Content initiatives & opportunities
Across SBS and NITV, we invest in career pathway and content initiatives designed to support and elevate under-represented screen creatives, and contribute to a more inclusive screen sector. Read more about current opportunities below.
Talent Escalator
The SBS Talent Escalator is a nation-wide initiative focused on creating opportunities for creatives from historically under-represented communities within the television production sector. The Talent Escalator is a partnership between SBS and state and territory screen agencies.
The Talent Escalator supports career development opportunities for emerging and mid-level screen practitioners through opportunities for participants to work with production companies of SBS-commissioned programs across unscripted and scripted, in roles that are a step up from their existing level of experience.
Since 2017, SBS has supported more than 30 Talent Escalator positions including Associate Producer, Production Manager, Assistant Editor, Director’s Attachment and other roles.
Talent Escalator participants have worked on a wide variety of programs across our documentary, factual, food, entertainment, and drama slates. Most recently with scripted shows Appetite, Latecomers, and Safe Home, other examples include factual series Alone Australia, Shaun Micallef's Origin Odyssey, and The Last Goodbye.
SBS and the state and territory agencies collaborate with production companies working on SBS-commissioned programs to secure flexible, on-the-job, paid learning and immersion opportunities.
Talent Escalator roles become available on a rolling basis throughout the year on various programs. To submit an expression of interest, please contact diversity@sbs.com.au.
SBS UNSCRIPTED
Learn more about initiatives and opportunities at SBS in factual, documentaries, food, and entertainment.
AIDC Leading Lights
SBS supports the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) Leading Lights Program for practitioners from under-represented backgrounds.
Leading Lights is AIDC’s philanthropic funding program dedicated to creating a more inclusive and diverse screen industry. Designed to enable early career, Indigenous, and/or Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) nonfiction practitioners to attend AIDC for the first time, the program assists industry newcomers to establish themselves as part of Australia’s screen community.
Since the launch of Leading Lights in 2018, over 180 emerging and diverse screen creatives have been able to attend AIDC for the first time and participate in the Leading Lights professional development program. In 2025, SBS is once again sponsoring five positions in the program. For more information read here.
AFTRS Graduate Program
SBS is a host organisation in the AFTRS Graduate Program, a 13-week paid industry internship program for a third year AFTRS student from a historically under-represented background. Alumni of the program include Raquel Cuevas (2022), Alan Dan (2023), and Ashwini Kangatharan (2024). In 2025, SBS is delighted to welcome Tavishek Sharma to the team as he works across Eurovision and Mastermind.
Screen Producers Australia Practitioner Program (Early Career)
In 2025, SBS is sponsoring six places for early career producers from under-represented background to participate in the year-long Screen Producers Australia Practitioner Program (Early Career). The package includes 12 months of SPA Associate Producer membership, access to masterclasses, networking and training and free access to the Screen Forever Conference in March 2025, Gener8 and more inclusions.
Createability Internship Program
SBS has been a host organisation in the Createability Internship Program for people with disability. This program is a partnership between Create NSW and Accessible Arts and a range of NSW based arts/culture/screen organisations, with the purpose of developing more pathways for people with disability to have successful careers in these areas. In 2025, SBS will continue its fourth year of participation in the program, welcoming a new Createability intern to work as a Diversity & Inclusion Coordinator in the TV and Online Content Division. For more information read here.
SBS SCRIPTED
At SBS Scripted we want to hear pitches for TV series that thrill us.
We are looking for great stories, brilliantly told. Stories that are entertaining, culture defining, fresh and unique. Stories that our audiences will love, binge and want to tell their friends about.
Our shows have new types of heroes. Hero’s that represent Australia as the home to the world’s oldest living continuous culture and richly diverse and multicultural country that we are. Stories that reflect the SBS Charter which is key to all we do.
Bring us a show we have not seen before.
Bring us a show from exciting writing talent that has a fresh point of view.
