RCTI

RCTI (abbreviated from Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia) is an Indonesian free-to-air television broadcaster. It is best known for its soap operas, celebrity bulletins, news, and sports programmes. It was first launched in 1989, originally as a local pay television operator that broadcasts mostly foreign programmes, before switching to free-to-air terrestrial network a year later.
RCTI was initially co-owned by PT Rajawali Wira Bhakti Utama (later Rajawali Corpora) and PT Bimantara Citra (later Global Mediacom, now known as PT Media Nusantara Citra (MNC)), thus its name. One of its commissioners at that time, Indra Rukmana, is the husband of Tutut Soeharto, the founder and ex-owner of its eventual sister network, TPI. It is completely owned by MNC, which also owns GTV, MNCTV, and iNews, both private Indonesian television networks.
The name comes from its founding companies Rajawali Wira Bhakti Utama and Bimantara Citra. Despite Rajawali was not the main shareholder, the company's CEO Peter Sondakh stated that the name has its own philosophy:
Peter Sondakh, Peter F. Gontha, and Bambang Trihatmodjo were the founding fathers of RCTI. Sondakh was the pioneer of the idea of establishing the first private television network in Indonesia, but his idea was always rejected by the government. His idea later succeeded thanks to his approach with Peter F. Gontha and Bambang. In 1986, Sondakh's idea was also agreed by President Suharto. In October 1987, after a series of consultations and negotiations in the House of Representatives, state broadcaster TVRI lost its monopoly when the government allowed private television networks to begin broadcasting, but in a limited broadcast coverage.
PT. Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia was established on 21 August 1987, and TVRI directly pointed RCTI as the first "Initiator of the Limited Channel Broadcast" (Pelaksana Siaran Saluran Terbatas (SST)), and on 22 February 1988, RCTI granted its broadcasting permission. According to the government, the permission was issued due to RCTI was the only SST applicant, considerations about the company's ability to provide a large invesment (more than Rp20 billion), the company's strong capital, and considerations of securing the technology, function, and role of television as a strategic information tool. In the permission, RCTI was originally allowed to operate in the next 20 years with 18 hours of broadcasting time.
On 23 June 1988, the groundbreaking ceremony of RCTI's studio in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, was conducted and attended by the then-governor of Jakarta Wiyogo Atmodarminto. In the next month, broadcasting devices were started to be installed. To support the development, RCTI recruited several people that would be the key management during its early broadcast, such as Peter Langlois, Stephen Mathis (and his friends from the United States), Alex Kumara [id] and Zsa Zsa Yusharyahya [id]. For Langlois, he previously worked on the California-based KCRA-TV, which later played a major role on form the programming of RCTI, which was designed to be look like private TV networks in the US.
Initially, RCTI was targeted to start broadcasting in September 1988 for 2–3 hours, with entertainment (mostly imported films) and educational programs. Its free-to air trial run in Jakarta was started on 13 November 1988, from 17:30 to 22:30 local time. The free-to air broadcast was done as an introduction to the public. During the trial, it was reported that RCTI had suffered glitches during its operational. Later on 21 November, the broadcast via decoder was started, with the first 43,000 users. It was initially planned that mandatories the usage of decoders and official broadcast was scheduled for 1 March 1989, but the policy was executed indefinitely with open-close broadcasting. which was conducted earlier – on 21 November 1988 and 2 January 1989. On 5 March 1989, the broadcasting schedule was extended to 16 hours, from 08:30 to 24:30 local time.
RCTI was officially inaugurated on 24 August 1989 morning by President Suharto as Indonesia's first privately owned commercial television network. Evening programming was launched by Minister of Information Harmoko. RCTI was initially broadcast to Greater Jakarta area as a local pay television channel and gained a nationwide terrestrial license a year later. Prior to 1994, RCTI mostly aired foreign programmes as it cost less compared to self-produced programmes, and to evoke the look and feel of a conventional pay television (which was a new and expensive technology in Indonesia at the time). Despite that, RCTI had tried to produce a local self-produced program called Jakarta Masa Kini in July 1989. From 1989 to 1990, the station's subscription system requires an UHF set-top box, and in some areas, with a satellite dish. During this time, the subscription system was incorrectly branded as a "pay-per-view", despite the fact that it works similarly as a conventional pay television that requires monthly subscription. The RCTI subscription cost was stipulated at Rp 131.000 for decoder rent (specifically Rp 75.000 for the decoder and Rp 56.000 for VAT and stamp duty cost), and ranging about Rp 15.000 to Rp 30.000 per month for every offered service.
