Competition and the decline in Western television program popularity in Indonesia during the 1990s

Abstract

Despite the country's population base of 240 million, Indonesian television has not been widely explored in academic and professional venues. This paper examines the impact of competition on the popularity of foreign programs in the Indonesian market during the mid-1990s. Analyzing recently released ratings data from a television ratings service, this paper suggests that competition has given rise to the popularity of local programs, while foreign program popularity has declined steeply during the same three year period. The findings also suggest that cultural proximity is a factor of the popularity of programs. By 1997, Asian programs outnumbered Western programs on the top 100 highest rated program lists in Indonesia. We explore implications of study findings for filling this void in the literature.

Keywords:

• cross-cultural communication
• television and radio studies
• media management
• survey

Notes

1. Now a subsidiary of ACNielsen.

2. These broadcasts did not reach the West Papua region. The notion that linguistic diversity impaired the spread of Indonesian media is further undermined, however, by the fact that there was at least one daily paper published in the Bahasa Indonesian language during that time.

3. Note that the liberalization of television ownership undertaken subsequently during the 1990s resulted in an opening of the Indonesian media, which is consistent with the Developmental press model, This media ferment, along with a loss of military support (Winters, 2002), contributed to Soeharto's removal from power in 1998.