Bring us a show that will make its mark on the zeitgeist, both here in Australia and around the world.
Bring us a show that is brilliantly crafted; a show that has characters that audiences will fall in love with; a show with a propulsive narrative that starts with a bang and keeps audiences deeply engaged.
We will back new voices, but you need to prove to us you have the craft and courage to deliver on your idea. We take pitches directly from writers and we can help partner you with a producer if we love your idea.
Our recent Prime Time content includes, Safe Home, While the Men Are Away, Erotic Stories, Swift Street, Four Years Later, Safe Harbour and True Colours.
Check out our SBS Scripted Pitch Deck here
Contact Us:
And when you are ready, you can pitch to us at: scripted@sbs.com.au
Digital Originals
SBS commissions short form scripted series through the Digital Originals initiative - a partnership between SBS, NITV and Screen Australia, which aims to develop exciting, innovative and risk-taking short-form drama projects (6 x 10 min) to premiere as a single hour-long episode program on SBS On Demand, SBS VICELAND and NITV, from emerging screen creatives who are currently under-represented in the sector. This includes people who identify as culturally and linguistically diverse, First Nations Australians, people with disability, female and gender diverse, LGBTQIA+; and those who are located in regional and remote areas.
Each year, applications open for projects and a shortlist are selected to take part in an exclusive industry workshop providing an opportunity to work on narrative writing skills and develop their projects to align with the SBS Charter, SBS Commissioning Equity and Inclusion Guidelines, and SBS and NITV platforms –culminating in a pitch to Screen Australia, SBS and NITV. A further shortlist of projects are chosen for further development, and up to three will then be chosen for production funding and commissioning with SBS, NITV and Screen Australia.
Series commissioned through the Digital Originals initiative include Night Bloomers (2023), Appetite (2023), Latecomers (2022), A Beginner’s Guide to Grief (2022), Iggy and Ace (2021), and The Tailings (2021).
Digital Originals is an evolution of SBS’s Short-Form Content Initiative which funded original projects including the critically acclaimed Robbie Hood (2019) and Homecoming Queens (2018).
NITV
National Indigenous Television (NITV) supports career pathways focused on the development of First Nations creatives. Find out more about NITV commissioning here.
NITV also partners with SBS on initiatives including Digital Originals (see above).
NIDA Pathways with SBS and NITV
In 2025, SBS and NITV launched a new three-year partnership with the National Institute of Dramatic Art to create structured industry pathways for emerging creatives. The NIDA Pathways with SBS and NITV initiative provides students, particularly those from under-represented backgrounds, with direct access to industry expertise, mentorship and real-world experience.
The partnership delivers a range of opportunities each year, including a creative pitch workshop led by the SBS Scripted and NITV teams, with one student selected to join an SBS writers’ room; a First Nations production placement program offering culturally safe, on-set experience; and an annual industry talk exploring key skills such as pitching, leveraging qualifications, and creating internationally resonant content. The initiative also includes networking events designed to connect students with working professionals and deepen their industry knowledge.
This partnership reflects a shared commitment between SBS, NITV and NIDA to foster a more inclusive and representative screen sector, and to support the next generation of creative talent to thrive.
SBS PODCASTS
Since the launch of the network's first podcast in 2008, SBS has continued to grow its podcast collection and currently produces podcasts in more than 60 languages. As Australia’s multicultural and Indigenous broadcaster, SBS is committed to ensuring all Australians hear their stories reflected and on demand audio is a key opportunity to showcase this.
In 2021, SBS called out for Australian podcasters to submit ideas showcasing originality and diverse storytelling, for the opportunity to be a part of SBS's distinctive multilingual podcast offering across news, information and entertainment. Series commissioned through this call out have led to the creation of award-winning series like Should You Really Eat That?, The Idiom, Bad Taste and My Bilingual Family.
Following on from this success, SBS once again called out for submissions in August 2022, seeking more podcasts telling diverse stories and share new ideas.