TVRI supervisory board chairman Arief Hidayat Thamrin said during a meeting with House of Representatives' members on Tuesday that state-owned television was supposed to deliver educational shows with nationalistic values for the public.
"We're watching African crocodiles on the Discovery Channel, even though the Indonesian ones are probably much better," Arief said. "[Helmy] treated TVRI as if it was a privately-owned channel, even though it’s a public one," he said. Pamungkas Trishadiatmoko, a supervisory board member, previously argued that the purchase of Premier League broadcasting rights might create debt for the state-owned television provider, which might be unable to pay for the program, creating scandals similar to state insurer Jiwasraya.However, Pamungkas argued that it would cost Rp 126 billion to broadcast the Premier League in three sessions from 2019 to 2022.