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Save Our SBS, Wednesday, 12 January, 2022
This was first published by Pearls and Irritations on 12 January 2022. The full text is presented here as written by Save Our SBS president Steve Aujard.
It was Brian Johns, then Special Broadcasting Service managing director, who in 1987 came up with the idea of supplementing SBS’s taxpayer subsidy by broadcasting ads between TV programs.
“I hope I haven’t created a monster,” he told me during an interview over coffee on 6 February 2013 at Cafe Cavallino in Carlton.
Johns, whose long career in journalism and media included stints as chairman of
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Save Our SBS, Tuesday, 1 September, 2020
SBS appears to have 50 percent more advertising in some primetime hours than the SBS Act permits according to a series of findings carried out by Save Our SBS from 2009 to 2020.
Promos were not counted. Nor were classification announcements, community service announcements, sponsor billboards and sponsored promos.
Under section 45* of the Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991 advertising is limited to “not more than 5 minutes in any hour of broadcasting”. Promos do not count as an advertisement and the Act excludes them from counting in the 5 minute hourly
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Save Our SBS, Wednesday, 16 October, 2019
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 Australia since 2007. The Index parallels the period
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Save Our SBS, Saturday, 24 March, 2018
The Government has introduced a Bill that would regulate gambling advertisements on radio, TV and online.
If passed gambling advertisements could be limited on SBS, commercial operators, and other outlets.
However, Labor has proposed an amendment to the Bill that would exempt SBS from the provisions of the Bill.
The Bill supports the best interests of children under Best interests of the child: Article 3(1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by providing mechanisms to ensure, if required, that broadcasters and online content service providers respect community standards and reduce
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Save Our SBS, Saturday, 6 May, 2017
by Mary Kostakidis
The relentless push to further commercialise SBS has been ramped up yet again with SBS management and government set on increasing advertising within programs. This destructive policy will ultimately make the public broadcaster – SBS – indistinguishable from mainstream commercial television.
Not only will advertising be more intrusive, it will also increasingly become the driver of programming decisions and the public broadcaster will continue to be manoeuvred away from its Charter obligations.
When SBS first accepted limited advertising between programs, both the Managing Director and then Communications Minister told me this would not result
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Save Our SBS, Saturday, 1 October, 2016
A couple of months ago, when the ABC’s 4 Corners program broadcast the excellent but heart wrenching documentary titled “Children on the Frontline: Escape from Aleppo“ by Marcel Mettelsiefen, something was inadvertently portrayed about SBS — what it is not doing.
The entire Children on the Frontline program was in a language other than English (LOTE). All this occurred in primetime.
Children on the Frontline was told through the eyes of four children filmed over three years in Syria and Germany. Fleeing the Syrian conflict, the four siblings and mother eventually take refuge in Germany.
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Save Our SBS, Thursday, 21 July, 2016
Forever chasing the commercial dollar, SBS has succumbed to broadcasting advertisements that promote betting in their sporting programs. Viewers watching the recent UEFA Cup competition would have seen Sportsbet ads on SBS at 5:30pm on Sundays and 6:30pm on weekdays.
The broadcaster has proceeded down this path under the SBS Codes of Practice and as an associate member of Free TV Australia, under the advertising and betting restrictions contained in the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice. The Code permits betting and gambling advertisements in all sports and news programs, irrespective
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Save Our SBS, Wednesday, 24 February, 2016
This opinion piece by Save Our SBS President Steve Aujard, was first published on 23 February 2016 in the New Daily, here.
ANALYSIS: A merger of Australia’s two public broadcasters would spell the end of multicultural programming in this country.
While ABC chief Mark Scott is prone to talking up the idea of merging Australia’s two public broadcasters, he has never been able to justify how multicultural broadcasting would be improved under ABC control.
Let’s be realistic about what Scott is proposing. It is not a merger of equals but a takeover of SBS and
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Save Our SBS, Thursday, 18 February, 2016
SBS – the Special Broadcasting Service – is the world’s first broadcaster established solely as a multicultural, multiethnic broadcaster. Prior to SBS, other broadcasters including the ABC had aired various foreign language programs (on Sunday mornings) but the Anglo-centric monoculture of the ABC hampered the full potential of multiculturalism in all its glory. The need for SBS to exist in its own right was soon realised.