Its limited coverage had obstructing RCTI on gaining more viewers and eventually affecting its advertisement income. 200,000 subscribers were projected for 1990, but only 125,000 actually signed up. This failure was caused by popularity of false and stolen decoders in the market, and complaints about the subscription policy which led to cancellation of subscription. Despite that they received Rp 2,25 billion from decoder income and Rp 12 billion from advertisements at the time, RCTI was reported experienced disadvantages on its first year of broadcast.
Those problematics led to RCTI's act to negotiate the government to change its status into a free-to air television network like TVRI. Eventually on 11 July 1990, Minister of Information Harmoko officially announced the government's plan to abolish the mandatory of the usage of decoders for private TV networks. It was agreed by President Suharto three days later. Later on 1 August, the government issued the permission for private TV networks to broadcast free-to air, via the Letter of the Directorate General of Radio, Television, and Film of the Department of Information, No. 1271D/RTF/K/VIII/1990. On 24 August 1990, coinciding with its 1st anniversary, RCTI officially abolished the subscription policy and began to freely broadcast in the same network, 43 UHF. Its legal status was also changed from SST to SPTSU (Stasiun Penyiaran Televisi Swasta Umum, Public Privately-owned Television Broadcast Station), which has an unlimited broadcast hour. Their former subscribers can return the decoder starting on 3 September.
After the switchover, RCTI had reached about 6 - 8,5 million views in Greater Jakarta. On 1 May 1991, RCTI successfully on-air in Bandung as RCTI Bandung. It is an affiliated network, due to RCTI wasn't allowed to broadcast nationwide yet, which contains programs from its central station in Jakarta and local programs like wayang golek. In the previous month, RCTI had already broadcasting nationwide via Palapa B2 Satellite, but led to a controversy. In fact, RCTI had "informally" expanding the coverage by creating a partnership with a local TV station in Surabaya, SCTV. Both network shared the same programming, but with different schedules. Another expansion was done by private parties that provided illegal broadcasting in Garut and Yogyakarta c. 1991–1992.
Between 24 and 25 August 1991, RCTI and SCTV went on-air 24 hours a day, for the first time in Indonesia.
In early 1991, RCTI introduced their zweikanalton stereo broadcast. Two years earlier, RCTi also introduced their first news program Seputar Jakarta (later evolved to Seputar Indonesia in the following year, then eventually Seputar iNews). It was the earliest news program that features sign language translator for deaf viewers. A teletext service was introduced in April 1994, and a dual sound feature was also introduced in the same year. On 3 June 1995, RCTI introduced a three-dimensional (3D) broadcast with the Japanese anime series Nobody's Boy: Remi.
In 1992, RCTI reached its break-even point. Coinciding with its 4th anniversary on 24 August 1993, RCTI eventually received their nationwide broadcast permission from the government. Shortly thereafter, RCTI rapidly expanded its coverage to Yogyakarta, Jayapura, Surakarta, Semarang, Banjarmasin, Pontianak, Batam and other cities in the following years. Sinetron (soap operas) began to be developed, as well as quiz and game shows, sports, children's animated series, etc. These new programs targeted for all groups (but considered leading towards higher-classes), and helped RCTI gain the first rank in television rating.
The 1997 Asian financial crisis forced RCTI to change their management structure due to its major loss up to Rp 90 billion. Nevertheless, they able to solve the problematics caused by the crisis. On its 11th anniversary in 2000, RCTI introduced a newer version of their logo, and the position of the digital on-screen graphic was moved from upper-right to upper-left corner.
RCTI, MNCTV and GTV was removed from Cable subscription of First Media due to involved the Carriage dispute. as a result from information posted by First Media Twitter account at January 2013. There are same with IPTV service when affected a Carriage dispute with IndiHome at 8 April 2016, MNC Media will remove all Local Cable Operators due to copyright infringement and broadcasting contract concern prior to UEFA Euro 2016 and AFF Championship in 2016.
Since 7 November 2021, RCTI is no longer available on any non-affiliated video on demand streaming platforms. Only MNC-owned RCTI+ and Vision+ that provides the broadcast. The reason was to harmonize the company's contents and digital assets.
Since the digital television transition started on 2 November 2022, the PAL broadcast of RCTI Jakarta would shut down on 3 November 2022 at 23:59 WIB/11:59pm after Kominfo statement with MNC Group or ANTV issues that did not force them to shut down the analogue service in Jakarta when TVRI or other TV stations shut down the analogue service quickly and switched to DVB-T2 services on 3 November at 12:00am.
