ICoSaPS Conference Proceedings

The 3rd International Conference on Social and Political Science

The Impact of Information Technology on Social and Political
Dynamics, (2016), Volume 2017

Conference Paper

Convergence Trends in the Television Media

Industry A Case Study on the
Implementation of Media Convergence in
Metro TV, Jakarta
Suwandi Sumartias1 and Moh. Hazni2
1
Lecturer at the Faculty of Communication Padjadjaran University
2
Graduate Student at the Faculty of Communication Padjadjaran University

Abstract
This study aims to determine the trend of convergence in the television media
industry, specically the implementation of media convergence in Metro TV.
Data for the case study were gathered from observations and interviews with
journalists. The results showed that the media industry in Indonesia, especially
Metro TV has expanded its coverage broadcast, characterized by the use of
streaming technology and distributed through online sites. But until now in
the Indonesian media industry, especially Metro TV, media convergence has
Corresponding Author:
not implemented an effective system. Media industries afliated with a group
Suwandi Sumartias; email:
sumartias2@gmail.com
(Media Group) operate independently of each other with little coordination.
Broadcast media industry in Indonesia is still reluctant to switch to digital
Received: 09 April 2017
broadcasting due to the high costs of replacing the analog broadcasting.
Accepted: 17 May 2017
Published: 12 June 2017
Keywords: Convergence Metro TV, Convergence Trends, Digital Media, Media
Publishing services provided Technology
by Knowledge E

Suwandi Sumartias and 1. Background

Moh. Hazni. This article is
distributed under the terms
The broadcast media industry, especially television, develops very rapidly
of the Creative Commons
Attribution License, which
and inversely proportional to the printed media industry. A number of print media
permits unrestricted use and slowly goes bankrupt because they were unable to compete with other media. This is
redistribution provided that because people, especially among the youths, get the necessary information only by
the original author and
reading online site through the gadget or smart phone. Overall, media consumption
source are credited.
in cities both in Java and outside Java shows that television is still the main medium
Selection and Peer-review
used by the people of Indonesia (95%), followed by internet (33%), radio (20%),
under the responsibility of
newspapers (12%), tabloid (6%) and magazines (5%). However, there is a difference
the ICoSaPS Conference
Committee. of media consumption patterns in the cities in Java and those in the cities outside Java.
Consumption of television media is higher outside of Java (97%), followed by radio
(37%), Internet (32%), newspapers (26%), cinema (11%), tabloid (9%) and magazines
(5%).

How to cite this article: Suwandi Sumartias and Moh. Hazni, (2017) Convergence Trends in the Television Media Industry A Case Study on the
Implementation of Media Convergence in Metro TV, Jakarta, The International Conference on Design and Technology, KnE Social Sciences, 8389. Page 83
DOI 10.18502/kss.v2i4.871
 ICoSaPS Conference Proceedings

Meanwhile, in Java Island, only the consumption of internet was slightly higher
(34%). Especially on the Internet, the use of media is experiencing the highest growth
in the last four years, reaching twice both in Java and outside Java. The free-to-air
national television broadcasting media still exists because advertising remains. The
television media business is starting to decline or stagnate, according to Senior Vice
President Director Media Group Henry Sitanggang. Television revenues tend to decline
as many media are used by advertisers to market their products. Television today is
no longer the only advertising medium for marketing the product (Interview Henry
Sitanggang, Thursday, September 15, 2016).
Social media, such as YouTube or Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others are now
increasingly prevalent and becoming more popular. Therefore, the national television
media relying on advertising for the only source of income should look for other alter-
natives in order to survive and to compete with other media industries.
Competition in the television industry is very promising. With ten national private
television channels, we already can see how they compete for advertising. Therefore, it
is not excessive that they are required to create and to broadcast high-quality programs
to attract the publics attention so they get a piece of advertising (Central Indonesian
Broadcasting Commission Team, 2013: 122).
Besides presentation and program quality, implementing media convergence is the
way to stay ahead of the competition in the television media industry. Negroponte
said that the combination of traditional media industry and the computer industry will
create a new type of communication. To identify what was happening in the media
industry, Negroponte developed two models showing the position of the media indus-
try in 1978, and projected his vision for the industry in 2000 ([2]: 232). Media conver-
gence phenomenon, according to (cite7: 2), presents a variety of media incorporating
new communication technologies into traditional communication technologies. Con-
vergence also occurs in the terms of communication, information, and media. Conver-
gence of media can be perceived from the proliferation of media information and com-
munication that has a variety of features in a single platform. Other examples related
to media convergence are happening right now among online televisions. Online tele-
vision is the one transmitted through the internet where this technology is the integra-
tion of television and the Internet. People can now watch television over the internet.
Examples of online television are that of Metro TV that www.metrotvnews.com, and
SCTV is www.liputan6.com.
In his book, Understanding Media Convergence: The State of the Field, Grant and
Wilkinson explains that the convergence of media covers ve major dimensions: tech-
nological convergence, multimedia content, ownership, collaboration, and coordina-
tion ([4]: 3-15). However, [4] states that these ve dimensions cannot be regarded as
static and exclusive, because the core of real convergence is a change.

