One of the great things about our country is that we are inclusive, ever changing and culturally dynamic. SBS is an important part of that success story.
We reflect the changing face of Australia through insights and links we’ve built with our diverse communities over 40 years, and help Australians understand each other and the world better. We do this through great Australian services and programs.
Other countries envy SBS’s contribution to cohesive multiculturalism. That Australia chooses to publicly fund SBS is testimony to our democracy’s health. But we also need to be financially sustainable, to evolve in a fast-changing media market and invest in new digital services.
My priority is a strong and enduring SBS. I’m also a pragmatist. In an environment where public broadcasting has been significantly cut, and SBS is already lean, we need to recoup some of the lost funding to continue providing the services we do.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s legislative amendment would allow SBS to average advertising minutes to a maximum of 10 minutes an hour instead of five minutes an hour but, importantly, retain a daily limit of 120 minutes of advertising (commercial broadcasters have 350 minutes).
What this legislation gives us is the flexibility to be responsive to commercial opportunities where we can and should. It’s false to claim we want to, or can, advertise 10 minutes in each and every prime-time hour given schedule demands and our specialised content.
Advertising is not a new concept to SBS. A third of our funding comes from commercial revenue and we’re not a profitmaking organisation. The SBS Charter is at our heart and every dollar goes back into making programs. We have no shareholders to whom a dividend is owed.
In 2014, SBS’s metropolitan free-to-air share was 5.4 per cent and we engage with 12.5 million Australians each month. Our television advertising revenue is less than 2 per cent of the $3.8 billion television advertising market.
We estimate the amendment could earn us an extra $28 million over four years. We are by no means assured of this revenue as it still needs to be earned by attracting advertisers to content which can be challenging to sell in a very competitive market. This incremental revenue is a tiny fraction, less than 0.3 per cent, of the free-to-air television market.
It’s baffling to see opponents label this proposal as the onset of SBS becoming the fourth commercial television network. I’d be the first person to crow about SBS programming, but let’s get real here — SBS is one of many players in a highly competitive market with a special purpose that speaks to particular audiences and advertisers.
While all the raucous opposition is a much appreciated endorsement of SBS, it is also much ado about nothing. To think that SBS can walk up and take hard-earned revenue from commercial networks and create a seismic shift in the market wildly overstates our influence.
SBS introduced in-program advertising in 2006. Since then, Google dominates the web, Facebook, Foxtel, FetchTV and Twitter have taken off, and the arrival of on-demand services like Stan, Presto and Netflix has everybody buzzing and engaged like never before.
New players challenge all networks to look forward strategically and adjust their offering. SBS having this small change in advertising flexibility should be the least of anyone’s worries.
SBS’s point of difference is our ability to make programs which speak to diversity — award-winning programs like Go Back to Where You Came From, First Contact, Gourmet Farmer and our other food programming which explores culture through cuisine; Eurovision craziness where we’ve secured Australia a historic competition place this year; and we’ve invested in growing football and cycling for decades, which is increasingly expensive to retain.
Research shows 92 per cent of Australians agree it is important for SBS to provide an alternative to the commercial media. We know our audiences and understand the need to be sensitive in implementing change to ensure we keep their loyalty. But I also believe our audiences would prefer to see SBS invest in distinctive and quality Australian content than cut programs and services.
SBS’s ability to earn commercial revenue is critical to our operating model and sustainability. We’ve been cut by over $53 million and that money is now gone. The fact is that if we lose the $28 million this legislation enables us to claw back, we will be forced to make less of the programs that make us the Special Broadcasting Service.
