Under the SBS Act, SBS can raise revenue by broadcasting advertisements and sponsorship announcements. The SBS Act provides that SBS may broadcast advertisements and sponsorship announcements that run in total for not more than five minutes in any hour of broadcasting. They can only be broadcast before or after programs and during natural breaks. This provides a valuable source of revenue for SBS, allowing more funds to be channelled towards program making.
How many ads can be shown in an hour?
Five minutes of advertisements and sponsorship announcements are permitted in any hour of broadcasting.
When can you broadcast ads and sponsorship announcements?
Advertisements and sponsorship announcements can be broadcast before or after programs and during natural program break.
Does advertising influence program content?
All decisions regarding revenue are subject to the overriding principle that the independence and integrity of SBS is paramount and shall not be compromised in any way. This principle is set out in the SBS Codes of Practice.
What happens to the revenue raised from advertising?
Revenue raised from advertising is invested in quality content, including Australian content.
Why do you show so many station IDs and program promotions?
SBS wishes to attract the biggest possible audience and one way to do this is to alert viewers of forthcoming programs. Not all viewers have access to TV guides, and short promos of the following program or future programs are an effective method to raise viewer awareness of the SBS schedule. The brief station IDs help maintain SBS's on-air image and reinforce the Seven Billion Stories and counting branding. An untold story: First Australians was produced by Aboriginal filmmakers over more than six years. Director/writer/producer Rachel Perkins says: "One of the greatest challenges we came across was finding Indigenous individuals who were documented in some kind of dimension in the records. Mostly we are known as natives, blacks, savages and at best Aboriginals or Islanders. Because of our oral tradition, Aboriginal people didn't really start writing until the 1940s. The bulk of the written record is therefore from non-Indigenous Australians."
