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Save Our SBS – friends of SBS – joins all supporters and every friend of SBS in celebrating SBS radio, television, digital and online services. We are a not-for-profit association of ordinary people defending the original special purpose of SBS. DONATE here.

Poll: overwhelming support for fully-funded multicultural, multiethnic, and Indigenous programs for children on SBS but with advertising restrictions

An overwhelming majority of SBS viewers want the broadcaster to present programs for children provided those programs are fully-funded, without advertising or reliance on advertising. A total of 3,981 viewers were polled in two separate polls - one on Facebook, the other on Save Our SBS - in which participants were asked separate questions about multicultural, multiethnic, and Indigenous programs for children. The questions and findings of the Two question poll on… »

New SBS Chair: familiar face

A new Chair has been appointed to SBS: Mr George Savvides AM. He is appointed for a period of five years, effective from today. Save Our SBS President, Steve Aujard said, “We have previously met George as he was the Deputy Chair of SBS for three years.” SBS Managing Director, James Taylor; said: “On behalf of the Board and SBS, I'd like to congratulate George on his appointment. “Since being appointed as Deputy Chair in 2017, and most recently as Acting Chair, he… »

Two question poll: SBS children’s TV

A government initiated Options paper proposes SBS be obligated to broadcast or stream a quota of children's TV. We'd like to hear your views. Take the TWO question poll below and leave a comment below that too. SBS is not currently required to carry programs for children but if it were, do you agree or disagree that—— More information at the Save Our SBS Australian content and children’s TV on SBS – a submission to the Supporting… »

Australian content and children’s TV on SBS – a submission to the Supporting Australian stories on our screens—Options paper

Earlier this year, a government initiated Options paper authored by the Australian Communications and Media Authority with Screen Australia considered how best to support Australian stories on-screen generally, and proposed SBS carry a quota of children's content. The communications department then asked stakeholders to comment on the options in the paper. Below is the submission that Save Our SBS made in respect of that. To enable Save Our SBS… »

Get gambling off SBS

Save Our SBS has long called for a total ban of all betting and gambling advertisements on SBS. The Alliance for Gambling Reform shares Save Our SBS's concerns and in its End Gambling Ads campaign is petitioning to get gambling off SBS and put community health ahead of gambling revenue. We urge you to sign their petition below. JOIN Save Our SBS here #EndGamblingAds… »

SBS multilingual coronavirus portal

SBS have launched a multilingual coronavirus portal. The content is produced by SBS Radio and SBS News. Save Our SBS President, Steve Aujard said, “SBS is the only Australian media outlet with information about COVID-19 in more than 60 languages. In this coronavirus era, many people whose first language is not English need SBS. “The portal site provides a single place where anyone who speaks a language other than English can get the latest updates about the… »

The economic reason to remove in-program advertising on SBS

Apart from ease of viewing, there are many reasons to shift advertising away from programs on SBS but until now, the economic benefits have not been explored. SBS aims to inspire “inclusivity and social cohesion.” That's what drives the broadcaster and this aim is articulated in its Corporate Plans, underpinned by its Charter. Despite SBS's aims, The Scanlon-Monash Index of Social Cohesion 2007‑2018 shows that social cohesion has been falling in… »

New TV channel proposed with more foreign language content and commercially less intrusive than current SBS channels

The Directors on the SBS Board have been asked to consider a new, different type of TV channel. The new channel - proposed in a submission by Save Our SBS to the SBS Board - is for a free-to-air television channel scheduling programs predominately in languages other than English - LOTE TV - with programs subtitled in English. The submission, which was driven by community views and published evidence from reputable sources including separate studies of four different… »

SBS & friends say ‘fully-fund Australian content on SBS’ senate committee told

This year, the Senate’s communications committee has been inquiring into the economic and cultural value of Australian content on our media services. Written submissions to the committee from SBS and Save Our SBS put the case for set quotas of Australian content saying it ought to be fully-funded. Save Our SBS argued that if content were fully-funded, there would be no point in SBS carrying advertisements. To stay faithful to its Charter, Save Our SBS said that SBS… »

When the 1991 Parliament incorporated the phrase “natural program breaks” into the SBS Act it intended the placement of advertising on SBS television would not disrupt programs, that SBS not present itself like a commercial broadcaster and that “natural program breaks” would be restricted to:-

Mr SMITH Liberal half-time in a soccer match … in effect what will happen is that advertising will top and tail programs
Sen ALSTON Liberal natural program breaks, one would think that it is not too difficult to identify … clearly the half-time break in football and other sporting programs is a fairly common occurrence. The topping and tailing of programs so that good quality films are not massacred by advertisements is something that most people will readily identify with and recognise the breach of very quickly
Sen COLLINS Labor natural program breaks will be so unobtrusive on audiences as to be almost undetectable
Mr LEE Labor 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 SINCLAIR National 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

Save Our SBS – friends of SBS – joins all supporters and every friend of SBS in celebrating SBS radio, television, digital and online services. We are a not-for-profit association and defend the original special purpose of SBS. We advocate greater public funding for SBS, value multilingual & multicultural programs, and treasure the diverse culturally rich service intended for SBS – without in-program commercial breaks.

At SBS, we share the concerns of media organisations in Australia and around the world of any activity which has the potential to impact freedom of the press.

The ability of journalists to hold individuals and organisations to account, to scrutinise and bring to light matters in the public interest, is critical to any democracy and underpins the trust Australians have in our independent media.

We stand by our colleagues across the industry in continuing to defend the values of a free press.

James Taylor, SBS Managing Director, 7 June 2019

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