The Indonesia Policy on Television Broadcasting: A Politics and Economics Perspective

All around the world, the TV broadcasting business has had an enormous impact on the social, political, and economic fields. Therefore, in general, most of the countries regulate TV business well to produce an optimal impact on the nation. In Indonesia, the TV broadcasting business is growing very significantly. After implementing Broadcasting Act number 32 of 2002, the number of TV broadcasting companies increased to 1,251 compared to before 2002, which only had 11 channels, and were dominated by the private TV stations. However, the economic contribution of the TV broadcasting business in Indonesia is still small. Even in 2017, the number of TV companies decreased by 14.23% to 1,073. This situation raises a serious question: how exactly does Indonesian government policy regulate the TV industry? This article is the result of qualitative research that uses interviews and document analysis as a method of collecting data. The results showed that the TV broadcasting industry in Indonesia cannot develop properly because the government does not apply fair rules to the private TV industry. Political interests still color the formulation of rules in which the government and big TV broadcasting companies apply the symbiotic mutualism policy to protect each other's interests.