Read the petition and sign it here read this too >  “Rebuild Public Broadcasting” campaign results SBS Boss wants it to continue to operate as a commercial network “What Each Party Promised With SBS: Election 2007” Mary Kostakidis and SBS settle “We Don’t Believe You Shaun” SBS Boss SBS Secret Documents Reveal Truth About Ads “Come Clean On Commercialisation” by Quentin Dempster SBS Complaint System Inadequate Petition Progress

 

Why Save SBS?

In late 2006 SBS-TV began interrupting programs for commercial breaks. This is a fundamental departure from its past practice of screening advertisements only between programs. Commercial/promo break interruptions into program are annoying and not natural. These interruptions disregard the viewer experience and destroy the program integrity. Ads and commercial sponsorship are against the spirit to which all public broadcasters should aspire and are not part of the SBS Charter.

SBS is a tax-payer-government funded public broadcaster.

The need to appease advertisers seeking to maximise audiences, will affect SBS programming and result in SBS losing its unique character as a multicultural broadcaster admired around the world. Inevitably, the Federal government will withdraw further from its responsibility to fund the public broadcaster if SBS continues to run ads.

The SBS experience has demonstrated that once the commercial foot is in the door, its presence grows.

Sign the petition to protect SBS and stop ads on SBS.

 

27 Nov 2007 SaveOurSBS: Despite the election of a new government and the long time stated objection of the ALP to SBS interrupting programs for advertisements, the Managing Director of SBS, Shaun Brown was quick today to call for SBS to continue down the commercial path. Brown wants SBS to continue to operate as a commercial network. Before the November 2007 elections, and, as far back as April, 2007, at its National Conference Labor acknowledged the importance of SBS and committed Labor to ensuring adequate funding and support for SBS and free from political and commercial interference. “Labor has opposed and continues to oppose the decision by SBS to introduce advertising into its programming” (reference). However only a few days after the Labor landslide victory to form a new federal government, the Australian reported that Brown wants SBS to keep up its current practise of running ads and interrupting programs for commercial breaks. Brown  was quoted as saying that he also believes the “ABC should be forced to run advertisements”. He went on to say that he did not believe that SBS had been weakened under his reign. You can read the full story from the Australian (27 November 2007): “SBS chief calls for ads on ABC, SBS“ You can read more comments on the Save Our SBS web site about this topic here.

 

If you would like to be a blogger on SaveOurSBS please read lower down this screen.

 

SaveOurSBS recently received the blog below about one families history of viewing SBS from its opening in 1980 until now. “SBS: A Sad Death of Great Television”  by Derek Kell We started watching SBS on the first day of its transmission. Nearly all the programmes at that time were sourced from overseas and carried subtitles, but they were really interesting programmes. SBS transmitted on channel 0 in the VHF band in those days. In our part of Sydney the reception was very weak resulting in an unsatisfactory picture which at times was quite difficult to watch. Sometimes we would get a headache from squinting at the subtitles, but we persisted anyway because the programmes were so good. I found the films, especially the ones from France, so very enjoyable. After a while we decided to buy a UHF television in an attempt to get a better picture. This purchase was made solely for the benefit of watching SBS television [on channel 28]. Unfortunately it didn’t make a lot of difference so we invested in a better aerial. No improvement. Next a higher mast and a new coax cable were installed. The picture was slightly better but still not as good as the other channels on the VHF bands. Somebody advised us that a signal amplifier might do the trick. The ones we tried only seemed to amplify the interference, so they were discarded. We were resigned to the fact that SBS was always going to have an inferior reception. But we continued to watch it in this condition for many years. We thought SBS programming was wonderful. Then along came digital TV. We purchased a set top box. And for the first time we could see SBS properly!! O joy! Shortly after that, however, the French films, in fact most of the films, just disappeared. It was like we were being punished for enjoying something so much. It was like it was too good to last. When we, the general public - the tax payers funding 80% of his [SBS] station, had the “cheek” to complain that our films have been taken away Mr Shaun Brown resorted to name-calling. He spoke at the National Press Cub. Those at the top of SBS have called us elitist and they don’t want to cater for elitists. Mr Brown wants us to watch the advertisement-and-promo-interrupted-rubbish he puts on because it suits the advertisers. Mr Brown doesn’t seem to care about the time, effort and expense that I, and thousands of people like me, went to, to receive an SBS signal in the first place. You can read the original BLOG by Derek Kell here

 

If you would like to be a blogger on SaveOurSBS please read lower down this screen.

