Special Broadcasting Service

• 1. Origins And Ethnic Broadcasting

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  On the 9th of June 1975, two experimental radio stations began broadcasting in Sydney and Melbourne. These stations carried the call signs 2EA and 3EA, standing for Ethnic Australia. They emerged from a federal government decision to address post-World War II immigration patterns. The White Australia Policy had ended years earlier, yet laws still restricted foreign language broadcasts to just 2.5 hours per week before that date. Minister for Immigration Al Grassby pushed for these new services to publicize social policy changes to ethnic communities. By January 1978, SBS formally came into existence as an independent statutory authority. Grisha Sklovsky became the inaugural Chair while Ronald Fowell served as executive director. The service initially managed only those two existing stations under a radio network structure.

• 2. Television Expansion And Evolution

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  Full-time transmission began on a new television channel at 6:30 pm on the 24th of October 1980. This date coincided with United Nations Day. The first program shown was a documentary entitled Who Are We? hosted by veteran news presenter Peter Luck. Bruce Gyngell introduced the first batch of programs on the new station after introducing television to Australia in 1956. Test transmissions started in April 1979 showing various foreign language programs on ABV-2 Melbourne and ABN-2 Sydney on Sunday mornings. In February 1985, the network changed its name to simply SBS and soon began daytime transmissions. On the 5th of January 1986, SBS ceased broadcasting on the VHF channel 0 frequency. Many Australians did not have UHF antennas at that time but the VHF licence had been extended by a year.

• 3. Funding Models And Commercialization

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  In-show advertising commenced on the 9th of October 2006 during the broadcast of MythBusters. Shaun Brown announced the corporation's desire to initiate these breaks in June 2006 as managing director. He said the move would raise $10 million in the first year. Commercial breaks remained at their existing statutory limit of five minutes per hour unlike fifteen minutes permitted on fully commercial stations. An individual break lasted between one and two minutes. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from tax revenue. The remaining portion comes from paid-for government information campaigns and commercial advertising. A related change was the launch of a one-hour edition of World News replacing the half-hour World News Australia program.

• 4. Multilingual Services And Language Policy

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  SBS Radio broadcasts in 74 languages across all Australian states. In April 2003, the service dropped four languages including Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, and Belarusian while adding Amharic, Nepalese, Malay, and Somali. Tagalog, Vietnamese and Arabic language broadcasts were added to SBS's WorldWatch television schedule in 2003. The Vietnamese community protested the Vietnamese-language service whose content came from VTV4, Vietnam's government-controlled national broadcaster. They found the portrayal of the communist Vietnamese flag and Ho Chi Minh offensive. This backlash prompted SBS to remove the bulletin from schedule and display disclaimers before all externally produced bulletins. Following the Language Services Review in 2021, SBS re-introduced new programs in revised languages in November 2022.

• 5. Digital Transformation And Streaming Era

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  On the 14th of December 2006, SBS announced its intention to change to 720p as its high-definition transmission standard for SBS HD. On the 5th of June 2012, SBS upgraded its HD format from 720p to 1080i. In April 2016, SBS launched a video on demand application called SBS On Demand VR later renamed SBS VR. A sixth free-to-air television channel with the working title SBS WorldWatch was announced on the 12th of January 2022. The Arabic and Mandarin bulletins launched on the 15th of February 2022 through SBS On Demand while the channel itself launched on the 23rd of May. SBS operates six TV channels including SBS Viceland, SBS World Movies, SBS Food, NITV and SBS WorldWatch alongside seven radio networks.

• 6. Leadership And Corporate Governance

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  The Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991 officially made SBS a corporation in 1991. Grisha Sklovsky served as inaugural Chair from 1978 until 1981. Sir Nicholas Shehadie held the position from 1981 to 1999. Carla Zampatti led from 1999 to 2009 followed by Joseph Skrzynski until 2014. George Savvides currently serves as Chair starting in 2020. Ron Fowell was the first managing director serving from 1978 to 1985. James Taylor has been Managing Director since 2018. The SBS building in Artarmon, New South Wales opened on the 10th of November 1993 by prime minister Paul Keating. Radio services were initially located in Bondi Junction and television services in Milsons Point before moving to the new premises.