SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid speech at the SBS 2015 Upfronts
Speech delivered by SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid
SBS 2015 Upfronts
Luxe Studios, Sydney, 14 November 2014
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Thanks for coming along today.
As Andrew said, it has been a big year for SBS and our successes have given us the perfect momentum to make 2015 even bigger.
2014 was all about delivering more for Australian audiences and it doesn’t get bigger than the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which was a great success for us.
Andrew leads a reinvigorated, agile SBS Media sales team that is competing extremely well in a tough advertising market. It’s a media team that understands diversity, but also how to make that diversity work for our clients.
Teams right across SBS are highly-skilled at delivering distinctive content on tight budgets; and it gets recognised by the industry nationally and internationally.
A big focus for the SBS team and I this year has been to demonstrate to the Federal Government that SBS is lean, agile, and we have some of the most efficient operating practices in the Australian media sector.
I am confident in our ability to make the further cuts being asked of us without compromising the outcomes of the investments we’ve made in quality content which is so critical to our audiences and advertisers.
Certainly, our 2015 content plans are already locked and loaded and there will be no change to those plans irrespective of the funding outcome.
Today is all about that content, which is all about our purpose — exploring and celebrating diversity.
That purpose is a contemporary interpretation of our Charter – to reflect modern, multicultural Australia.
That purpose also drives everything we do at SBS and sets us apart from every other Australian media company.
First and foremost, this means reflecting today’s Australia through our content — on TV, Radio, Online and on numerous mobile devices and platforms.
That’s through a combination of the documentaries and news and current affairs in which we’ve built an esteemed pedigree, but also through entertainment that is truly diverse and speaks to all Australians.
What you’ll see today is the sort of diverse unique programming that you simply don’t see from any other Australian broadcaster, coupled with an innovative approach to content delivery.
I am proud to say, we’re engaging with more Australians – our audience reach is growing. We know an average of 12.8 million Australians watch SBS per month, and that means we are now engaging with almost 80 per cent of adult Australians each month.
When you think about why SBS was established — to help introduce free healthcare to migrants through in-language radio — and then when you consider the serious challenges we currently face as a nation to preserve social cohesion, our role at SBS has really changed.
That point of difference of showcasing the benefits of diversity is a big responsibility and one we take seriously.
In 2015, we mark 40 years of SBS Radio from those humble beginnings and we will celebrate the special connections we have forged with the multicultural communities who built today’s Australia and helped us to earn our reputation as the broadcaster of more languages than any other in the world.
This month we’ve launched the Landsberry & James Radio Optimiser tool which helps reduce turnaround times and workload for clients wanting to book Radio campaigns with SBS.
We of course launched the TV product last year with much success.
This investment strategy is an ongoing focus for our Media Sales business, along with our objective to simplify buying processes.
We are currently investigating integrated technology solutions in the cross-platform and programmatic environments.
Not only are we innovating in how we distribute & sell our content — we are extending that innovation to how we do our core business, and we have evolved some of our operating models to be even more agile and responsive.
We are about to transition to cloud based technology of our master control and become the first Australian broadcaster to do so, but it is very much in line with a global trend towards the digitization of content play out.
This year we moved to a fully integrated – One newsroom – in which journalists are collaborating and producing stories for simultaneous filing across TV, radio and online, extending the reach of our stories. It’s great to see we now have over 3.5 million unique visitors to the news sites each month.
To go back to where I began…
SBS is a vital part of Australia’s multicultural infrastructure. We know it’s important to reflect the changing face of Australia. We are the network perfectly positioned to reflect that diversity.
I’d ask you to think about SBS’s point of difference as you listen next to our Director of Television Tony Iffland outline our plans for the year ahead.
Together with our fantastic partners in the production sector, the advertising sector and the community sector, in 2015 you will see some of the best content SBS has commissioned and curated.
Our content is about delivering on our Charter in contemporary Australia, where one in four of us were born overseas.
It’s about being on all the platforms where our audiences are, and it’s about leading the conversation about what it means to be Australian today.
Now I’m delighted that that I get to introduce our first reel — and it’s National Indigenous Television, our newest free to air channel, which continues to go grow and evolve. NITV is a channel that as a nation we can all be proud of. Not just a channel for our First peoples, but a channel that gives non-Indigenous Australians a window into Indigenous culture.
So while we’re here to launch 2015 I must mention First Contact.
It will shine a light on the divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Australia, by immersing six Australians with little to no previous contact with Indigenous people into Aboriginal Australia for the first time.
SBS ONE and NITV are partnering to simulcast First Contact on both channels over three consecutive nights starting next Tuesday. It’s event TV that we believe will really get the nation talking.
I’d like to thank everyone here today for your ongoing support of SBS, as you’re absolutely integral to our success.
Here’s a look at what’s coming up on NITV in 2015.
ENDS