Sign the petition to protect SBS and stop ads on SBS.

How To Browse This Web Site, Register & Comment

You can read detailed information about why SBS should be saved and the petition to save our SBS on these web pages.

This web site consists of Pages and Posts and ‘blogs.’ Blogs are readers comments about a Post. On your web screen, blog comments are always below Posts.

Pages contain material that is written by Save Our SBS, mainly reference material, whereas Posts contain some material written by Save Our SBS and other material Contributors. Bloggers can usually respond directly to a Post (the one being viewed when ‘logged in’) but not a Page.

To read a Page, click on a Page Title (the yellow text) in the blue area at the top of the screen.

To read a Post or a blog about that Post click on a topic (folder) under the heading Blog Categories you will be taken to a new screen where you can view a summary of the latest Posts (articles) within that Category. The heading Blog Categories on the all screens on this web site shows the number of Posts within each Category. Once you have clicked on a Category you will see many Post Headings with the first few lines of each Post within that Category. If you then click on the Post Heading of your choice, you will be taken to another screen where you can read the entire Post. Below each Post there may be some bloggers Comments.

How To Register And Become A Blogger On SaveOurSBS

At the end of some Posts, readers are invited to leave a Comment (or a reply). A Comment may or may not be published for others to read. To write a Comment about a Post you need to Login. To Login you need to be registered which you do by first clicking on the Register link in the far right column. (There is no cost). When you register you will be asked for a Username. Your Username is Case - Sensitive will be published as your ‘by-line’ if your Comment is published. This site is moderated so there will be a delay before your material is published. We may also edit any contributions or not publish some at all. Typically if we think a submitted Comment is not true, unclear, difficult to make sense of or defamatory, we will either edit it or not publish it.

You do not need to Register as a blogger in order to sign the petition.

 

Sign the petition to protect SBS, stop the ads and maintain our multicultural public broadcaster funded fully by government. Click http://petition.saveoursbs.org and wait while you are redirected to the petition server.

 

Tried to Register? Need A Password? Still Waiting?

When you Register to be a ‘blogger’ an automated email is sent to the email address you gave.

If you used a HOTMAIL, YAHOO, gMAIL, .gov, .edu, corporate, free email accounts and some others and you cannot find our email in your INBOX, please check your other folders, e.g., SPAM, JUNK or BULK mail etc for the automated email that has your Password. It may have been wrongly filtered as spam. Sometimes you can fix the problem by changing or disabling your email filters. If that does not work, you may have misspelt your own email address when you tried to Register. If that happened you will need to Register again with a different Username using your correct email address or an alternate email address. Each Username and each email address is unique and can only be Registered once, to one person.

If you are still having problems, please email us via our Contact Us page. Usually we can help you fix the problem.

Please submit any material that you write in English only.

Sign the petition to protect SBS and stop ads in programs. Read more about SBS and how you can save it on these web pages.

Browse In Your Language

This web site was written and created in English (Australian). A computer automated translation service is provided so that you can read this web site in a Language Other Than English (LOTE). To view this web site in another language, or, to change from one LOTE to another, you need to first ensure that your web URL Address shows or begins with http://www.SaveOurSBS.org/ and then click on the language of your choice (located on the right side of the screen under the heading: “IN YOUR LANGUAGE click from English SaveOurSBS.org site”. After you are transported to the translated web page, the entire web site and all the links will be displayed in your chosen language. If you are having difficulty in displaying the characters of another language, you may need to change the settings in your web browser to correct the problem.

The translation is very basic and it is not controlled by us.

Sign the petition to save our multicultural broadcaster.

 

Sign the petition to protect SBS, stop the ads and maintain our multicultural public broadcaster funded fully by government. Click http://petition.saveoursbs.org and wait while you are redirected to the petition server.

 

SaveOurSBS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Save Our SBS is independent from the organisations named below.

 

Friends of the ABC (FABC) http://friendsoftheabc.org OR http://www.fabc.org.au/national supports Australia’s other public broadcaster

Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia (FECCA) http://www.fecca.org.au promotes multiculturalism, community harmony and social justice