About Magna Channel

Magna Channel

Magna Channel is an Indonesian digital terrestrial television network owned by Media Group and based in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, in the capital city of Jakarta. Broadcasting on screen with the logo Magna TV and operated by PT Mitra Media Digital, it is the entertainment arm of the group that owns Metro TV, Indonesia's first dedicated news network. Magna Channel officially went on air for the first time on 16 July 2020, making it the second television network in Media Group after Metro TV. It broadcasts in high definition, in Indonesian, with entertainment, fashion, variety, music and lifestyle programming aimed at women and millennial viewers aged fifteen and above. Its official website is magnachannel.id and its slogan is Asyik Abisss.

Origins as Magna TV in 2019

Magna Channel was officially founded on 25 November 2019 under the name Magna TV by Media Group. The date was not chosen at random: 25 November is Metro TV's anniversary, and the new channel began its trial broadcasts on Jakarta's digital terrestrial platform, on a limited basis, to coincide with Metro TV's nineteenth anniversary. It did so together with BNTV, the business channel project that later became BN Channel, so the two future sister services tested the digital airwaves as a pair. The founders associated with the channel are Surya Paloh, the founder of Media Group, and Edy Yusman Nasution. For about eight months Magna TV remained a trial service, visible to digital viewers in Jakarta while Media Group prepared a full national launch and while Indonesia itself was still in the long transition period between analogue and digital broadcasting.

Official launch on 16 July 2020

Magna Channel made its official debut on Thursday, 16 July 2020 at 15:00 Western Indonesian Time, through a grand launching held at the Media Group Building in Jakarta. With that launch, Magna Channel claimed to be Indonesia's first national-scale private digital terrestrial television service, although several similar networks already existed when it launched, including TVRI, Nusantara TV and Inspira TV. The claim underlines the channel's defining characteristic: unlike Indonesia's established national networks, which began in the analogue era and later simulcast digitally, Magna Channel was born as a digital-only terrestrial network, broadcast in high-definition quality from the start. Its current logo dates from the launch day, 16 July 2020, and the service broadcasts on screen under the shortened brand Magna TV.

Ownership and place within Media Group

Magna Channel is owned by Media Group, the Indonesian media conglomerate founded by Surya Paloh that also owns Metro TV, BN Channel and the Media Indonesia daily newspaper. Its operating company is PT Mitra Media Digital, with a family of regional companies, numbered in Indonesian as PT Mitra Media Digital Satu, Dua, Tiga and so on, holding the local positions in different parts of the country. The channel's headquarters are shared with the rest of the group at the Media Group Building, Jalan Pilar Mas Raya Kav. A-D, Kedoya Selatan, Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta. Its sister channels are Metro TV, with which it has been associated since 2019, and BN Channel. The management structure recorded for the channel includes Budiyanto as president director, Bambang Eka Wijaya as finance director, Widya Saputra as sales and marketing director, Mochamad Anwar Surahman as programme and technical director, and Arif Nugroho as programming director.

Programming for women and millennials

Magna Channel presents programme content around fashion, entertainment, variety, music and lifestyle, targeting a market of women and millennials aged fifteen years and above. That positioning is the mirror image of its parent network: where Metro TV is an all-news service that famously carries no soap operas, Magna Channel was created to give Media Group an entertainment offer for younger audiences in the digital tier. Its slogan, Asyik Abisss, is youthful Indonesian slang suggesting something extremely fun or enjoyable, and it signals the lighter tone that separates the channel from the Knowledge to Elevate seriousness of Metro TV. The schedule mixes originally presented lifestyle and entertainment titles with magazine and documentary programmes shared with other Indonesian broadcasters, and with selected programmes repeated from Metro TV.

Programmes on Magna Channel

The programmes listed for Magna Channel include Content Creator, Diksi, Dongeng Anak, Check-In, Food Adventure, Jalan-Jalan, Komedi Seperti Kopi, Ngobras, PawPawLand, Pojok Komedi, Puspa Ragam Indonesia, Sindu's Scoop, The Playlist and Happy Holy Kids, the last of which had previously been shown on MYTV. Several magazine and factual titles are shared with partner stations: Euromaxx is carried together with Metro TV and BeritaSatu, Global Us together with BeritaSatu and Jak TV, Inovator together with TVRI and Elshinta TV, In Good Shape together with BTV and Jak TV, Creative Talk together with BeritaSatu and Elshinta TV after previously airing on BTV, Reportase Weekend together with TVRI, and SH+E Magazine, which had previously appeared on MYTV and BTV. DW Indonesia and VOA Indonesia also appear in its listings, bringing the Indonesian services of Deutsche Welle and Voice of America into its schedule, alongside IEG and the home-shopping block Lejel Home Shopping, which had previously been shown on RTV, Elshinta TV, antv and tvOne.