RCTI now has 47 relay stations around Indonesia and reaches over 180 million viewers.
The flagship news program is Seputar iNews (formerly Seputar Indonesia), which has morning and lunchtime editions. RCTI also airs quiz shows, including the Indonesian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which ran from 2001 to 2006. Animated shows include Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Little Einsteins, the original Aikatsu! series, Do ra emon and Crayon Shin-chan. The aforementioned titles have since been replaced by locally produced Kiko and Titus the Detective.
RCTI has broadcast various popular soap opera titles from production houses such as Multivision Plus, Starvision Plus, the now-defunct Prima Entertainment, Soraya Intercine Films, Tobali Putra Productions, and also currently the production houses owned by MNC Media which focuses on its own production as well as the distributor of soap operas from the production house that has been mentioned previously, namely MNC Pictures. This happened because the contract collaboration between SinemArt and MD Entertainment with MNC Group were terminated, because the shares were taken back by SCM (SinemArt) and Trans Media. RCTI currently airs several television series known as Layar Drama Indonesia (formerly Mega Sinetron), showing in many titles. Formerly, it also airs weekly television series like Bella Vista, Mutiara Cinta (Pearls of Love), Shangri-La, Tuyul dan Mbak Yul, the fantasy-comedy Bidadari Yang Terluka (A Wounded Angel), and ABG. It also airs occasional sport programmes and localized version of talent show under international licenses, such as Indonesian Idol, Rising Star Indonesia, MasterChef Indonesia, X Factor Indonesia, and Indonesia's Got Talent, which moved from Indosiar and SCTV.
The Asian Games coverage was returned to RCTI at 2023 after 2014 was the last time to show the Asian Games in Incheon and 2018 which excluded due to TVRI, Kompas Gramedia or Emtek or other broadcasters holding exclusive rights for the event in Indonesia.
RCTI are also broadcast Indonesia team qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2027 AFC Asian Cup. Commercial MNC Media also shows the national team but from 2020 until 2024, MNC only covered the national team matches at AFF Championship and 2023 AFC Asian Cup (had qualified to the finals tournament) due to MNC–Lagardère (AFF Championship) and Football Marketing Asia (AFC Asian Cup) broadcasting rights partnership contract.
During the Break (Jeda Iklan) programming in RCTI, Some RCTI Commercial Break at Pay TV feeds interrupted by MNC Vision Networks version for All Pay TV providers since 18 July 2019 after RCTI full encrypted at Palapa D (now moved to Telkom-4) due to rights issues with third-parties of RCTI unauthorized rebroadcast.
Like other Indonesian television networks, For RCTI Nationwide feed not be shown Subuh and Maghrib from Jakarta. RCTI shows Subuh and Maghrib prayer calls (adhan) in some transmitter stations, including Jakarta and Bandung. The prayer calls are best known for using a recording of Sheikh Ali Ahmed Mulla, a well-known muezzin of Masjid al-Haram in Saudi Arabia
Some RCTI transmitter stations also broadcast local programming. For example, RCTI Surabaya airs Seputar iNews Jatim, while in Bandung, Seputar iNews Jabar is aired. The Palembang station shows Seputar iNews Sumsel, the Batam station shows Seputar iNews Kepri and the Medan station shows Seputar iNews Sumut. They are mostly shown during the final half-hour of Seputar iNews Pagi (05:30-06:00 WIB or, depending on the local area, 06:30-07:00 WITA and 07:30-08:00 WIT)
RCTI is available as a free-to-air channel in East Timor, but only in Dili and other cities such as Ermera and Baucau. RCTI is also available in Malaysia as a free-to-air channel in Johor Bahru, and in Singapore as a free-to-air channel by using antenna. RCTI is the only Indonesian free-to-air TV channel to be broadcast free-to-air outside Indonesia. Indonesian drama series like Bunga di Tepi Jalan, Bintang, Liontin and Pernikahan Dini currently air on Astro Aruna, a channel on the Singaporean SingTel mio TV 24 Hours IPTV Pay TV Service, but these were broadcast on RCTI in 2001, 2005 and 2006 respectively.
Obama Eksklusif RCTI Bersama Putra Nababan ("Exclusive Interview with Barack Obama") is a television program that aired in March 2010, showing an interview between Indonesian journalist Putra Nababan and President Barack Obama. According to the president, it was probably the first interview ever done by Indonesian television in the White House. The interview covered the partnership between Indonesia and the United States and the president's experiences during his childhood in Indonesia. This show won an award at the 2011 Panasonic Gobel Awards.