Special Broadcasting Service
| File:SBS logo.svg Logo used since May 2008 | |
| Company type | Public broadcaster |
|---|---|
| Industry | Broadcasting, Media |
| Founded | June 9, 1975 |
| Headquarters | Sydney , Australia |
Area served | Australia |
Key people | Michael Ebeid (former managing director) |
| Products | Television channels, Radio networks, Streaming platform |
| Owner | Australian Government |
| Website | www |
The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian public broadcaster funded through a hybrid model, with approximately 80 percent of its budget coming from government tax revenue. SBS manages six television channels (SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World Movies, SBS Food, NITV, and SBS WorldWatch) alongside seven radio networks (SBS Radios 1, 2, and 3, Arabic24, SBS Chill, SBS South Asian, and SBS PopAsia). Additionally, it provides the SBS On Demand streaming platform for video content.
The core purpose of SBS is to deliver radio and television programming in multiple languages that both inform and entertain Australians while mirroring the nation's diverse multicultural population. It ranks among the five principal free-to-air broadcasters in Australia.
Founded initially as a radio service in 1975, SBS commenced dedicated television broadcasts in 1980. Advertising within programs was introduced in 2006, with commercial breaks capped at five minutes per hour. Among its imported programs, South Park stands out as its most popular series.
History
In response to post-World War II immigration patterns and the abolition of the White Australia Policy, the Australian government identified a need for broadcasting services catering to ethnic minorities through non-English language content. Prior to 1970, foreign language broadcasts were restricted to just 2.5 hours weekly. On 9 June 1975, Immigration Minister Al Grassby launched two pilot radio stations—2EA in Sydney and 3EA in Melbourne (with EA representing "Ethnic Australia")—to promote multicultural social policies under the Whitlam government among ethnic communities. The Fraser administration established advisory committees on ethnic broadcasting during 1976–77 and initially considered assigning the ABC responsibility for ethnic programming but eventually abandoned this idea.
SBS was formally created as an autonomous statutory authority in October 1977 through amendments to the Broadcasting Act 1942 and officially began operations on 1 January 1978. Founding Chair Grisha Sklovsky and executive director Ronald Fowell managed the initial radio network overseeing stations 2EA and 3EA. Plans for expanding services met resistance from commercial TV interests favoring ABC control.
By March 1979, recommendations supported extending multilingual services into television broadcasting. Test transmissions started in April 1979 on ABV-2 Melbourne and ABN-2 Sydney featuring foreign language programs. Full-time TV broadcasts commenced on 24 October 1980 on UHF Channel 28 and VHF Channel 0, debuting with the documentary Who Are We?. Bruce Gyngell introduced the first programming lineup.
Initially, content primarily consisted of imported programs from countries representing Australia's migrant populations, accompanied by English subtitles. In late 1983, SBS broadened its reach to Canberra, Cooma, and Goulburn and rebranded as Network 0–28 with the tagline "Bringing the World Back Home." The network shortened its name to SBS in February 1985 while expanding daytime transmission hours and extending coverage to Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle, Wollongong, and Gold Coast.
On 5 January 1986, broadcasts on VHF Channel 0 were discontinued due to antenna compatibility problems despite a licence renewal. The government proposed merging SBS into ABC in August 1986; however, strong opposition from ethnic communities and SBS staff led Prime Minister Bob Hawke to abandon this proposal in 1987. The SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra was launched in 1988 under conductor Matthew Krel.
Legislation passed in July 1989 permitted limited commercial sponsorship of programs and established SBS as an independent corporation governed by its own charter. That year saw the debut of Eat Carpet, a program showcasing local and international short films. The Special Broadcasting Service Act of 1991 formally incorporated SBS. During the early 1990s, SBS TV extended its coverage to regional locations such as Latrobe Valley, Spencer Gulf, Darwin, northeast Tasmania, Cairns, and Townsville.
In 1992, SBS centralized its radio and television operations at new facilities in Artarmon; previously radio services were divided between Bondi Junction and Milsons Point. Officially opened by Prime Minister Paul Keating in November 1993, a national radio network launched in January 1994 covering Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and Darwin. Original stations were renamed Radio Sydney and Radio Melbourne; by mid-year a separate frequency for national programming was added in Sydney and Melbourne. Radio expanded into Hobart and Canberra by 1996 while TV coverage grew to include New South Wales North Coast and Albury.
The most successful imported series on SBS was Comedy Central's South Park, first broadcast in 1997. A time-delay system for South Australia was installed in May 1999 along with creation of a Transmission Services division responsible for broadcast infrastructure management. A New Media division was established early in 2000 to oversee the SBS website and webcasting events such as the Australian Film Institute Awards. Audience share steadily increased through 2000–2001 reaching an average weekly share of 5.2%.