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Collaboration emphasizes on cooperation by the media that are in the different

possession or platforms. The ways of doing so are, for example, sharing content,
promotion cooperation (cross-promotion), or coordination between media [4]. From
an operational perspective, media workers are required to multitask as a result of the
news coverage contained in various types of media making it more efcient.
Media convergence provides audiences with more choices of diverse content any-
way [4]. Not only related production and consumption, but media convergence is also
a marker of changes in various elements of communication including media, culture,
audience, technology, and industry. Convergence of media also has implications to the
structural changes the media industry is likely to lead to cross-ownership or coopera-
tive ownership.
The shift of industrial structure is caused by the demand for the production of
multimedia content to be distributed in a variety of media platforms, whether print,
broadcast, or online. The convergence of media ownership plays an important role in
determining the consolidation among the players in the media industry because of
production-oriented economies of scale, meaning the products of the media poten-
tially converging into mass production [4].
The transition from printed media to digital media would result in a change in the
production of news content platform, given the differences in presenting the news. For
that reason, the mass media need to do convergence. Convergence is a necessity for
the mass media, especially newspapers and magazines if they want to switch to digital
form. Because, all media organizations will move to a level which makes all of the news
production process ranging from text, audio, video, graphics, and so forth integrated.
Integration also touches the patterns of marketing, promotion, sale, redistribution, and
interaction with the community.
Tim Harrower in his book entitled Inside Reporting: A Practical Guide to the Craft
of Journalism mentions that convergence takes three forms: changes Newsroom Con-
vergence, News gathering Convergence and Convergence Content. It is explained as
follows:

1.1. Newsroom Convergence

In the newsroom convergence, journalists from different media (TV, radio, newspapers,
online) share the same workspace rather than do the work in a different building.

1.2. Newsgathering Convergence

Reporters, editors and photographers collaborated to produce the news. In the simplest
format, they can share the helicopter for the news crew to y over the ood. A TV host

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can borrow one chart created by a newspaper. To cover the event for broadcast, TV
reporter then wrote a longer format on the website. With training, printed reporter
can learn to make the television news; photo journalists take photographs, video and
interviewing. In other words, journalists do multi tasking multimedia. Is that the story
done by a team consisting of staff / reporter TV, printed / paper and online - or the
reporter to prepare a wide variety of news for several different media?

1.3. Content Convergence

News is presented in the form of multimedia combining text, images, audio, video,
blogs, podcasts, slideshows, the options continue to grow. Nowadays, content conver-
gence is still very young and just starting out, but you can peek at the future through
innovative website.
Based on these descriptions, the problem statement of this study is: to what extent
is convergence being implemented in Metro TV. Metro TV was selected for this case
study because it is the rst television station in Indonesia to present a news program
in three formats: written material, video streaming, and live streaming.

