On Wednesday (26/11/11) the government voted in favour of a motion, tabled by Senator Scott Ludlum, communications spokesperson for the Greens, reiterating the value of SBS to Australian society. He also gave notice of a private bill, aimed at removing commercial breaks during programs on SBS television.

The Special Broadcasting Service Amendment (Natural Program Breaks and Disruptive Advertising) Bill 2012 will be tabled next year.

Save Our SBS President, Steve Aujard said “We fully support the recognition of SBS with legislation to curtail advertising.

“For over a decade now, SBS has suffered from the effects of chronic underfunding by successive governments. Advertising breaks during programs were introduced five years ago to make up the short fall, a decision we believe goes against the spirit of independent public broadcasting.

“The commercialisation of SBS five years ago has been a disaster. Its rate of growth from television ads has been in decline since 2008 and negative since 2010. Viewers dislike the breaks in programs and Hansard clearly shows the legislators never intended ads in programs anyway. SBS is a special broadcaster.

“Save Our SBS hopes Senator Ludlam’s bill will be an excellent opportunity to resolve the funding shortfall and diminish the effects of advertising on program quality.

“SBS was the world’s first multicultural broadcaster; the commercialisation of the past five years has brought the organisation to a crossroad. If government fails to recognise the need for appropriate public funding in next years triennial budget, there will be an irredeemable slide away from its historical mandate towards implacable commercialism.”

Save Our SBS has been campaigning for a phasing out of advertising on SBS since 2007 and a significant increase in public funding.

Mr Aujard accused the Labor and Liberal parties of showing little regard towards SBS.

“Despite more than 12,000 emails sent to leaders of all parties from visitors to the SaveOurSBS.org website in the past few weeks, pleading for a promise to increase funding for SBS to free it from advertising, neither Labor nor Liberal are interested”, Mr Aujard said.

“Beyond a few nice words of support and a warm fuzzy glow, Labor is offering little for SBS. Its only forward policy is to enshrine into legislation a transparent system of appointments to the SBS Board – something the Opposition had objected to. However in government, Labor failed to act on their existing policy of opposing the decision by SBS to introduce in-program advertising. The electorate have not forgotten.

“By comparison the Liberals and Nationals don’t even have an SBS policy but unconfirmed reports are that the Liberals may slash SBS funding in favour of the further commercialisation of SBS followed by a sell-off. That would be a tragedy for public broadcasting in general and multicultural broadcasting in particular”, Mr Aujard said.

“If the Charter were watered down and advertising restrictions de-regulated, a partial or total sale would generate billions. It would be the end of multicultural broadcasting.

“We would like the Liberal party to state their position but so far they have refused to do so despite our written invitation. Aside from prior contact we are somewhat surprised at their refusal to engage now. They are fully aware of us, our submissions to government and that SaveOurSBS.org has been mentioned a number of times in the parliament.

Mr Aujard said that although SBS was already budgeted until mid 2012, voters wanted to be told now that government would increase base funding for SBS after that date. “SBS needs a massive injection of funds so it can expand its television and Internet services in particular and be free of advertising. It’s ironical that although Labor has committed $43 billion for broadband rollout, it can’t commit a single cent to help SBS develop its Internet service. A tiny fraction of the $43 billion would more than cover all the things SBS so desperately needs to expand and be free of advertising.

“To date, it is only the Greens that have issued a promise that would increase funding for SBS so it could expand and be free of advertising backed up with legislation as per a Bill they already have in the Senate”.

Speaking about the Election promises for SBS Mr Aujard said, “It’s a national disgrace that although Australia produced the world’s first multicultural broadcaster, our political leaders are now no longer proud to fund the organisation adequately, leaving SBS to run off the smell of an oily rag”.

For more information see Election promises for SBS at http://saveoursbs.org/archives/1396

Save Our SBS www.SaveOurSBS.org congratulates SBS-TWO on its prime time* TV schedule. It goes more than half way in serving Australians whose native tongue is not English.

For the week ending Friday 5 June 2009 the schedule, as published on the SBS website, indicates that well over half of the prime time programs on the SBS second channel are in LOTE (languages other than English).

Save Our SBS spokesperson Darce Cassidy said “This would be good news, but the problem is that most Australians can’t receive SBS-TWO, which is only available in digital transmission. According to OZTAM figures for March of this year only 43.4 percent of households can receive digital television.”

“Meanwhile the main SBS TV channel, SBS-ONE, condemns programs in LOTE to minority status in prime time. Less than one fifth of prime time TV on SBS-ONE is in LOTE”.

“According to the SBS Act: “The principal function of SBS is to provide multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia’s multicultural society.”

