MUMBAI: Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific, Inc. and PT Trans Media Corpora have today announced a strategic partnership to launch CNN Indonesia, a 24-hour news channel and accompanying website in Bahasa Indonesia. This ground-breaking channel will be the first of its kind for CNN in Southeast Asia, delivering a localized version of CNN’s unique brand of high-quality news to the region’s most populous nation.

Jeff Zucker, CNN Worldwide President, said: “This agreement with one of the country’s largest media corporations puts  CNN  in  a  unique position to  reach millions  of  Indonesians in  a  way that  we  have  not  been able  to previously. The  combination  of  the  strength  of  the  worldwide  newsgathering  power  of  CNN  with  the  local perspective and sensibility that Trans Media will bring to the partnership enables us to provide important news and information to this enormous, non-English speaking audience.”

Chairul Tanjung, Founder and Chairman of Trans Media’s parent company, CT Corp, added: "I believe this partnership will help Indonesians to better understand the world and even more importantly, also help the world to better understand Indonesia. This is a partnership of two like-minded organisations who share common values of quality, integrity and transparency. CNN Indonesia will be the new destination for trustworthy and engaging content.”

The TV channel will be accompanied by a strong digital presence, including CNNIndonesia.com. With more than 100 million Indonesians expected to be online by 2016, a multi-platform brand will be a vital and complementary component to the on-air offering.

In addition to engaging leading local journalists to generate compelling coverage, the channel will also tap into CNN International’s vast pool of journalistic talent and share content from global affiliate partnerships. Trans Media will operate CNN Indonesia from its facilities in Jakarta. A launch date will be announced in due course.