SBS TV, sometimes SBS, is a national public television channel in Australia. Launched on 24 October 1980, it is the responsibility of SBS's television division, and is available nationally. As of 2007, SBS TV has a 5.5% audience share.
History
Origins
SBS TV began test transmissions in April 1979 when it showed various foreign language programs on ABV-2 Melbourne and ABN-2 Sydney on Sunday mornings. Full-time transmission began at 6.30 pm 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. The first program shown was a documentary on multiculturalism entitled "Who Are We?" which was hosted, produced and directed by well-known Australian journalist Peter Luck.
1980s to the 1990s
On 14 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. Although many Australians at the time did not have UHF antennas, SBS's VHF license had already been extended by a year at this stage and not all antennas had worked well with the low-frequency Channel 0 either.[1] Following this, on 16 March 1986, SBS TV commenced transmission in Perth and Hobart. Darwin was the last capital city to receive the channel, with a local signal launched on 20 May 1994.
Although, SBS Television commenced transmissions as a non-commercial television network, as of 1991, it began accepting and broadcasting television advertisements (a controversial move at the time) shown between programs.
2000s
The year 2001 saw the introduction of digital terrestrial television in Australia with transmissions available to most of SBS Television's coverage area on 1 January 2001, this was soon followed by the gradual introduction of widescreen programming.[2]
The hosts of The Movie Show, David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz, defected to the ABC in April 2004 to host a new program called At the Movies.[3] The Movie Show continued with four new hosts, which included Megan Spencer, Jaimie Leonarder, Fenella Kernebone and Marc Fennell. The final episode of The Movie Show aired in June 2006, after the show was axed. In 2007, The Movie Show returned with a new interactive ten-minute format, presented by Lisa Hensley and Michael Adams.
On 1 June 2006, the SBS managing director Shaun Brown announced the corporation's desire to initiate in-show commercial 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 between 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.[4]
SBS's commercial breaks remained at their existing statutory limit of five minutes per hour, as opposed to the fifteen minutes per hour permitted on Australia's fully commercial stations. An individual break lasted between one and two minutes. A related change was the launch of a one-hour 6:30 pm edition of World News Australia, replacing the half-hour World News Australia and World Sport programs. In-show advertising commenced on 9 October 2006 during the 7.30 pm broadcast of MythBusters.
On 14 December 2006, the Special Broadcasting Service announced its intention to change to 720p as its high-definition transmission standard for SBS HD.[5] SBS currently upconverts it's schedule to the 576p standard.
Programming
SBS TV is required by charter to meet certain programming obligations.[6] Although it has a strong focus on international news and current affairs, it also presents documentaries and educational programs, drama, comedy, films and sport. SBS TV's drama line-up consists almost entirely of imported content, mostly programs produced in languages other than English, including Inspector Rex, Unit One, Shameless and Big Love. Recent locally-produced programs have included Kick.
Comedy on SBS TV is primarily locally-produced but also includes foreign series such as Skins, South Park, Nighty Night and Queer as Folk. The channel presents flagship comedy shows, which include Pizza, Newstopia, Life Support, John Safran, in addition to reality television series, Nerds FC. As well as this, anime is broadcast, with programs including Neon Genesis Evangelion, Samurai Champloo and the Studio Ghibli movies, as well as several cult movies. Dadı, the Turkish version of the American sitcom The Nanny is shown on SBS TV, as are numerous sitcoms, soap operas, drama series and movies in languages other than English, including Mexican and Brazilian telenovelas and Bollywood movies. Such programming is subtitled in English.
The remainder of SBS TV's schedule consists of lifestyle, music, game and talk shows. These include Iron Chef, RocKwiz, The Movie Show, MythBusters, Top Gear, Global Village, the Eurovision Song Contest. Late at night, when there is no scheduled programming, SBS usually broadcasts a weatherwatch program which shows a weather map of Australia. In late 2005, the program was updated to feature weather information from cities around the world, along with a short clip of selected cities.
News & Current Affairs
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Main article: SBS World News
SBS has a range of news and current affairs programming, including its nightly, national, news service SBS World News, investigative programme Dateline, discussion forum Insight, indigenous affairs program Living Black, in addition to its morning World Watch timeslot, featuring bulletins in languages other than English. Until early 2007, Toyota World Sport was shown on weeknights until it was axed to accommodate the relaunched, one-hour World News Australia.
It also broadcasts foreign language news on its second digital channel, the SBS World News Channel, sometimes also used to provide additional information, highlights, and statistics for programmes shown on the main channel, such as the FIFA World Cup.
Sport
SBS Sport currently holds the broadcast rights to a range of sports, which are broadcast on SBS TV, these primarily include the Tour de France, the World Superbikes, the World Rally Championship, The Ashes, the Olympic Games, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, FIFA World Cup, FA Cup, and the UEFA European Football Championship. SBS also produces and broadcasts a range of sport related programming including The World Game and the UEFA Champions League Magazine. Previously, the channel has broadcast other sporting events including the 2004 Summer Olympics, the 2005 Ashes series and the National Football League's Super Bowl. Previous this SBS also broadcasted live English Premier League matches until the early 2000s.
The telecast of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing will be shared by both the Seven Network and SBS TV, with the Seven Network holding exclusive Australian free-to-air, pay television, online and mobile telephony broadcast rights. SBS TV will provide complementary coverage focused on long-form events such as football, road cycling, volleyball, and table tennis. In contrast, Seven will broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies and mainstream sports including swimming, athletics, rowing, cycling and gymnastics. Current affairs and news involved the broadcasting of many international language news.[7]
Availability
SBS TV is available on all of SBS Television's television transmitters in Analogue, SD Digital, and 576p ED Digital. The channel only differs from each state during major sporting events, where scheduling times are altered. On 14 December 2006, the Special Broadcasting Service announced its intention to change to 720p as its high-definition transmission standard.[5]
Logos
The first SBS TV logo was a gradiented blue and white globe surrounded by a gradiented blue and white ring.[1] The logo was used across all of SBS's stations, and symbolised transmission on VHF channel 0. In 1985, Network 0-28 was renamed SBS TV, coinciding with a new logo featuring the letters SBS underneath the globe, however in 1989, the logo was again updated with the globe removed.[1] The previous SBS TV logo was launched in 1993, and features five blue diamond-shaped objects (the "Mercator" logo, named as the shapes look like a mercator globe in 2D), with the letters SBS in white on top.[1]The new logo and a major revamp was launched on 7 May 2008 [8]
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| 1980 - 1983 |
1983 - 1985 |
1985 - 1988 |
1989 - 1992 |
1993 - 2008 |
2008 - present |
References
External links
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