“In effect, the second channel is second best, and the people who would be most inclined to watch it have been treated as second class citizens.”

“If the SBS were serious about its commitment to its Charter it would put the SBS-TWO schedule on the SBS-ONE transmitters, and vice versa.”

“Both SBS channels continue interrupt programs for advertisements.”

* The official regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, defines prime time television as the hours between six and ten-thirty p.m.

For further information and comment:
CONTACT: Darce Cassidy 03 9005 8660 or 0412 685 178
WEB: www.SaveOurSBS.org
EMAIL: Spokesperson@SaveOurSBS.org

Save Our SBS Inc

Save Our SBS spokesperson Darce Cassidy said “The government has made the first move.  It is now time for the SBS to listen to the government, and, more importantly, to its viewers.  Both the viewers and the government want the SBS to stop interrupting programs with advertisements.”

“It is time for the SBS Board to put the “special” back into SBS television, to return the SBS to its multicultural Charter.  Programs in English dominate prime time television.  Indeed on some nights there are no programs in languages other than English in prime time.”

“As a first step the SBS should immediately cease interrupting programs for commercials.  In the longer term the SBS should be required to operate on the same basis as the ABC, without advertisements of any kind.  The prohibition of advertising should be accompanied by a substantial funding increase to bring the SBS budget to half that of the ABC”.

Further information:  Darce Cassidy 03 9005 8660 or 0412 685 178
 

The statement, headed “The SBS Must Be Special” was prepared by Save Our SBS (www.SaveOurSBS.org). In addition to Mr Fraser it has been endorsed by the following:

Ethnic Community Leaders:
Professor Mary Kalantzis
Dr Heinrich Stefanik, OAM, former Secretary, Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia
George Zangalis, President, National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters Council, former Board member, SBS

Literature and the Arts:
Dr June Factor
Professor Raimond Gaita
Professor K.S. Inglis
Patricia Lovell
Siobhan McHugh
Bruce Petty
Judith Rodriquez A.M.
Stephen Sewell

Law:
Professor A.R. Blackshield
Julian Burnside Q.C.

Save Our SBS is currently undertaking qualitative research about SBS and advertising in a one minute survey at www.SaveOurSBS.org where the statement referred to may be read.

STATEMENT DIRECT URL http://saveoursbs.org/archives/318

For further information contact:
Darce Cassidy,
Secretary,
Save Our SBS Inc
phone 0412 685 178
email Spokesperson@SaveOurSBS.org 

The Special Broadcasting Service was established by the Fraser coalition government, building on the creation of the publicly funded multi-lingual radio stations 2EA and 3EA by the Whitlam government. ‘EA’ stood for Ethnic Australia.

Concrete government support for multiculturalism was a bi-partisan issue in the mid-seventies, but recently the special nature of the SBS has been under threat.

Since the introduction of sponsorship and advertising to SBS-TV in the 1990s the service has steadily become more generalist and less specialist and multicultural. While SBS radio has remained a specialist multilingual network, SBS-TV is in danger of losing its way. English language lesson programs, greatly valued by new arrivals, have been phased out of the TV schedule.

Ethnic communities are concerned. Both the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council (FECCA) and the National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters Council (NEMBC) have spoken out.

As the SBS Board and management have sought to increase audience share, languages other than English (LOTE) have been pushed out of prime time. Coverage of community events and customs on SBS-TV has declined. Meanwhile big money is going into a locally produced motoring program. The general is overtaking the special. Mainstream is replacing multicultural. Not only is SBS-TV becoming less special, but it is also losing sight of the original idea of the service. The SBS should focus on the special needs of viewers, rather than on selling consumers to advertisers.

Since late 2006 SBS-TV has been interrupting programs of all kinds for advertisements by forcing breaks into programs.

The Special Broadcasting Service was never intended to be like other broadcasters and was certainly not created to mimic the look of the commercial networks. The SBS is a taxpayer funded public service broadcaster and should, as its creators intended, be both special and committed to serving its audience.

The above statement was prepared by Save Our SBS Inc, and has been endorsed by the following:

Professor A.R. Blackshield; Julian Burnside QC; Dr June Factor; Malcolm Fraser, PC, AC, CH; Professor Raimond Gaita; Professor K.S. Inglis; Professor Mary Kalantzis; Patricia Lovell; Siobhan McHugh; Bruce Petty; Judith Rodriguez AM; Stephen Sewell; Dr Heinrich Stefanik O.A.M.; George Zangalis

www.SaveOurSBS.org
 

Spoiling the ship for a ha’porth of tar MEDIA RELEASE