Michael Ebeid – Address to the 2011 FECCA conference

Good morning.
It’s a pleasure to be here with one of SBS’s most important stakeholders — FECCA. Since joining SBS I’ve had many interactions with Pino Migliorino and I hope to be able to spend time with many more of you today and tomorrow.

Today I would like to give you some insight into:
– my vision for SBS and its services;
– demonstrate to you the potential for SBS’s services to meet the needs of Australia’s CALD communities in new and exciting ways
– outline how you might support us to ensure SBS remains relevant for all Australians.

Some of my earliest memories are of SBS — and it wasn’t images flickering on a television screen.

Like many migrant Australians, my initial contact with SBS was via SBS Radio — even back then SBS was a trusted source of news and information for my parents who had arrived from Egypt in the 60s when I was 3.

SBS was also a source of comfort — a familiar voice speaking in a language they’re familiar and comfortable with — Arabic — helping them participate better in the national conversation and integrate into Australian society.

I enjoyed growing up in a culturally diverse family, knowing another language and appreciating another culture. Even as a child I remember thinking that SBS reflected the true multicultural Australia and it did help with feelings of inclusiveness in society.

For more than 35 years and from some quite humble beginnings SBS has grown into a fully-fledged media organisation — and I am committed to ensuring we focus on delivering more content that reflects our multicultural Charter.

I would hazard a guess and boast that we have probably played a part in nearly every migrant’s journey to calling Australia home as in my own example.

For some we are a lifeline, for others a friend, for many the place they turn to, to have a conversation with the community — in a language they’re familiar with.

Like FECCA, SBS has spent all of its existence advancing multiculturalism in this country and, like multiculturalism, we have also evolved and we have grown.

The SBS of today is vastly different from the two radio frequency SBS that existed in 1975 — into a fully-fledged multi-media organisation across all platforms and devices.

I would like to share a short clip to show you the range of services we offer the Australian community today.

I trust that the breadth of our services might be enlightening for some of you here today — that SBS delivers services across free-to-air and subscription television, radio and online as well as having a presence on mobile devices and tablets — many of them in-language and on-demand.

It’s incredibly important that SBS be able to keep pace with technological change as our audience’s media habits have also changed demanding new services on new platforms.
Our purpose is to inspire all Australians to explore and appreciate our multicultural and diverse world and contribute to an inclusive society.

If we are to retain and build our relevance for CALD communities, then SBS must deliver on our audiences expectations of a modern media organisation.

For years SBS was constrained by its analogue schedule on television and radio. There simply weren’t enough hours in the day, or limited spectrium to deliver all of the content we wanted to.

While others in the industry may be challenged by convergence and technological change, technology is providing solutions for SBS to extend our reach and our services and connect with new audiences.

Technology has the potential to literally transform how we deliver in-language services to Australia’s CALD communities.

And you can see that potential when you look at our Virtual Community Centre for Chinese Australians, our Mandarin News Australia service on SBS television and our recently launched Your Language app.

The Chinese VCC pilot is a glimpse of the future for SBS’s services and demonstrates the potential for our news, current affairs and content services to be brought together in a central online point for our language communities to access them.

Mandarin News Australia shows how SBS can marry its news gathering and in-language expertise to bring an Australian perspective to in-language television news. We have an ambition to expand this pilot for Australia’s top languages.

Our new Your Language app — which we are showcasing here at the FECCA conference – gives in-language radio audiences another way to tune into your language programs — 24/7 — with new features and interactive elements.

The mobile app gives listeners live program streaming, catch-up, audio on demand podcasts so you can listen at a time that suits you, and highlights as well as schedule information, and you can access older programs if you missed them. All of these innovations are a modern incarnation of our in-language audio services and, I hope, it’s only just the beginning. We want to do more of these services for more language groups. We don’t have to rely on radio spectrum anymore. We have the capability and skills, but of course that needs more funding.

While our in-language services are particularly relevant for Australia’s CALD communities to connect with SBS; our television services provide an opportunity for all Australians to connect with the world’s diversity and our compelling local multicultural stories.

This year has been quite a watershed year for SBS television content.

While we already have a reputation for award winning and critically acclaimed content across a range of genres, two of our programs this year demonstrated more than any other how SBS content has the potential to be both life-changing and life-affirming.

We started the year with Immigration Nation — the Secret History of Us — another ground-breaking documentary that explored a previously unchartered area of Australia’s diverse history — showing how Australia was built on immigration and multiculturalism.
And then in June, we challenged and changed perceptions about refugees in this country with Go Back To Where You Came From. I know that my predecessor Shaun Brown announced Go Back at the last FECCA conference he attended — and I understand some were not impressed by the concept.

On the bare bones of the concept I can understand that it might have sounded challenging, even impossible. That some may have thought it would only serve to inflame tensions around an already sensitive issue that polarises many in the Australian community.

However, Go Back To Where You Came From was the most ambitious and highest rating documentary series SBS has ever produced — peaking at just under a million viewers for the final episode, making news headlines around the world, and becoming the top trending subject worldwide on Twitter for the 4 nights it went to air.