In April 2003, SBS Radio revised its language lineup—dropping Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, and Belarusian while introducing Amharic, Nepalese, Malay, and Somali—and expanded Cantonese, Mandarin, and Arabic broadcast hours. In partnership with Seven Network, SBS covered the Athens Olympics live in 2004 and broadcast Euro 2008 from Austria-Switzerland. Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Arabic were added to the WorldWatch TV schedule in 2003; however, following community concerns over Vietnamese content sourced from Vietnam Television, SBS removed that bulletin and added disclaimers regarding externally produced material.
In May 2008, SBS introduced a new logo along with the slogan "Six Billion Stories and counting." On 8 May 2012 it received $158 million in government funding including $15 million annually designated for launching a free-to-air channel dedicated to Indigenous Australians—replacing National Indigenous Television (NITV) on 12 December that year with most staff transferring across.
SBS publicly endorsed same-sex marriage legislation; it withdrew an anti-same-sex marriage advertisement prior to broadcasting the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras event in 2015. Then-managing director Michael Ebeid defended this position.
The food-centric channel SBS Food Network launched on 17 November 2015 (renamed SBS Food in November 2018). In June 2016 it was announced that SBS 2 would be rebranded as SBS Viceland featuring content from Vice Media starting November that year.
On 1 July 2019 World Movies was relaunched as a free-to-air channel under the branding SBS World Movies.
In January 2022 SBS announced plans for a sixth free-to-air channel—SBS WorldWatch—to consolidate all foreign-language news bulletins previously aired on SBS and Viceland alongside newly produced Arabic and Mandarin news broadcasts scheduled for prime time. These bulletins became available on SBS On Demand on 15 February; the channel officially launched on 23 May.[1][2]
Television
Throughout Australia, SBS television consistently operates under the callsign "SBS." On 14 December 2006, SBS declared a transition in its high-definition broadcast format for SBS HD, moving from previously downscaled 576p content to native 720p. This upgrade was further enhanced on 5 June 2012 when SBS elevated its HD transmission to 1080i quality.
| LCN | Service | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | SBS | Main SBS programming broadcast in 576i Standard Definition; formerly known as SBS ONE. The original analogue channel was simulcast until the final ASO. |
| 30 | SBS HD | 1080i high-definition simulcast of the primary SBS channel. |
| 31 | SBS Viceland HD | Aimed at younger viewers; previously called SBS TWO. Available exclusively in 1080i HD. |
| 32 | SBS World Movies | Channel dedicated to Australian and international cinema; broadcast solely in 1080i HD. |
| 33 | SBS Food | Focuses on culinary and cooking content; formerly SBS Food Network. Broadcast in 576i Standard Definition only. |
| 34 | NITV HD | The main National Indigenous Television channel provided in 1080i HD. |
| 35 | SBS WorldWatch | Free-to-air multilingual news channel offering local bulletins in over 30 languages, including Mandarin and Arabic; available in 576i SD. |
| 36 | NITV | National Indigenous Television main channel broadcast in 576i Standard Definition. |
On 1 June 2006, SBS managing director Shaun Brown revealed intentions to introduce commercial breaks within programs, targeting an additional $10 million revenue during the first year by enhancing viewer engagement compared to ads placed between shows. Despite this adjustment, SBS upheld a regulated advertising cap of five minutes per hour—considerably lower than the fifteen-minute allowance on fully commercial Australian broadcasters—with individual breaks lasting between one and two minutes.
This initiative coincided with launching a one-hour edition of SBS World News at 6:30 pm, replacing the earlier half-hour segments titled World News Australia and World Sport. The first instance of in-program advertising occurred on 9 October 2006 during the 7:30 pm airing of MythBusters.
Previous SBS television offerings included SBS Essential (LCN 31), which focused on sports and digital-exclusive content, as well as SBS World News Channel (LCN 32), a service dedicated to international news coverage.
Subscription channels
In October 1995, SBS launched its subscription television service with the debut of World Movies, a channel specializing in independent films from around the globe. Although this channel ceased operations on 31 January 2018, it was reintroduced as a free-to-air service on 1 July 2019. In April 2010, SBS rolled out Studio (formerly STVDIO), concentrating on arts-related programming including music, literature, film, and dance. Studio discontinued broadcasting on 27 March 2015 and was succeeded by Foxtel Arts.
