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The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is one of two government funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television networks, the other being the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The stated purpose of the SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia's multicultural society" (SBS FAQ).

History

The SBS originates from two "Ethnic Radio" stations, 2EA in Sydney and 3EA in Melbourne, which started broadcasting in 1975 in respectively 7 and 8 ethnic languages and which initially were only meant to be temporary, to explain the new "Medibank" to ethnic communities, which, it was thought, required details in their own languages. The legislation founding the Special Broadcasting Service came into force on 1st January 1978 and now (2006) SBS Radio is broadcast in all states of the Australian Commonwealth in 68 languages and has a National Program as well as two local radio channels (1 FM and 1 AM) in Sydney and Melbourne.

SBS began test transmissions in April 1979 when it showed various ethnic programs on ABV-2 Melbourne and ABN-2 Sydney on Sunday mornings. Full-time transmission began at 6.30pm on 24 October, 1980 (United Nations Day) as Channel 0/28. At the time SBS was broadcasting on UHF Channel 28 and VHF Channel 0. Bruce Gyngell, who introduced television to Australia back in 1956 was given the task of introducing the first batch of programs on the new station.

On 16 October, 1983 the service expanded into Canberra, Cooma, and Goulburn and at the same time changed its name to Network 0-28. Its new slogan was the long-running "Bringing the World Back Home".

On 18 February, 1985 the station changed its name to SBS and began daytime transmissions. In June SBS expanded to Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle, Wollongong and the Gold Coast.

On 5 January, 1986 SBS ceased broadcasting on the VHF0 frequency. The reason being that it was only there so people could have time to convert over to UHF.

SBS TV started as a non-commercial television channel but as of 1991 has begun accepting and broadcasting television advertisements (a controversial move at the time). It is notable, however, that advertisements are generally shown between programs; the network shows most its programs uninterrupted by "commercial breaks" (there are plans to introduce such breaks in the near future though). Exceptions include the Eurovision Song Contest, live coverage of the 2005 Tour de France and their extended Sunday football program, The World Game.

Services and divisions

The radio division broadcasts in 68 languages in all states of the Commonwealth. A large percentage of its TV programming is broadcasts of TV news programs from foreign countries (primarily not in English, but subtitled in it). It also shows many films in languages other than English (subtitled in it). Its own news and current affairs programs have a higher concentration on international affairs than the ABC or the commercial networks, and carries less "soft" news. It also broadcasts many current affairs documentaries, and its sports coverage tends to focus on international sports, primarily football (soccer) and cycling (especially the Tour de France).

SBS is also one of the world's largest subtitler organisations. It produces subtitles for foreign film and documentary producers around the world and not just for films to be shown on its own SBS screenings. The subtitling services includes from English to other languages, foreign language to other language, as well as to English.

Programming

SBS runs several imported drama and comedy series, including shows produced in languages other than English as well as notably risqué material that would not be shown on other broadcast networks in Australia - for instance, South Park, or Queer as Folk. It also screens a broad selection of films from around the world, including everything from French arthouse material to Hong Kong soft-core "erotica". The relatively relaxed attitude to sexuality on SBS gave it the nickname "Sex Before Sleep", or, combined with its soccer focus, "Sex and bloody Soccer", "Sex, Boobs, (and) Soccer" and "Sex Between Soccer". SBS's late-night programming is generally (and often humorously) acknowledged to be more risqué than that of other Australian television stations. Programming earlier in the day - including shows such as Global Village - displays the more traditional aspect of SBS by featuring material from around the world.

It recently began producing its own local comedy series (of which Pizza, Life Support and John Safran's series, and reality television series, Nerds FC are examples), characterised by obviously tiny budgets and the preparedness to push the boundaries of acceptable television humour - and, according to some, with considerable success. It is also popular with niche groups such as anime fans for showing Neon Genesis Evangelion, Samurai Champloo and the Studio Ghibli movies, as well as several cult movies.

One SBS institution was The Movie Show, a movie review show something in the vein of Siskel and Ebert in the United States (but actually predating it). The two presenters of the show, David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz, "defected" to the ABC in April 2004 to host a new program called At the Movies. The Movie Show continued with four new hosts - Megan Spencer, Jaimie Leonarder, Fenella Kernebone and Marc Fennell. However, much of its audience also defected to the ABC's new programme, and ratings declined. The final episode of The Movie Show aired in June 2006, after the show was axed.

