RCTI (Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia) is a West Jakarta-based Indonesian free-to-air television network. It is best known for its soap operas, celebrity bulletins, news, and sports programmes. It was first launched in 1989, originally as a local pay television operator that broadcasts mostly foreign programmes, before switching to free-to-air terrestrial network a year later.
History
In October 1987, state broadcaster TVRI lost its monopoly when the government allowed private television networks to begin broadcasting. RCTI was officially inaugurated on the morning of 24 August 1989 by President Suharto as Indonesia's first privately owned commercial television network. Evening programming was launched by Minister of Information Harmoko. RCTI was initially broadcast to Greater Jakarta area as a local pay television channel and gained a nationwide terrestrial license a year later. Prior to 1994, RCTI mostly aired foreign programmes as it cost less compared to self-produced programmes, and to evoke the look and feel of a conventional pay television (which was a new and expensive technology in Indonesia at the time) . From 1989 to 1990, the station's subscription system requires an UHF set-top box, and in some areas, with a satellite dish. During this time, the subscription system was incorrectly branded as a "pay-per-view", despite the fact that it works similarly as a conventional pay television that requires monthly subscription.
RCTI was initially co-owned by PT Rajawali Wira Bhakti Utama (later Rajawali Corpora) and PT Bimantara Citra (later Global Mediacom, now known as PT Media Nusantara Citra (MNC)), thus its name. One of its commissioner at that time Indra Rukmana is the husband of Tutut Soeharto, the founder and ex-owner of its eventual sister network TPI. It is completely owned by MNC, which also owns GTV, MNCTV, and iNews, both private Indonesian television networks.
RCTI, MNCTV and GTV was removed from Cable subscription of First Media due to limited Broadcasting rights period as result from information posted by First Media Twitter account at January 2013. There are same with IPTV service IndiHome at 8 April 2016, but GTV still aired on First Media through MNC Vision transmission since 2019.
Since the digital television transition started on November 2, 2022, the PAL broadcast of RCTI Jakarta was scheduled to shut down on November 3, 2022 at 12:00am, but was delayed to November 3, 2022, at 23:59:19 WIB/11:59pm after Kominfo statement with MNC Group or ANTV issues that did not force them to shut down the analogue service in Jakarta when TVRI or other TV stations shut down the analogue service quickly and switched to DVB-T2 services on November 3, 2022 at 12:00am.
RCTI now has 47 relay stations around Indonesia and reaches over 180 million viewers.
Programming
The flagship news program is Seputar iNews (formerly Seputar Indonesia), which has morning, lunchtime and late-night editions. RCTI also airs quiz shows, including the Indonesian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which ran from 2001 to 2006. Animated shows include the original Aikatsu! series, Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan. Aikatsu! and Crayon Shin-Chan have since been replaced by locally produced Kiko.
RCTI has broadcast various popular soap opera titles from production houses such as Multivision Plus, Starvision Plus, Prima Entertainment (closed), Soraya Intercine Films, Tobali Putra Productions, and also currently the production houses owned by MNC Media which focuses on its own production as well as the distributor of soap operas from the production house that has been mentioned previously, namely MNC Pictures. This happened because the contract collaboration between SinemArt and MD Entertainment with MNC Group has been ended, because the shares were taken back by SCM (SinemArt) and Trans Media. RCTI currently airs several television series known as Layar Drama Indonesia (formerly Mega Sinetron), showing in many titles, and the most popular television series currently are Ikatan Cinta (The Tie of Love). Formerly, it also airs weekly television series like Bella Vista, Mutiara Cinta (Pearls of Love), Shangri-La, Tuyul dan Mbak Yul, the fantasy-comedy Bidadari Yang Terluka (Rage of Angel), and ABG. It also airs occasional sport programmes and localized version of talent show under international licenses, such as Indonesian Idol, Rising Star Indonesia, MasterChef Indonesia, X Factor Indonesia, and Indonesia's Got Talent (mutation from Indosiar and SCTV).
at July 2023, UEFA announced that RCTI is comeback to winning the UEFA Champions League rights for 2024-2025 though 2026-2027 seasons replace Emtek since 1990s, 2000s, 2010-2012 season and 2018-2019 season.