SBS WELCOMES FEDERAL BUDGET FUNDING BOOST
Tuesday
14 May, 2013
SBS has welcomed an additional $20 million in new funding over the next triennium in the 2013 Federal Budget.
SBS
Managing Director Michael Ebeid said the funding would enable SBS to continue
to deliver on its Charter obligations with services which celebrate Australia’s
diversity, in a rapidly changing and competitive media market.
“SBS is
a lean and agile hybrid broadcaster which punches above its weight with
distinctive and innovative content, despite operating on one fifth of the
average budget of all the other broadcasters,” Mr Ebeid said.
“This
funding will equip SBS to provide the services that are critical to its
responsibility to be a broadcaster for all Australians, in a climate where
commercial growth is subdued, content costs are increasing and audiences are
fragmenting across the myriad of channels, platforms and devices available to
them.
“It is
recognition by the Federal Government that in today’s increasingly diverse communities,
SBS has a continuing and vital role to play in contributing to social cohesion,
and to Australia’s success as a migrant nation.
“The
funding will help to fill the gaps between our role and responsibility to
provide services which encourage all Australians to understand and appreciate
other cultures through content, and help to meet the increasing cost of
delivering those services across the platforms and devices audiences are
choosing to use. It will also allow SBS to continue broadcasting in 74
languages on radio.
“Today,
one in four Australians was born overseas, 43.1 per cent have at least one
overseas-born parent and our Language Other Than English (LOTE) community makes
up four million people. In this Budget, Minister Conroy and the Government have
recognised that demand for SBS’s services will only continue to grow as
Australia becomes more and more culturally diverse.”
For more
information please contact:
Jessica
Harris
Head of
Corporate Communications
SBS
Corporation
T: 02
9430 2807
M: 0409
188 743
E: jessica.harris@sbs.com.au