Radio
SBS Radio delivers programming in 74 languages throughout Australia, generating roughly 13,500 hours of content for Sydney and Melbourne frequencies as well as its national network. Its funding sources include government grants, paid governmental campaigns, and commercial advertisements. SBS Radio has covered significant events such as the UEFA Euro 2008 tournament.
Following community input in 2003, SBS expanded its language offerings to incorporate Malay, Somali, and Amharic among others. A comprehensive schedule revision in April 2013 aimed to reflect Australia's changing demographic landscape by adding six new languages: Malayalam, Dinka, Hmong, Pashto, Swahili, and Tigrinya—raising the total number of languages from 68 to 74.
In November 2012, SBS introduced Radio Data System (RDS) functionality in Melbourne and Sydney, allowing listeners to identify SBS Radio through the "SBSRadio" label and scrolling text on compatible FM receivers. Program information such as NOW and NEXT was progressively integrated between 2012 and 2013 across FM RDS and Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB+), also incorporated into free-to-air Terrestrial Digital Television (DTV) guides and devices like TiVo and TBox.
The launch of a rolling fourteen-day radio schedule over DTV in November 2012 enables users to view upcoming programs, record broadcasts, or set reminders with automatic adjustments for daylight saving time changes.
Following the Language Services Review conducted in 2021, SBS reintroduced updated and new language programming in November 2022.
| Service | Details | |
|---|---|---|
| Analogue with digital simulcast |
SBS Radio 1 | Primarily broadcasts on VHF band II; programming varies regionally but generally mirrors a selected city’s SBS service. |
| SBS Radio 2 | Mainly transmitted on Medium Frequency (MF). | |
| Digital only | SBS Radio 3 | Launched in April 2013; features BBC World Service content along with special event coverage such as the FIFA World Cup 2014. |
| SBS Chill | "Offers soothing music selections designed to provide relaxation from daily stress." | |
| SBS Arabic24 | Provides continuous Arabic-language programming around the clock. | |
| SBS PopAsia | Broadcasts Asian pop music including Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean tracks and more. | |
| SBS South Asian | Features Bollywood hits, Bhangra, Desi pop music alongside South Asian news and talk shows. |
On demand
SBS operates a video on demand and catch-up television service known as SBS on Demand. In April 2016, the network introduced "SBS On Demand VR," which was subsequently rebranded as "SBS VR," broadening its range of digital content.
Multilingual services
Since 1975, SBS has delivered multilingual services encompassing certified translations, typesetting, voiceover work, subtitling, and video production across more than 68 languages for medium to large-scale private and governmental organisations.
SBS independent
From August 1994 until December 2007, SBS independent (SBSi) served as the main production division for SBS programming before merging with the SBS Content and Online Division.
Youth orchestra
Established in 1988 by Matthew Krel, the SBS Youth Orchestra was regarded as one of Australia's leading youth orchestras until it ceased operations in 2013.
SBS Sexuality
An online platform dedicated to celebrating the diverse expressions of sexuality within Australia's multicultural population.
Film distribution
Following early film distribution activities in the 1990s, SBS relaunched its film distribution arm in 2014 under the name SBS Movies. Collaborating with home video distributor Madman Entertainment, they released titles such as the 2016 American film Hell or High Water across Oceania.
Board
- Chair
- Grisha Sklovsky AM (1978–1981)
- Sir Nicholas Shehadie AC OBE (1981–1999)
- Carla Zampatti AC (1999–2009)
- Joseph Skrzynski AO (2009–2014)
- Nihal Gupta (2014–2016)
- Bulent Hass Dellal AO (2017–2020)
- George Savvides AM (2020–present)
- Managing director
- Ron Fowell (1978–1985)
- Ron Brown (1985–1987)
- Brian Johns (1987–1992)
- Malcolm Long (1992–1997)
- Nigel Milan (1997–2005)
- Shaun Brown (2005–2011)
- Michael Ebeid (2011–2018)
- James Taylor (2018–present)
- Current board members
- George Savvides, Chair
- Christine Zeitz, Deputy Chair
- James Taylor, Managing Director
- Vic Alhadeff
- Aaron Fa'Aoso
- Peeyush Gupta
- Andrew Lu
- Katrina Rathie
- Cassandra Wilkinson
See also
External links
- Articles with short description
- Pages with broken file links
- Special Broadcasting Service
- Public television in Australia
- Television broadcasting companies of Australia
- Radio broadcasting companies of Australia
- Multilingual broadcasters
- Mass media companies established in 1975
- Mass media companies established in 1978
- Television channels and stations established in 1978
- 1975 establishments in Australia
- 1978 establishments in Australia
- Commonwealth Government agencies of Australia
- Publicly funded English language broadcasters
- Pages with script errors