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Funding boost for SBS
SBS has received the biggest funding increase ever.
The Government will provide an additional $158.1 million to the SBS over five years. SBS will use some of the funds to launch a new indigenous free-to-air television channel when it acquires NITV, the National Indigenous television channel. NITV was never a free-to-air-service.
SBS's Managing Director, Michael Ebeid said “SBS is honoured and excited to be delivering this new service which will vastly increase the… »
Why SBS received a funding increase
In the month before the May Budget some 9,171 messages were sent from people in every State and Territory to selected politicians urging government to steeply increase public funding for SBS and remove the disruptive commercial breaks from SBS television. The general public sent emails to the finance and communications ministers, some members of Cabinet, and other politicians according to a preset method. SaveOurSBS.org provided background material about SBS's finances and… »
Campaign statistics
In the month leading up to the May Budget, Save Our SBS ran a campaign where supporters were given the opportunity to send a personal email to the finance and communications ministers and other politicians in the Make SBS Special Again campaign published on the SaveOurSBS.org website. The purpose was to press government for a steep increase in funding for SBS with the removal of in-program commercial breaks from SBS television. On the campaign webpage visitors were… »
SBS Bill details: how disruptions could end on SBS-TV
Greens Communications spokesperson, Senator Scott Ludlam has introduced a private Bill that, if passed, would gradually phase out commercial breaks from interrupting SBS television programs by 2016.
When introducing the Bill, Senator Ludlam made clear it was intended to bring advertising practices back into line with Parliament’s original intentions when debating the SBS Act in 1991.
The Senator said SBS received less than a quarter of the ABC’s budget before pointing… »
| Save Our SBS – friends of SBS – is a not for profit organisation defending the diversity, independence and integrity of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). We treasure SBS and the aim to end in-program breaks. We advocate greater public funding for SBS, respect its purpose as spelt out in its Charter, and value the cultural enrichment that SBS offers. |
When the 1991 Parliament incorporated the phrase “natural program breaks” into the SBS Act it specifically intended this would restrict advertisement placement to:-
- half-time in a soccer match . . . in effect what will happen is that advertising will top and tail programs (Mr Smith Liberal).
- let us not try to get the advertising revenue that will make the SBS another commercial channel. If we do, again, that will change its character, and I do not think that is really what we are about (Mr Sinclair National).
- advertisement–at the beginning and the end of the sponsored program. In that way the viewers were not disturbed and were not constantly interrupted, as is the case on some of the commercial television programs (Mr Lee Labor).