Programmes shared with Metro TV

A substantial part of Magna Channel's schedule is drawn from its sister network. Programmes from Metro TV also broadcast through this channel include Ayo Cari Tahu, Authentic Indonesia, By The Way, Cerdas Lima Menit, Go Healthy, Ikonia, I'm Possible, Little VIP, Melawan Lupa, Newsline untuk Indonesia, Prime Talk, Republik Sentilan Sentilun, Showbiz News and The Legend, as well as event programming such as the Chinese New Year Gala and Vaksin Untuk Indonesia bersama Slank, a Media Group presentation from the vaccination period. This sharing reflects how Media Group operates its digital multiplex: the entertainment channel can fill its hours with proven magazine, talk and feature content from the news network's library, while Metro TV's own informational programmes reach a second, younger audience that may not watch a dedicated news channel.

Regulatory verification and industry support

Magna Channel received full support from the Jakarta regional office of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission, KPID DKI Jakarta, after going through a factual verification process. The verification covered both Magna Channel and BNTV. The chair of KPID DKI Jakarta, Kawiyan, expressed optimism about and support for the two broadcasters, judging that they could strengthen national integration and educate the life of the nation. In the regions, the channel and its business sibling went through broadcast trial evaluation processes with provincial broadcasting commissions, including in East Java and in Yogyakarta, where Magna Channel's regional presence is recorded in the list of digital broadcasting institutions. In Central Java, Media Group promoted Magna Channel TV as targeting tens of thousands of viewers in the region, developing local content as part of its regional offer.

A nationwide digital network

Although it has no analogue history, Magna Channel built a wide terrestrial footprint by riding on the Metro TV multiplex network. Its broadcast network is recorded as reaching up to 52 major cities in Indonesia together with Metro TV and BN Channel. In Greater Jakarta it broadcasts on digital channel 31 UHF through the MetroTV Jakarta multiplex. Regional services carry names such as Magna Channel Jawa Timur for East Java, Magna Channel Jawa Tengah for Central Java, Magna Channel Jawa Barat for West Java, Magna Channel Aceh, Magna Channel Bali, Magna Channel Kalimantan Selatan, Magna Channel Kalimantan Utara, Magna Channel Kalimantan Timur, Magna Channel Sulawesi Tenggara, Magna Channel Banten, Magna Channel Sumatera Utara, Magna Channel Sumatera Barat, Magna Channel Nusa Tenggara Timur and Magna Channel Bangka Belitung, each carried on the local Metro TV multiplex in cities from Sabang and Medan to Kupang and Pangkal Pinang. Until 2022, the channel broadcast only in the WIB and WITA time zones.

Carriage changes and shared frequencies

The later history of the network shows the pressures on small digital-only channels in Indonesia. In a number of cities, Magna Channel's slot has been temporarily replaced by other networks. From December 2023, its broadcasts could not be watched in Yogyakarta, where it was replaced by Jogja Istimewa TV, and in cities including Banjarmasin, Semarang and Surabaya it was replaced by Nusantara TV, with further cities across Java following in June 2024, Makassar in September 2024 and Balikpapan in February 2025. In Bandar Lampung, Manado, Mataram and Banda Aceh it was replaced by Garuda TV from late September and early October 2023, and in Lebak by Kompas TV from 28 February 2025. In total, of the cities in its network, 24 are recorded as overlapped by another channel. These changes do not mark a closure of the service, whose Jakarta flagship and many regional positions continue under the Magna Channel name, but they show how digital multiplex capacity in Indonesia is actively traded and shared between networks.

Magna Channel in Indonesian television

Magna Channel is significant less for individual hit programmes than for what it represents in the structure of Indonesian television. It was Media Group's first step beyond news, giving the owner of Metro TV and Media Indonesia an entertainment and lifestyle service aimed at women and younger viewers, launched without any analogue licence legacy as a purely digital terrestrial network. Its birth alongside BNTV on Metro TV's nineteenth anniversary, its grand launch at the Media Group Building on 16 July 2020, its claim to be the first national private digital terrestrial television, its schedule of lifestyle titles, shared magazine programmes and Metro TV repeats, and its carriage across the Metro TV multiplex in up to 52 cities together describe a new model of Indonesian channel: a low-cost digital sibling built on a big news group's infrastructure. Through its official site at magnachannel.id and its social media presence, Magna Channel continues to present itself in Indonesian as Media Group's fun, youth-oriented counterweight to the seriousness of Metro TV.