Indonesia’s broadcast watchdog, Indonesia Broadcasting Commission (KPI), has looked at the country’s television programming – and found at least half of it wanting.

The special place in the official television dog-box was reserved for free-TV broadcaster Antv, which scored worst in the latest rankings.

Among other comments, KPI criticised the appetite for a “less inspiring” celebrity focus in infotainment, variety shows and soap operas, and encouraged broadcasters to focus on inspirational stars with healthy lifestyles and harmonious households.

The genres that made the grade during the three months from April to June this year were cultural/tourism, talkshow, religion and news.

The category with the best overall score was cultural/tourism, with a score of 3.33 of a max four points. Kompas TV topped the cultural/tourism charts, followed by state-owned public broadcast TV network, Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI), and MNCTV in third place.

Almost all broadcasters passed muster on religious programming, led by tvOne. MetroTV and TVRI tied for second place, followed by RCTI and RTV, which tied for third spot.

The other four bad-boy genres – children, soap operas, variety and infotainment – fell short of KPI’s minimum standards of three points.

If there is a bright side, it’s that the overall average score for all eight, while still below the three-point threshold, was less bad than in the first three months of the year.

By KPI standards, the quality of kids shows dipped dramatically during the second quarter of this year.

News was singled out for special criticism, despite an improved score in the second quarter. In addition to noting a Jakarta/Java-centric slant to TV news, chairman of the Central KPI, Yuliandre Darwis, said there was too little “positive news that builds optimism” and suggested that broadcasters focus on “the achievements of regional heads and innovations in public services” that are not being reported in a balanced way.

Indonesia’s top news provider from April to June was TVRI, with a score of 3.35, followed by TransTV, Kompas TV, SCTV and NET.

Metro TV placed first for talkshows, followed by TVRI, Trans7 and RTV.

In addition to urging broadcasters to up their grades, KPI is also pushing for a closer relationship with the local advertising industry, signing an MoU to strengthen cooperation with the Indonesian Advertising Company Association.

KPI’s logic is this: “This collaboration is to encourage the improvement of the quality of television broadcast programmes while encouraging advertisers to place their advertisements on quality shows based on the results of the quality survey of TV broadcast programmes conducted by KPI.”

Published on ContentAsia's Issue Six 2018, 29 October 2018