Media Research data, the first week of Ramadan last year saw an average of 15.7 percent of the television viewer population of 42 million, or around 6.6 million people, watching television.

This year's first week of Ramadan saw 800,000 fewer people watching television compared to last year's. Andini said this year's decline was quite significant.

"Overall there has been a declining number of television viewers. In the first semester of 2007, 13.7 percent of the TV population watched television, while 2008 only saw 13.3 percent, so it declined an average of0.4 points. The decline in this year's Ramadan of 2.2 percentage points, is, therefore, quite significant," she said. "The assumption is that the people are becoming more selective," Andini said.

Twenty-six-year-old Citra Lestari said she turns the television off when Ramadan-themed sinetrons (soap operas) are on. "I can't stand watching 'religious' sinetrons. All I can do as a television owner is to turn the TV off when those shows are on," she said. "Watching TV is a choice," she said.

Each year during Ramadan, television stations have been criticized for commercializing religious themes.

In the attempt to grab the highest rating, television stations show a variety of Ramadan programs, such as comedy skits, talk shows, sinetrons, music shows, religious documentaries and sermons.

Most noticeable during Ramadan is the mushrooming of "religious" soap operas. Most "religious" sinetrons have the same formula as the usual sinetrons of the extreme good versus extreme evil – the kind protagonist being oppressed by the evil antagonist. The only differences are that "religious" ones incorporate religious symbols such as headscarves and the protagonists are usually depicted as religiously devout while the antagonists are depicted as evil.

This Ramadan, religious sinetrons dominate the television screens. Indosiar is airing sinetrons such as Tasbih Cinta (Love Chant), Muslimah, Syarifah and Jihan. TRANS TV is airing "Menuju Surgamu" (To Your Heaven). SCTV said this Ramadan they were depending on sinetrons Annisa, Zahra and Rinduku CintaMu (My Longing for Your Love) to draw in viewers.

"I can't say anything else about those sinetrons. I just turn the TV off," Citra said.

Midya Nurwulan Santi, 26, also has the same opinion as Citra. "I understand the stations want to take advantage of Ramadan to reap profits," she said. "As I don't like most of the shows I don't watch them."

Zaki Zulkarnain, 26, said he turned the TV on during sahur time to accompany him while having his meal. "In our house, we usually watch the slapstick comedies, just because it's entertaining," he said.

He said he watched Trans TV's slapstick comedy "Saatnya Kita Sahur" (It's Time for Sahur). The show received a rating of 3.4 the first week of Ramadan.

Hadiansyah said his station tried to avoid presenting Ramadan themes with a heavy hand. "We try to entertain people and give a touch of Ramadan to our program in a light way. We don't want people to get bored with our programs."

The first week of Ramadan saw the drama-comedy series Para Pencari Tuhan 2 (God's Seekers 2) produced by comedian Dedy Mizwar and its interactive quiz on SCTV having the highest ratings on sahur time. The quiz received a rating of 4.2 while the series got 3.9.

SCTV spokesperson Budi Darmawan said they were trying new ways to attract viewers.

"We had been airing comedies during sahur time for years. Since last year, almost all stations are airing slapstick comedy so we changed our tactic by showing drama comedy followed by the quiz in order to be different," he said.

"Television is an entertainment media, so we try to make our programs entertaining for people. In television we blend entertainment with moral messages, without indoctrination," Budi said.