Established by the Fraser Coalition government, SBS began its own TV transmissions in 1980 broadcasting on channels 0/28. SBS-TV was built on the back of the publicly
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Save Our SBS, Tuesday, 10 November, 2015
Quentin Dempster recently delivered a talk to the Ryde-Macquarie Teachers’ Association Annual Dinner about the threats facing the ABC, SBS and NITV. Here is an extract of his talk.
"The public broadcasters are in grave danger. These institutions – the ABC with an 83 year legacy; SBS with 36 years, have legislated Charters requiring all program makers to regard their audiences as citizens in a robust democracy … and not consumers to be delivered up to advertisers. Programs should be commissioned on the basis of their creative merit, sometimes with risk. On-air conversations should
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Save Our SBS, Wednesday, 14 January, 2015
by Margaret Pomeranz and Quentin Dempster
Now is the time for all good Australians to stand up to fight for a sustainable public broadcasting system in our country, in particular SBS.
There are forces at work out to further commercialise SBS through an amendment to the SBS Act and through the dishonouring or an election commitment not to cut funding to SBS (and the ABC).
SBS is unique. It emerged in 1978 as an initiative of the Fraser Government because of the perceived deficiency of the ABC in servicing the needs of increasing numbers of non-English speaking
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Save Our SBS, Monday, 20 October, 2014
In a recent Politics in the Pub talk by public broadcasting advocate Quentin Dempster, the extent of government cuts to the ABC and SBS were outlined. Whilst his talk was mainly about the ABC, chunks of it covered the impact of cuts to the SBS. The cuts are a result of the Communications Department’s Efficiency Study into SBS & the ABC conducted earlier this year. Here is an edited version of his talk – the sections that deal mainly with SBS.
The ABC and SBS are in no man’s land at the moment.
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Save Our SBS, Monday, 11 August, 2014
Moves are afoot that could see advertising soon double in primetime programs on SBS but government taking the proceeds of the extra revenue from the increased ads as a payment in efficiency dividends.
Effectively, the current cap of five minutes advertising per hour will increase to 10 minutes.
But an increase in one hour will mean a decrease elsewhere. ‘Ad averaging’, as it is called, is a possible outcome of the Communications Department’s Efficiency Study into SBS that was conducted earlier this year. A draft copy of the Study has been given to SBS.
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Save Our SBS, Friday, 14 February, 2014
The first two Directors ever appointed based on merit to the SBS Board of Directors were SBS’s Chairman, Joseph Skrzynski AO, and Director, Elleni Bereded-Samuel. Their term on the SBS Board is due to expire next month.
The Skrzynski story
In the lead-up to his five year anniversary, Save Our SBS concludes our series on the historic first ever merit-based appointments to the SBS Board.
Last month we profiled Bereded-Samuel. Now Joseph Skrzynski
Skrzynski entered the world of broadcasting five years ago with experience as a viewer, listener and financier.
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Save Our SBS, Wednesday, 15 May, 2013
There’s been a lot of backslapping all round. If you read SBS’s and Minister Conroy’s media releases about funding SBS in the budget, things could not be better. Offering no criticism, SBS welcomed an increase of a measly "$20 million" over the next three years and SBS’s Managing Director, Michael Ebeid articulated a clutch of corporate speak. The similarity between the Minister’s and SBS’s talk is remarkable.
Looking at the figures and rhetoric, it seems that SBS and the government are happy with the direction and funding model of SBS as public service broadcaster.
Click here to read the full story . . .
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SBS hour logged with 50 percent more ads than allowed
SBS appears to have 50 percent more advertising in some primetime hours than the SBS Act permits according to a series of findings carried out by Save Our SBS from 2009 to 2020.
Promos were not counted. Nor were classification announcements, community service announcements, sponsor billboards and sponsored promos.
Under section 45* of the Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991 advertising is limited to “not more than 5 minutes in any hour of broadcasting”. Promos do not count as an advertisement and the Act excludes them from counting in the 5 minute hourly
Click here to read the full story . . .