Prodita Sabarini, Jakarta – At a small cigarette stall in Palmerah, West Jakarta, Syafei, 35, recently installed a 14-inch TV and has been watching the daily spectacle of national TV news over the past few months.
With fellow street vendors, Syafei watched a live broadcast of police ambushing the suspected terrorist allegedly responsible for the bombing of the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels; a live broadcast from the Constitutional Court during its revelation of a conspiracy to frame deputies of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK); and more recently the Asian Cup soccer matches.
"I bought the TV eight months ago for entertainment, and to keep up to date with news," Syafei said, adding that buying newspapers every day was too expensive for him.
As the most powerful medium for audience penetration, TVs are ubiquitous in Jakarta. And if one does not have a television, walking to the nearest food or cigarette stall can guarantee a glimpse of one. According to AGB Nielsen Media Research, around 2.7 million Jakarta households had televisions in 2008. Each of these households had between one or two televisions sets per family.
AGB Nielsen Media Research communications executive Andini Wijendaru said that in October, the average viewer in Jakarta watched 2 hours and 36 minutes per day.
Coconut seller Rusman who lives in his side-street stall said that if he wanted to watch television he could walk to his friends' stalls. Syafei and Rusman said that lately the news had been very exciting.
"I like to watch TVOne because they have interesting news programs," Syafei said. TVOne is one of the country's 10 private television stations and is focused on news.
Marking World Television Day on Nov. 21, Indonesian Broadcasting Commission chief Sasa Juarsa Sendjaja said Friday that Indonesia's private television stations had served their purpose in terms of providing the public with crucial information on the reformation of the corrupt judiciary.
Television's entertainment programs, however, were still in poor taste and were very commercialized, Sasa added. "In the context of social media, I see that television stations have done quite well in acting as the fourth pillar in a democracy," he said.
Audiences had developed a greater trust in the media, Sasa said. "On the other side, there are still current affairs programs that are not in-line with news broadcasting practices," he said. Sasa gave an example of when television reported on Bali bomber Amrozi too much. "They made Amrozi out to be a hero."
The broadcasting of wiretapped recordings made by KPK revealing an alleged conspiracy to frame its deputy chairmen, was a good example of the media carrying out its function to keep the public informed, Sasa said.
According to AGB Nielsen Media Research, on Nov. 3, when the Constitutional Court reviewed the recordings – broadcast live on five television channels – the number of viewers watching news between 2 a.m. and 3 p.m. rose 279 percent to around 914,000 viewers.
"Audiences watching TV news channels watched for an average of 1 hour and 41 minutes, whereas the day before the average was only 32 minutes," AGB Nielsen marketing services chief Christina Afendy said.