2. Method
Since its establishment, Metro TV was oriented to be number one media in Indonesia
for its news. Since November 25, 2000, Metro TV is the only and rst 24-hour television
news station in Indonesia. Metro TV is one of the subsidiaries of the Media Group
owned by Surya Paloh. Metro TV aims to disseminate news and information throughout
Indonesia. In addition to news content, Metro TV also broadcast a variety of information
programs concerning the progress of technology, health, general knowledge, art and
culture, and others to educate the nation. Metro TV is composed of 70% of news
(news), aired in three languages: Indonesian, English, and Mandarin, plus 30% of non-
news program (non-news) that is instructive.
This case study used a qualitative approach to examine the trend of convergence
at Metro TV. Data were collected from interviews with journalists, the crew and man-
aging editor at Metro TV and observations of the stations operations. Data were also
collected from the Metro TV website. To validate the data, triangulation was used, cre-
ating a rich and dense description, clarifying researcher bias that may have crept into
the study [3]. Analysis was directed to answer the question leading to the conclusion
of how media convergence was implemented in Metro TV.

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3. Finding and Discussion

Metro TV brings. One of them is done by forming Metro TV online news sites and live
streaming on the website: www.metrotvnews.com.
Media Groups CEO, Henry Sitanggang said that Metro TV as a part of Media Groups
business had converged its operations, which is nothing more than just bringing
the activities in the media industry such as computing, communication, and content
together. Meanwhile, individual elements are separated, from both management and
institutional structures.
Whereas, it is a convergence of media, according to Henry Sitanggang, that is the
incorporation or integration of existing media to be used and directed into a destination
point (Interview with Henry Sitanggang, Thursday, September 15, 2016). Convergence
is two or more objects meeting and uniting in a point.
Metro TV as a part of a business Media Group has its own management. Media
Indonesia newspaper which is also under Media Group is a business separate from
Metro TV. Meanwhile, radio media has been owned by the Media Group until now.
Metro TV called for convergence of media when the media industries under Media
Group joined the business and institution. Thus, an increase in productivity and ef-
ciency in all areas in enterprises engaged in the media industry belongs to Media Group
(Interview with Henry Sitanggang, Thursday, September 15, 2016).
According to Henry Sitanggang, there has been no media convergence in Indonesia
until today. But it is not more than simply utilizing the Internet media to expand its
media network. Because the Internet has the power to send a quick and comprehen-
sive the coverage, this new media type becomes popular among the public. As a part
of technology, the Internet leads to the growth of communication world, as text, audio,
and visual can be accessed concurrently and simultaneously. Internet and computers
play a major role in the convergence of media.

3.1. The Application of Convergence Can Optimize the Performance

of Metro TV

Industry broadcast media, especially television media has long been recognized as
an industry that is labor-intensive and capital-intensive. Investments in any television
media industry are relatively high. Gains derived by the owner of the television media
was unnecessarily to be achieved within one or two years. It took more than ve years
to earn a prot or break even. This means that over a period of many years, the media
owners will continue to allocate funds to nance the survival of the relevant television
media to be able to make a prot.

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The question is, whether the application of convergence can optimize the perfor-
mance of Metro TV? The results of this study concluded that the application of the
convergence in the media industry will greatly optimize the performance of a media
industry, including Metro TV. For media industries, television, newspapers and radio
stations will be combined into a single institution.
For example, journalists will serve as a supplier to the three-news media at a televi-
sion, newspapers and radio. Thus, there will be efciencies and cost savings compared
to earlier, when the reporter only in charge of supplying news to each of the media
institutions for which they work.
In the terms of technology, media industry can also make efciency because the
technology used to expand the broadcast network is the internet relatively cheap
compared to renting a satellite. Reaching power became more widespread. Internet
seemed to justify McLuhans opinion about the concept of global village. The world
community connects to each other without any restrictions.

4. Conclusions
1. The media industry in Indonesia, including Metro TV has begun to expand the
coverage broadcast using internet communication technology. It is characterized
by the use of streaming technology as well as making the news spread through
online sites.

2. The media industries in Indonesia, including Metro TV up to now have not imple-
mented a system of media convergence as a whole.

3. Most of the broadcast media industries in Indonesia still reluctantly switch to

digital broadcasting, because the need for replacing the broadcasting devices
from analog to digital systems requiring considerable investment cost.

References

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[3] J. W. Creswell, Research Design, Pendekatan Kualitatif, Kuantitatif, dan Mixed.,
Jakarta, Penerbit Pustaka Pelajar, 2010.
[4] A. E. Grant and J. S. Wilkinson, Understanding Media Convergence: The State of the
Field, Oxford University Press, NY, 2009.

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[5] W. Neumann Laurence, Social Research Method; Qualitative and Quantitative

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