Indonesia's Digital TV Transition Creates 240,000 New Jobs

TheIndonesia.id - West Java governor Ridwan Kamil has claimed that transition to digital television in Indonesia potentially opens up to 240,000 new job opportunities, especially in content creation sector.

Kamil said Indonesia’s analogue switch-off can create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, all of which will be part of the new digital TV industry.

“With this digital transformation, new professions will be born that will create up to 240,000 job opportunities, especially content creators that will be part of the digital TV industry,” he said in a statement on Friday, April 1.

The transition will take place from April to November this year, and the Ministry of Communication and Informatics is set to distribute set top boxes for the poor households, so the program can run smoothly.

Kamil said his government is required to submit the list of poor households in the province to the Ministry to then be followed up.

“The authority is in the central government – we only submitted data of the lower-income households because digital TV broadcasting is no longer a luxury, but it’s a necessity,” he explained.

While intending to accelerate the transition in West Java, Kamil has called for the central government to provide digital signals in a number of blank spots in the province. And to resolve the issue, the local government is open for collaboration with the Ministry and state-owned television network TVRI, which is mandated to optimize the digital migration.

“One thing in West Java that remains imperfect is the blank spots for digital signal. Therefore, collaboration is necessary between us, the Ministry, and TVRI,” he concluded.