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Telkom to acquire state-run production house amid Netflix trouble
Telkom is set to acquire movie production house Produksi Film Negara (PFN) and could leverage its streaming ecosystem to take on troubled Netflix in the domestic market.
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elecommunication company Telkom is set to acquire movie--production company Produksi Film Negara (PFN) as the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Ministry continues consolidating state-run firms via mergers and acquisitions.
Deputy SOEs Minister Kartika Wirjoatmodjo said on Tuesday that PFN would find it difficult to thrive alone in Indonesia’s slowly growing film industry. Therefore, it was best for the company to be part of the larger Telkom ecosystem.
“Then PFN could join Telkom’s ecosystem to provide movies that later could be streamed in Telkom’s platform and Indihome,” Kartika told lawmakers on Tuesday during a meeting with House Commission VI, which oversees SOEs, trade and investment.
Kartika said the ministry would share further details on the matter in the future.
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Indihome is Telkom’s internet service provider. Apart from Indihome, Telkom also owns the Maxstream streaming service. To date, the telco has worked alongside content providers like Disney plus and Netflix.
Telkom’s plan to acquire PFN comes amid hard times in the streaming industry. Netflix reported it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter this year, resulting in slowing revenue growth, and laid off 150 employees on May 15, CNBC wrote.
Meanwhile, the Disney Plus streaming service has gained 7.9 million new subscribers on its platform in the first three months of this year, CNN wrote.
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Arya Sinulingga, expert staff member to the SOEs minister, told reporters on Tuesday that the acquisition would not be concluded this year as the ministry had yet to finalize the plan.
The acquisition, he said, could make PFN a Telkom subsidiary in a structure similar to the forming of a micro-lender holding under Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI). In the BRI case, the government handed over majority stakes of financing firm PT Permodalan Nasional Madani (PNM) and pawnshop chain PT Pegadaian to BRI.
“So, it could be similar to what we did with BRI. It would be a subsidiary, not merged [with other companies under Telkom]. Similar to PNM and Pegadaian,” Arya told The Jakarta Post at the House of Representatives.
