How does SBS choose its programming?

TV Programming

SBS chooses programming based on the SBS Charter and is committed to broadcasting programs that reflect a diversity of experiences, lifestyles, beliefs, cultures and languages within Australia.

To reach across all of Australian society, SBS seeks to strike an appropriate balance between:

  • English-language programming which is readily accessible to the general population
  • non-English language programming subtitled in English, which may serve the needs of particular communities, and which is accessible to a wider audience; and
  • non-English language programming which directly serves the needs of particular communities, and which may be of some interest to other audiences.

SBS Television aims, as far as possible and over time, to provide programs across languages spoken in the community and to provide programming from a wide variety of cultural perspectives. SBS’s program selection takes into account variations in the availability and quality of programming from different television industries around the world as well as the need to meet the range of our programming objectives. In its yearly schedule, SBS seeks to achieve a balance between programs in English and programs in languages other than English across the SBS network. With mostly SBS-produced English-language subtitles, these programs are accessible to the widest possible audience.