Indonesian TV Industry (early 2011)

Most of TV programs are still locally produced. Number of religious films have decreased compare to about 1 year ago, in exchange there are new variety shows appeared, like "Hitam Putih", "Mama Udah Bobo", etc. Some variety shows are influenced by foreign variety shows, like the use of comments in bubbles (I saw similar characteristic in Korean variety shows). TV Drama is still favored by big-budget TV channel to fill prime time everyday. However, the quality of the dramas have been deteriorating (the stars, directing, video quality), so it seems that the producers allocate less budget than before.

In general, variety shows requires less budget than TV drama. Thus, in general, it seems that TV channels seem to reduce cost by decreasing cost of the programs. In Indonesia, TV is the most influential channel for marketing, thus main income of the TV channels come from advertising. During difficult times, in common, firstly companies will cut budget for advertising. Thus, if the TV channels tried to reduce cost, it may mean that they got less income, companies spent less in advertising and our country might not in a good economic condition even though it was reported that our country has managed to survive from GFC and booked positive GDP growth.