No takers for Olympic rights in Indonesia

14 July 2008

Jakarta - No local broadcaster has made plans to air the Beijing OlympicGames next month, making this the second Olympiad that Indonesians will not get to see live or free-of-charge.The last Olympics to be shown on free-to-air were those from Sydney in 2000, aired by private television station RCTI.

The Athens Games in 2004 were only available via pay-TV on Kabelvision.John Barton, director for sports at the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), confirmed that no Indonesian broadcaster had taken the broadcast rights to the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Channels had told

The Jakarta Post that the broadcast rights were too high for an event that would not garner sufficient advertising revenue. Rights had reportedly risen from an asking price of US$2 million in 2000, to $13.7 million in 2008. (Source:http://www.onscreenasia.com;Pict: http://en.beijing2008.cn/)