I think, from its success, we can now see the potential for contemporary television formats to be incredibly powerful vehicles for change.

SBS is releasing research today that demonstrates the power of SBS television to educate our audiences and challenge their views. The research shows that Immigration Nation and Go Back filled a knowledge gap on important issues for Australian audiences.

It told many Australians things about their country’s history they just did not know.
Both the documentaries engaged viewers and shone a mirror on Australian attitudes towards migrants and refugees.

Go Back in particular not only put a face on refugees but also on ‘ordinary Australians’ who hold polarising or opposite views on immigration.

Participants in the research expressed their compassion for the refugees depicted in Go Back and the personal stories struck a chord with many viewers.

At the most basic level both programs were perceived to have changed the discussion around the debate on asylum seekers and refugees and increased awareness around one of the most hot button issues in Australian political debate.

I’m extremely proud of what SBS has contributed in this space which goes to the heart of our Charter and our purpose.

I would like to now show you two new television programs that SBS is launching in the coming months which demonstrate the breadth of creative ideas we draw upon to make content that reflects our Charter.

When we set out to make new SBS television’s programs we have 4 commissioning values that guide our thinking — We want our programs to provoke debate, surprise audiences, push boundaries and inspire change.

These next two shows really encapsulate these values.

In January, during Lunar New Year, SBS will launch a new three-part documentary series which charts the journey of Australia’s Vietnamese community through the history of Western Sydney suburb Cabramatta.

Told for the first time by the people who were there, the series features interviews
with the youth who got caught up in gang culture; politicians and police who were involved in Cabramatta’s critical moments; and the ordinary people who lived through it all.

From the crime and violence, the fear and racism, a heroin epidemic and the first political assassination in Australia’s history, to the fight back  – as this immigrant community found its voice.

From a community that was once paralysed by fear, Cabramatta has become a proud example of immigrant success and this series is set to tell this important Australian story in a compelling and contemporary way.

It continues on from Immigration Nation which looked at the political decision by Malcolm Fraser to open the doors to Vietnamese refugees who would encounter many trials in their new home country. Let’s take a look…

It’s important that we have balance in our programs at SBS from the serious content we often play. At the opposite end of the spectrum is a new talent search show SBS has commissioned called Bollywood Star. Bollywood Star will follow young hopefuls who compete for a chance to win a role in a major Bollywood movie.

And what excites me about Bollywood Star is it’s fresh way of exploring cultural identity & fostering social inclusion…. whilst having a bit of fun.

Both of these new programs really highlight how SBS can continue to tell Australian multicultural stories in contemporary ways to help us connect with established CALD communities who have long been big supporters; but these new formats will also enable us to connect with younger CALD audiences — as well as appealing to broader Australian communities.

Finally today I would like to launch an exciting new partnership between FECCA, SBS and Relationships Australia around SBS’s exciting new fly-on-the-wall series — The Family.

By creating partnerships with organisations like FECCA and RA, SBS can increase the impact of its content off-screen — enhancing the good work that we do.
The Family is essentially it’s a huge experiment, what happens if you take 35 remote controlled cameras, put them in one family’s home and film them without intervention from film crews for 100 days and nights.

The series follows the lives of the Italian Cardomone family, mum Josie, dad Angelo and their three boys David, Stefan and Adrian. Even though it was a hugely complex series to make, it presents very simply.

There’s no narration, no master interviews throughout, so the viewing experience is a very different one for audiences, because you’re not artificially alerted to where the action is headed.

What is different about this series is the way it explores the relationships between three generations of an Australian Italian family and the melding of cultures and traditions.
To accompany the series SBS, FECCA and Relationships Australia have compiled a resource for second generation migrant families called — Living Between Two Worlds.

The Guide looks at it what it’s like to be a second generation migrant in Australia today, how this shapes your relationships and day to day life, and some of the challenges you might face relating to cultural background and heritage.

I urge all of you to pick up a copy from the SBS stand here at the conference.

I hope today that I’ve managed to go someway to changing your perception of SBS.

That many of you now see that we are a modern media organisation dedicated to delivering services to the Australian community that are informed by our Charter in new and exciting ways.

My ambition is to grow SBS services,
– more virtual community centre for more languages like the Chinese one,
– more Australian News & Caff in languages like the Mandarin pilot,
– more audio language progs online and on mobile devices — taking advantage of technology
– more Australian content on TV that reflects our charter that goes towards social inclusion and cohesion.

There are without a doubt challenging financial times currently for SBS but I do not want to talk today about our challenges but instead about the opportunities I have just outlined.

Over the coming months, the Australian Government will be considering SBS’s future- the outcome of which will determine just what services we can deliver in the future.

Everyone at this conference is a powerful voice in the community, I hope that in discussions about SBS and our contribution, with our friends in Canberra,  that you will also become powerful supporters of our services, arguing for them to be bolstered and expanded to take SBS to the next level — to be even more relevant to more Australians.

Thank you.