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End In-Program Ads On SBS Save Our SBS, Tuesday, 12 October, 2021
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Even though ads on SBS are legislated to be in “natural program breaks”[1], SBS forces more than 60,000 commercial breaks into programs annually[2][3][4]. But forced breaks are not natural.
That high volume of forced breaks explains why 95% of SBS viewers nationally say: “most in-program advertising breaks on SBS look forced or artificially contrived and it would be misleading to describe these as natural program breaks”[5][6][7].
It was SBS — not government — that reinterpreted the SBS Act in 2006 to force advertisements into programs, effectively making the “natural program breaks” limitation set by the SBS Act meaningless.
Background
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1990 — SBS proposes to government it be allowed to carry advertising.
1991 — Labor in government corporatises SBS legislating advertising “before programs commence, after programs end or during natural program breaks”[8] and SBS honours this by placing ads between programs only for the next 15 years.
2006 — SBS Board reinterprets the “natural program breaks” limitation set in the SBS Act and forces multiple commercial breaks into every program. The law never changed.
2007 to now — SBS continues to disrupt all programs with advertising.
The 1991 Hansard in the – Committees, House of Representatives, Senate, Second and Third Reading Speeches – clarified the meaning of ‘natural program breaks’ immediately before passing the SBS legislation:-
● Mr SMITH (Liberal): half-time in a soccer match … in effect what will happen is that advertising will top and tail programs[9].
● 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[10].
● Sen COLLINS (Labor): natural program breaks will be so unobtrusive on audiences as to be almost undetectable[11].
● 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[12].
● 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[13].
In mid 1991 – for a trial period – SBS was permitted to broadcast advertisements and it limited ads to between programs only. That convinced the parliament to legalise advertising on SBS permanently with the same limitations seen during the trial.
However, the SBS Act never defined ‘natural program breaks’ because everyone had witnessed what the phrase meant (‘ads top and tail of programs only’) and the legislators articulated that before passing the law. Based on the parliamentarians remarks transcribed in the Hansard, if a definition had been placed into the Act, arguably it could have been this:-
natural program breaks means the break that occurs between the end of one program and the start of the next program, and the natural-break-in-play of a sporting event where audiences miss none of the play, for example, half time in a soccer match.
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References:
[1] Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991, section 45
[2] Budget estimates question on notice no. 253, Portfolio question number: SQ21-000505, 15 June 2021, questioner: Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, responder: Special Broadcasting Service
[3] SOSBS, 1 September 2020, SBS hour logged with 50 percent more ads than allowed, (data extrapolated from reference [2] above and transmission logs in this reference [3] for 5 June 2020 NITV 6PM-12MN; 4 June 2020 SBS Food 6PM-12MN; 3 June 2020 World Movies 6PM-12MN; 2 June 2020 VICELAND 6PM-12MN; 1 June 2020 SBS Primary channel 6PM-12MN )
[4] Senate Questions on Notice, 16 June 2008, question: 93, questioner: Senator Lyn Allison, responder: Senator Stephen Conroy, stage: Special Broadcasting Service
[5] SOSBS, 1 October 2020, Three question poll (n = 6,632)
[6] SOSBS, 24 April 2017, Survey 2017 about SBS (n = 1,176)
[7] SOSBS, 23 July 2013, A study of 2044 viewers of SBS television on advertising, Charter, relevance and other matters (n = 2,044)
[8] Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991, section 45
[9] SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE BILL 1991, Second Reading, 14-10-1991, House Hansard
[10] SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE BILL 1991, Second Reading, 11-11-1991, Senate Hansard
[11] SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE BILL 1991, In Committee, 11-11-1991, Senate Hansard
[12] SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE BILL 1991, Second Reading, 14-10-1991, House Hansard
[13] SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE BILL 1991, Second Reading, 14-10-1991, House Hansard
At law, SBS is only permitted to broadcast advertisements ‘before and after programs, during natural program breaks’.
The break at the end of a program is clearly a natural program break.
But SBS forces ads into all programs wherever they like, even in movies, thus ignoring the natural program breaks limitation.
It is community standards that define natural program breaks, not statute law nor SBS. Collectively we all decide.
Now is the time to email SBS’s board of directors explaining what a ‘natural program break’ means and to include that in their Codes of Practice.
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