In order to take preventive measures, commercial television stations also produced low-cost token programmes for their Muslim audience, such as the evening call to prayers (adzan Magrib) and sermons (teledakwah). Stations were concerned that the “misrepresentation” of religion could potentially cause public unrest, particularly those led by hard-line Islamists (Wardhana, 2002, as cited in Barkin, 2004: 246). To ensure this-from predictable scheduling to producing the “least objectionable programme”.1 During these early years, Indonesian commercial television producers, particularly entertainment programmes, avoided religious issues altogether. As the survivability of commercial television relies on the profitability of television programmes based on its supposed popularity, business strategies were carefully designed In the early 1990s, Indonesia’s television system was also affected, and it shifted from a single, state television station under an authoritarian rule to a thriving commercial system in only ten years (Sen and Hill, 2000).

Introduction Southeast Asian countries experienced a wave of economic liberalisation in the late 1980s (see Bowie and Unger, 1997 and Rosser, 2002), and in Indonesia this was enabled through the Open Market policy (Hollander et al., 2009). Keywords commercial television – commercialisation – Islamic expression – sinetron – mainstream Islam Business deals between media organisations that have become more stable blow the wave towards “mainstream Islam”, which reflects a symbiosis between growing Islamic influences and commercialisation in Indonesia’s television industry. An image of Islam that is unobjectionable to both the vocal, moralist Muslim audience and the general, heterogeneous audience has received a privileged position in prime time television. Focusing on the most-consumed type of television programming in the country, the sinetron (television drama), it describes media-economic factors that have led to the multiplication of Islamic symbols in television. Mainstream Islam Television Industry Practice and Trends in Indonesian sinetron Inaya Rakhmani Universitas IndonesiaĪbstract This article explores the modes of consolidation between the dynamic practices of commercial television and the rising Islamic manifestation among urban, middle-class Indonesians. Asian Journal of Social Science 42 (2014) 435–466 /ajss

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