SBS WELCOMES FEDERAL BUDGET FUNDING BOOST

SBS WELCOMES FEDERAL BUDGET FUNDING BOOST

News Release

Tuesday 14 May, 2013

SBS has welcomed an additional $20 million in new funding over the next triennium in the 2013 Federal Budget.

SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid said the funding would enable SBS to continue to deliver on its Charter obligations with services which celebrate Australia's diversity, in a rapidly changing and competitive media market.

SBS is a lean and agile hybrid broadcaster which punches above its weight with distinctive and innovative content, despite operating on one fifth of the average budget of all the other broadcasters, Mr Ebeid said.

This funding will equip SBS to provide the services that are critical to its responsibility to be a broadcaster for all Australians, in a climate where commercial growth is subdued, content costs are increasing and audiences are fragmenting across the myriad of channels, platforms and devices available to them.

It is recognition by the Federal Government that in today's increasingly diverse communities, SBS has a continuing and vital role to play in contributing to social cohesion, and to Australia's success as a migrant nation.

The funding will help to fill the gaps between our role and responsibility to provide services which encourage all Australians to understand and appreciate other cultures through content, and help to meet the increasing cost of delivering those services across the platforms and devices audiences are choosing to use. It will also allow SBS to continue broadcasting in 74 languages on radio.

Today, one in four Australians was born overseas, 43.1 per cent have at least one overseas-born parent and our Language Other Than English (LOTE) community makes up four million people. In this Budget, Minister Conroy and the Government have recognised that demand for SBS's services will only continue to grow as Australia becomes more and more culturally diverse.

For more information please contact:

Jessica Harris

Head of Corporate Communications

SBS Corporation

T: 02 9430 2807

M: 0409 188 743

E: jessica.harris@sbs.com.au

LINK:	http://www.sbs.com.au/aboutus/news-media-releases/view/id/716/h/SBS-WE...
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