Dadi, the Turkish version of the American sitcom The Nanny is shown late nights on SBS, as are numerous sitcoms, soap operas, drama series and movies from the non-English speaking world, including Mexican and Brazilian telenovelas, Bollywood movies, etc. Such programming is subtitled in English.

SBS News & Current Affairs

SBS's has a range of Australian news and current affairs programs that also stream content online.

It also broadcasts foreign language news on its second digital channel, SBS World News Channel. This second channel is sometimes also used to provide additional information, highlights, etc, of programmes on the main channel, such as the FIFA World Cup.

In late 2003, SBS announced that as part of its World Watch foreign news transmission service, it would be screening a news programme in Vietnamese, produced by VTV4, a channel produced the Vietnamese government. Some members of the Australian Vietnamese community protested, claiming the programme was nothing more than communist propaganda, despite the fact that many other Worldwatch programs were also subject to the editorial whims of foreign governments. Others believed any insight into current events in their home country was better than none. After large protests, with around 4000 protestors present outside the Artarmon, Sydney, headquarters, the program was suspended. SBS also began screening disclaimers before all internationally-sourced news broadcasts, distancing itself from any editorial opinions presented in the programs, in the hope of avoiding a repeat of such protests.

Sport on SBS

In previous years, sport shown on SBS has been limited to cycling, soccer and a number of other lesser promoted sports. The FIFA World Cup has been broadcast every four years since 1982. However in recent times, SBS has also aired other sporting events including some of the 2004 Athens Olympics, the complete 2005 Ashes test series (Cricket) and the NFL's Super Bowl. The 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup's will be shown on SBS, even with Fox Sports getting a deal to show most of the Socceroos international matches and more international football.

Production notes

SBS has been one of the most progressive networks in regard to digital television, in part due to multi-channel restrictions on the commercial networks. Its second channel, SBS World News Channel, primarily shows foreign language news broadcasts. It also has an electronic program guide (EPG) channel which rotates upcoming program schedules, news headlines and weather information.

SBS uses subtitles in preference to dubbing. These do not interfere with the natural sounds of a movie, so viewers who understand the language can watch with ease. Subtitles are used on non-English speaking movies and shows. The subtitles usually consist of bold yellow text with a tint of a thin black border on a transparent background, positioned at the bottom centre of the television screen. This gives the best text legibility on the screen to viewers.

In addition to presenting material in its original language, SBS presents material in its original aspect ratio whenever possible, instead of cutting off the sides of the image and "zooming in" to 4:3 (or with the advent of digital television, 16:9), as is common on the commercial networks. Thus, many programs appear with black bars above and below the picture, allowing the viewer to experience the full wide-screen shot as intended. The image is also often shifted up slightly to allow the subtitles to be displayed without overlapping the picture.

It is also noted that SBS presents material in its original frame rate whenever possible, instead of speeding up to 4.17% (typical of PAL system).

SBS and Seven came to an agreement to share the broadcasting of the 2004 Olympic Games in Australia, and SBS secured the rights to the 2004 Paralympics, screened in previous years on the ABC.

SBS's callsign is always SBS no matter where the license area is. SBS in the capital cities broadcasts analog television on UHF channel 28 and digital television on various frequencies.

Language Services

Given SBS's multicultural expertise, has branched its operations to also include language services such as translating, subtitling, typesetting and voiceovers.

In-show advertising breaks

On June 1, 2006, the SBS managing director Shaun Brown announced the corporation's desire to initiate in-show ad breaks. He claimed that the move would raise $10 million in the first year, as he believes that SBS's current strategy of showing ads in the middle of programs is unpopular with viewers. "On average we lose more than half our audience during these breaks - this is 30 per cent more than other broadcasters", claimed Brown upon announcing the new move.

SBS's ad breaks will remain at their existing cap of five minutes per hour, as opposed to the fifteen minutes per hour permitted on Australia's fully commercial stations. A related change will be the launch of a new one-hour nightly bulletin, consolidating the existing World News Australia and World Sport programs.

Other information

The network provides a rehearsal venue for the SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra, an orchestra which records many broadcasts for the network and regularly tours overseas. For more information, visit SBSYO Website

See also

References

External links


Australian radio networks | Australian television networks | Special Broadcasting Service

Special Broadcasting Service | Speciala Dissenda Servo | Special Broadcasting Service

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Special Broadcasting Service".

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