Jakarta's RCTI net to trim staff

Indonesian net axes 20-30% of its personnel in face of crisis

By TONY RYANTO

JAKARTA -- RCTI, the leading Indonesian network, is laying off 20% to 30% of its personnel in March as it battles to survive the monetary crisis that has been raging since July 1997.

Public relations manager Eduard Depari said the web's net revenues tumbled from $40 million in 1997 to $22.1 million last year. This year, it is expected to plunge to $13.3 million.

That won't cover annual overheads that run to $14.8 million, excluding programming costs, commissions for advertising agencies and a 12.5% payment of ad revenues to pubcaster TVRI.

RCTI has been trying to negotiate the rescheduling of payments with foreign debtors, including $15 million in programming, mostly U.S. movies and series. RCTI stopped buying foreign programs in January 1998.

The layoffs are seen as unavoidable because such measures as airing repeats, minimizing phone calls, cutting transmission hours and halting the purchases of locally made telepics have not been enough to stem the losses.

The station has a total of 820 employees, of whom 200 are contract workers. The pinkslips will affect the 620 full-time personnel members.

Depari acknowledged that the five private webs urgently need fresh investment but said most potential investors, foreign or local, "are adopting a wait-and-see attitude. They want to have a look at how things develop following the June general elections."