Entertainment in Indonesia

Entertainment in Indonesia is a combination of traditional, modern (local), and non-local. Traditional entertainment includes wayang (puppet show), commedians, and traditional dances.
Local entertainment, I supose, is similar to entertainment in other countries but with local content. In music, for example, there are pop bands and singers, rock bands, country singers, jazz groups, rappers, you name it. Some are okey, and some are excellent. Famous Indonesian song writers are Titik Puspa, Guruh Sukarnoputra, Chandra Darusman, Rhoma Irama, Iwan Fals, and so on. (Check out the "Indonesian Music page".)
There is also non-traditional music styles, but has a rich Indonesian flavor: kroncong, and dangdut. They use regular musical instruments. Dangdut is closer to Indian's (as in Asia's India, not North American's Indian) music.
Non-local entertainment includes music and movies from outside Indonesia. For movies, Chinese Kung Fu or martial arts and India films are among the popular ones. I am sorry to say that current Indonesian movies are poor in quality (have low quality). They tend to be produced just to get quick dollars (or I should say Rupiah), not considering (or little consideration ) the artistic or content aspect. Most of them have too much sexual content, with sexy titles. In my subjective opinion, the Indonesian movies were much better few years ago. Imported movies are either subtitled in Bahasa Indonesia or dubbed with Bahasa Indonesia.

TV Stations

Currently there are several TV stations in Indonesia:

• ANTeve (Andalas Televisi)
• Global TV: a new TV station, still in experiment mode
• Indosiar
• Metro-TV
• RCTI
• SCTV (Surya Citra Televisi): Liputan6.
• TPI (Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia, translated literally as Indonesian Education TV) Originally it was meant for education, but it turned into another commercial TV.
• Trans-TV
• TVRI (Televisi Republik Indonesia)
• There was a plan to add more (5?) TV stations

All of the above TV stations are available without cable TV. In Jakarta there are areas with cable TV. Sattelite dish is also available. With cable / satellite you can get CNN, CNBC, HBO.
Some TV stations have North American's sitcoms, for example Ally McBeal, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, Drew Carrey, Boston Common, and the like. Shows that were available (now cancelled) Beverly Hills 90120, Suddenly Susan, Spin City, Mad about you. All of them have subtitle (since the majority of Indonesians don't speak English). I don't know whether people get the joke though, since some of them are very cultural (North American oriented). I suspect kids in big cities understand.