Jakarta. The Indonesian government sticks to its plan of ceasing analog television broadcast entirely on November 2, the Communication and Information Technology Ministry confirmed on Thursday.
The statement came amid public confusion after the Supreme Court revoked a crucial article in the government regulation on broadcast, postal services, and telecommunication. The Supreme Court orders the annulment of an article stating that all broadcasters “shall lease multiplexing slots from multiplexing providers”.
The ministry argued that the ruling doesn’t by any means prevent the government’s digitization push which is also included in the regulation.
“Accordingly, the Communication and Information Technology Ministry finds it necessary to inform the public that other provisions in the government regulation number 46/2021 concerning the migration to digital television broadcast are not canceled by the Supreme Court,” it said.
"In principle, the migration of terrestrial television from analog technology to digital technology will continue as planned."
A number of media conglomerations like MNC Group and SCM Group, which together own more than five major networks, have urged the government to delay the migration because there are still millions of poor families who can’t afford digital TV sets and still rely on their old TVs.
The two media groups along with several others also do the business of providing multiplexing services, making them the hardest hit by the new court ruling that scraps the obligation to lease multiplexing services from them to level the playing field.
The August 2 ruling was awarded to Lombok TV, a small, relatively unknown broadcaster in West Nusa Tenggara that lodged a motion to the Supreme Court to overturn the obligatory multiplexing service lease.
