No reprieve for EPL broadcaster

Mustaqim Adamrah ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 04/14/2008 11:52 AM  |  Headlines

Local English soccer fans missed the Manchester United and Arsenal match Sunday after the government suspended pay TV Astro's broadcasting license for administrative violations.

The indefinite suspension came into effect Friday morning, with the Information and Communications Ministry citing Astro's failure to meet four of its obligations, including payment for its frequency fees and the absence of an operations feasibility study of its new location.

PT Direct Vision, which operates Astro TV in Indonesia, has received more than 18,200 complaints from customers since the suspension, with many threatening to cancel their subscriptions if the block is not resolved within a week, the company's vice president for corporate affairs, Halim Mahfudz, said Sunday.

Live English Premier League (EPL) matches are watched by a large portion of Astro's subscribers, who total some 140,000. However, with the exclusive rights to broadcast EPL matches, Astro is facing monopoly allegations from the Business Competition Supervisory Commission.

Bank employee Gusneldi, an EPL enthusiast, said he would choose another cable TV provider if Astro did not return to the air soon.

"It's a pity. Astro succeeded in acquiring the license to broadcast the English Premier League but is failing to satisfy its customers," said Gusneldi, who has subscribed Astro for six months.

With the English Premier League drawing to a close, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea are still in contention for the title.

Halim said Direct Vision paid Rp 191 million (US$20,000) in frequency use fees to the ministry on Thursday -- the first time it had successfully made the payment since 2005.

The company is waiting for the results of the ministry's operational feasibility evaluation, which only began Friday.

"We are expecting the ministry will tell us when we can get back on the air as we are responsible to our 140,000 subscribers," said Halim, adding that the block was costing the company US$100,000 a day.

The spokesman for the Directorate General of Post and Telecommunications, Gatot S. Dewa Broto, said the ministry would continue its evaluation Monday.

He could not say how long the process would take to complete.

"This will depend on the amount of problems," he said.

Gatot underlined the government was not trying to complicate the situation for Astro.

"The sooner Astro TV is back on air, the better, because we are also concerned for the public's interest," he said. (alf)

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John Jixton (not verified) — Tue, 04/15/2008 - 3:49pm

I along with perhaps most others find myself in concurrence with the cynicism and doubt found in others comments. I think we all know that there is an "udang dibalik batu"...more to the story that stated in the newspaper articles. I missed the MU game and would really be pissed if they hadn't beaten Arsenal. That is my sole comfort...along with the fact that Astro is now back on air and I can go home this afternoon and watch the replays. I don't think we'll ever know the real story. Ahh...life in Indonesia.

Just Asking (not verified) — Tue, 04/15/2008 - 7:42am

I, too, think there's probably more to this situation than meets the eye.

But, if ASTRO sold its services to the public without holding the required licenses and permits isn't that the very definition of "receiving money under false pretenses"? To help find out what's really going on, I hope an NGO consumer protection agency will file a formal police criminal complaint against the satellite operator.

This whole incident also helps to show the very poor performance of the government in protecting the people's interest. If the first job of our officials is to protect them shouldn't the government have publicly warned consumers of problems ahead of time so the consumer could take appropriate steps?

Both the Minister of Information and Technology and the Head of Astro should take a hike.

Torres (not verified) — Tue, 04/15/2008 - 6:16am

Isnt it normal to have short cuts procedures here in Indonesia???Bet the bribes aren't being paid,hence the suspension....

The Reader (not verified) — Mon, 04/14/2008 - 9:31pm

Customers and the government must insist that Astro refund fees to customers for every day missed.

SimpleMan (not verified) — Mon, 04/14/2008 - 6:54pm

Would Astro really risk losing "$100,000 a day" by waiting to the last minute and not having all the proper papers submitted or paying the $20,000 fee late on Thursday? I,m skeptical.

I get that funny feeling there is more going on here, behind all the explanations given for the actions taken against Astro.

That last comment by DGPT spokesman "The sooner Astro TV is back on air, the better, because we are also concerned for the public's interest" sounds like BS to me.

If they were really concerned about the publics interest they would have worked to resolve this with Astro with out disrupting service.

But I'm a simple man so what do I know really? Not much, just wanted to relax n watch a little TV that I paid for. Too much to ask?

Peter Larsson (not verified) — Mon, 04/14/2008 - 5:10pm

It's beginning to look like this was all about Astro trying to get set up as quickly as possible in Indonesia after acquiring the rights to EPL, and with the notoriously slow government processes in Indonesia, it seems like they took some short-cuts with the Info and Comm Ministry, and that these 'short-cuts' are now being investigated - to make sure that everybody gets their fair share of the pie. But what do I know? Could be anything really, but while we wait for the TV to come back on we might as well all just sit around and speculate over what the source of this debacle is.

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