About Indosiar

Indosiar

Indosiar is an Indonesian free-to-air television network based in Jakarta. It broadcasts in Indonesian to a nationwide audience and is owned by Surya Citra Media, part of the Emtek group, which also operates SCTV. Launched in 1995, it was the fifth private television station in Indonesia. Over three decades it has moved from an early diet of imported Asian drama to a schedule identified with dangdut music talent shows, Indonesian serial drama, live football and religious programming during Ramadan.

Foundation under the Salim Group

Indosiar is operated by PT Indosiar Visual Mandiri. The company was founded on 19 July 1991, with founders including Sudono Salim, Anthony Salim and Eko Supardjo Rustam of the Salim Group. In October 1992 the Department of Information issued broadcast licences to six companies, among them Indosiar in Jakarta and Cakrawala Andalas Televisi, the future ANTV, in Lampung. Of those six licensees, only Indosiar and ANTV went on to broadcast continuously.

Because TVRI was then responsible for television broadcasting in Indonesia, Indosiar worked with the public broadcaster in its preparations, and a cooperation agreement was signed in Jakarta on 7 December 1994. Test transmissions followed from 18 December 1994 to 10 January 1995, during which the station broadcast around the clock to eight major cities: Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Denpasar, Ujung Pandang and Medan. The network was officially launched on 11 January 1995 by the Minister of Information, Harmoko, at its headquarters in West Jakarta, and that date is kept as the network's anniversary.

Early programming and the TVB connection

Indosiar's first logo was based on the logo of Hong Kong broadcaster TVB, and TVB helped the young network's development in its first years. Indosiar had a deal with TVB and imported a large amount of Mandarin drama. It pioneered the broadcast of Asian teledrama for Indonesian viewers, and its early success with the Mandarin kung fu serial Return of the Condor Heroes in 1994 established it as the leading private channel for Mandarin productions. Local historical sword epics such as Tutur Tinular and Misteri Gunung Merapi, the Hong Kong serial Journey to the West, studio boxing and live international football all featured in the early schedule, alongside children's programmes such as Saras 008.

The imported drama strategy broadened with the Korean wave. The Taiwanese series Meteor Garden, broadcast on Indosiar in 2001, was unexpectedly popular with young viewers. In 2002 the Korean drama Endless Love was screened on weekday evenings and drew strong ratings, and its success encouraged other Indonesian stations to schedule Korean serials of their own. For viewers of that generation, Indosiar is closely associated with the arrival of East Asian popular drama on Indonesian free-to-air television.

Change of ownership to Emtek

Indosiar was originally controlled through Indosiar Karya Media, the listed company associated with the Salim Group. The change of control came in 2011. On 13 May 2011 Emtek, the owner of SCTV, acquired a majority stake in Indosiar Karya Media, and following a mandatory tender offer Emtek controlled the company with a large majority of its shares. The commissioners of SCTV and Indosiar had already agreed in February 2011 to merge their parent companies, subject to government approval.

In May 2013 Indosiar Karya Media was absorbed into Surya Citra Media, and Indosiar has since been operated under SCM alongside SCTV. The merger was not entirely smooth: a lawsuit over the tax treatment of the attempted merger was won by SCM in 2014. Under Emtek, Indosiar kept its own name, studios tradition and audience, while gaining the backing of the same group that runs SCTV, Moji, Mentari TV, the Vidio streaming service and the Nex Parabola satellite platform.

Dangdut and talent shows

The clearest mark of the Emtek era is Indosiar's identification with dangdut, Indonesia's popular dance-music genre. The network built a family of dangdut talent competitions, led by D'Academy, in which contestants from across the country perform before a panel of judges and are voted on by viewers. The format proved durable enough to reach a seventh season, D'Academy 7, and Surya Citra Media's investor reporting has cited D'Academy performances among the drivers of Indosiar's prime-time audience share.

A companion format, Liga Dangdut Indonesia, known as LIDA, aired on Indosiar from 15 January 2018 to 23 August 2021. Produced by Indonesia Entertainment Produksi and distributed by Surya Citra Media, it searched for dangdut recording stars from unsigned talent drawn from every province in Indonesia, with winners decided by viewer voting by phone, internet and SMS. The show received a record from the Indonesian World Records Museum as the talent search programme with the most participants from the most provinces. Together, these programmes made Indosiar the television home of dangdut competition in a way no rival network has matched.

The strength of that combination was visible in Surya Citra Media's reporting for the first half of 2025. The company reported that Indosiar maintained second position in audience share, with Indonesia national team matches, Liga 1 and D'Academy among its strongest individual performers, and that the channel took the number one prime-time position from the week of 15 to 21 June 2025, driven by D'Academy 7 and national team football. By early August 2025, the company reported, D'Academy 7's audience share had strengthened further. Few channels anywhere combine a singing competition and domestic league football as their two main prime-time engines, and that pairing is now central to how Indosiar is managed.

Drama and general entertainment

Alongside music, Indosiar carries Indonesian serial drama, television films and variety entertainment. Its drama output includes long-running prime-time series and the Mega Series strand, as well as Ramadan-season programming, which is a significant part of the Indonesian television calendar. Religious strands have included programmes such as Akademi Sahur Indonesia during Ramadan and regular religious talks. Infotainment and magazine programmes, including the KISS strand, have also been part of the schedule, reflecting the network's general entertainment remit rather than a single-genre identity.

News: Fokus and Patroli

Indosiar's news service is headed by the Fokus brand, with bulletins through the day including Fokus Pagi in the morning, afternoon and evening editions and Fokus Malam late at night. Its best known news magazine is Patroli, a crime and public-order report programme, and Halo Polisi has covered police affairs. An older media landscape guide described Fokus as a 60-minute programme broadcast three times a day. News is a smaller part of Indosiar's public identity than entertainment, but it provides the network with a full-service schedule comparable to its generalist rivals.

Sport, especially Indonesian football

Football is the other pillar of the modern Indosiar schedule. The network broadcasts Indonesian league football, including BRI Liga 1 matches and the Indonesia President's Cup, with fixtures shared with the Vidio streaming service. Surya Citra Media's investor releases have highlighted Indonesia national team matches and Liga 1 among Indosiar's strongest audience performers, alongside D'Academy. Historically the channel also carried international football, including the 1998 FIFA World Cup shared with other Indonesian networks, the English Premier League and Serie A at different times, as well as the Bundesliga in 2012-13 and rugby coverage. Live sport gives the channel event television that complements its studio-based entertainment.

Headquarters, distribution and identity

Indosiar's headquarters are in the SCTV Tower, Senayan City, on Jalan Asia Afrika in Central Jakarta, although the network's historic studio base was in Daan Mogot, West Jakarta. It broadcasts in 1080i high definition, downscaled to a 16:9 standard-definition feed; the channel adopted 16:9 as its main aspect ratio from 30 November 2021, after starting an HDTV service in 2017, and it joined the national move to digital terrestrial broadcasting as analogue transmissions were switched off region by region from 2022.

The network's logo, redesigned with gradients and a new font, became its corporate logo on 11 January 2015 for its twentieth anniversary, retaining a design lineage back to the original 1995 mark. Its sister channels are SCTV, Moji, Ajwa TV and Mentari TV. Three decades after its launch, Indosiar remains a distinctly Indonesian generalist: a network that introduced many viewers to Mandarin, Taiwanese and Korean drama, and that now defines itself through dangdut competitions, domestic football and family entertainment.