About SCTV

SCTV

SCTV is an Indonesian free-to-air private television network based in Jakarta. It broadcasts in Indonesian nationwide and is owned by Surya Citra Media, the publicly listed media company controlled by the Emtek group. Known in full as Surya Citra Televisi, the network is one of the longest established private broadcasters in Indonesia, having begun as a local station in Surabaya, East Java, before becoming a national service. Its schedule is built around general entertainment, with Indonesian drama series known as sinetron at its centre, alongside films, news, sport and special events.

Origins in Surabaya

The company behind SCTV was founded on 5 May 1987 as PT Foresta Maju. Its founders included Sudwikatmono, Henry Pribadi and Mohammad Noer. The project was supported by Mohammad Noer in his capacity as a former governor of East Java, who argued that the Surabaya service of the public broadcaster TVRI lacked sufficient funding and that viewers needed alternative sources of information. On 28 April 1989 the company applied for permission to establish a limited-channel television station in Surabaya, and initial approval was granted on 27 September 1989 by the Director General of Radio, Television and Film. With that approval the company took the name PT Surabaya Central Televisi, the origin of the initials SCTV.

Construction of the station building on Jalan Darmo Permai in Surabaya began in February 1990, following a groundbreaking ceremony in November 1989 attended in connection with Heroes Day commemorations. SCTV was first planned as a limited-channel, decoder-based service, in line with the rules that applied to Indonesia's earliest private stations. That plan changed in July 1990, when government policy allowed private television to broadcast free to air, and on 1 August 1990 SCTV received a permit to broadcast without a decoder.

Launch and national expansion

After a trial period, SCTV was formally launched on 24 August 1990, a date that coincided with the anniversary of TVRI. Its early coverage was local, with a broadcast radius of around 80 kilometres around Surabaya, and its inaugural broadcast carried TVRI anniversary greetings. In its first years the schedule closely resembled that of RCTI, Indonesia's first private network, because of a collaborative arrangement between the two stations, although the programmes were scheduled differently.

The decisive change came on 30 January 1993, when SCTV obtained a national broadcasting licence. The network then moved its operations to Jakarta and changed the meaning of its name from Surabaya Central Televisi to Surya Citra Televisi. Its main offices are in Central Jakarta, with studios in West Jakarta. From a single-city station it became a national competitor to TVRI and RCTI, and it is described as the third national television network and the second private network in Indonesia, after RCTI.

Ownership and the Emtek group

SCTV is operated by PT Surya Citra Televisi as a subsidiary of PT Surya Citra Media Tbk, whose shares are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Surya Citra Media was established on 29 January 1999 under the name Cipta Aneka Selaras and adopted its present name in 2001. Emtek, the technology and media group founded by the Sariaatmadja family, built up its stake in SCTV from the beginning of the 2000s and became its controlling shareholder.

A major consolidation followed in the next decade. In February 2011 the commissioners of SCTV and Indosiar agreed to a merger of their parent companies, subject to government approval. In May 2013 Indosiar Karya Media was absorbed into Surya Citra Media, bringing Indosiar under the same listed company as SCTV. The two networks remain separate channels with distinct identities, but they share a parent, headquarters complex and much group infrastructure. SCTV's sister channels within the wider Emtek family include Indosiar, Moji, Ajwa TV and Mentari TV.

Drama and entertainment programming

Entertainment, and especially Indonesian serial drama, has defined SCTV for most of its life. After the early period of cooperation with RCTI ended, the network leaned on imported programming, notably telenovelas and Mandarin dramas, and began developing original series aimed largely at a female audience. Following a major rebrand in 1997, local drama became the flagship of the schedule under the Sinetron Prima banner. Series from that era such as Deru Debu, Tersayang, Wah Cantiknya, Si Cecep and Dewi Fortuna attracted significant audiences and established the pattern of prime-time sinetron that still structures the network.

To supply its drama output SCTV has worked with many of Indonesia's leading production houses over the years, including Multivision Plus, Starvision Plus, Screenplay Productions and Mega Kreasi Films. A notable shift came in February 2017, when the production company SinemArt, long associated with rival RCTI, moved to SCTV and began producing and rebooting soap operas for the network. In the same year Surya Citra Media took over SinemArt from MNC Media. The result is a prime-time schedule in which long-running serial dramas, television films and entertainment specials form the core offer to a broad family audience.

News: Liputan 6

SCTV's news operation is built around the Liputan 6 brand, which was created in 1996 when the network began producing its own news after the period in which it had carried RCTI news programmes. Liputan 6 bulletins run through the day, and the brand also exists online as Liputan6.com within the wider Emtek digital portfolio. Regional editions have been part of the service: an East Java edition of Liputan 6 was launched by the network's Surabaya station in 2001, and a North Sumatra edition has been carried in Medan. News gives the entertainment-led schedule a daily information anchor and is one of the longest running elements of the channel's identity.

Sport on SCTV

Sport has been a recurring part of SCTV's schedule, particularly football. In recent seasons the network has shared coverage of the English Premier League with Moji and the Vidio streaming service, under rights held for the 2022-23 to 2024-25 cycle, and it shared coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympics with Moji and Vidio. Sharing rights across the Emtek group's free-to-air channels and its streaming platform is characteristic of how the group now handles expensive sports properties, using SCTV's national reach for the biggest fixtures while sister services carry additional coverage.

Events and awards

The network stages its own annual celebration of Indonesian entertainment, the SCTV Awards, which honour popular television programmes, actors, actresses and music performers as voted for by viewers. The 2014 edition, for example, was held at Studio 6 in Daan Mogot, West Jakarta, in November of that year, and added categories including most famous young artist and most popular soap opera soundtrack. The awards, along with the network's anniversary specials and music events, are part of a wider strategy of turning its drama stars and presenters into year-round attractions for its audience.

Surya Citra Media's wider portfolio also shapes what SCTV can offer. SCM's subsidiaries include the Vidio streaming service, the Nex Parabola satellite pay-television service, the Indonesia Entertainment Group production business and the KapanLagi Youniverse digital media operation, as well as SinemArt. SCTV therefore sits inside a group that can produce its drama, stream it, promote it through its own online media and sell it across several platforms, rather than a standalone broadcaster dependent on outside suppliers.

Distribution and the digital transition

SCTV broadcasts terrestrially across Indonesia through a network of relay stations and regional branches, and it is also carried on pay television and through the Emtek group's Vidio streaming service. Its picture format is 1080i high definition, downscaled to a 16:9 standard-definition feed. Like all Indonesian broadcasters, SCTV went through the country's analogue switch-off, which began in Jakarta and other major areas on 2 November 2022; Emtek and Surya Citra Media completed their analogue shutdown in July 2023, after which SCTV continued as a fully digital service.

The network's headquarters are at the SCTV Tower in the Senayan City complex on Jalan Asia Afrika in Central Jakarta, an address it shares with other Surya Citra Media operations. From that base, more than three decades after a local Surabaya launch, SCTV remains one of the central institutions of Indonesian commercial television: a general entertainment network whose identity rests on prime-time sinetron, the Liputan 6 news brand, shared group sport and a place inside one of the country's largest media groups.