Tone-a-fied.com

Unsuited as it may appear, the Special Broadcasting Service’s home in light-industrial Artarmon is a fitting place for a network attempting to address an identity crisis and the media revolution on scant resources.

When SBS television commenced on October 24, 1980 – United States Day – it started with a documentary, Who Are We? It had been a nod to the reason for SBS’s being : to strengthen the social policy of multiculturalism.

Thirty years on, a broadcaster that started with commercial-free radio and TV built to showcase Australia’s cultural diversity now receives a third of its income from advertising. To several it is better called the station that brought Top Gear down under, and the home of football and the Tour de France.

In the government’s review of public broadcasting two years back, one viewer bitched that SBS had changed from ”a terribly special broadcaster of the past, into a de facto commercial lookalike”. In essence, he asked : who are you, SBS?

Chris Berg, a research fellow with the Institute of Public Affairs, goes further : why are you still here? He is saying SBS has dropped into ”almost complete irrelevance”. ”It can’t possibly hope to cater for the sheer diversity of migrant communities in Australia in 2011, and those communities have access to home content thru online and satellite services,’ ‘ he says.

”The writing has been on the wall for SBS for many years, but it lumbers on usually because state programs are extraordinarily hard to shut down.’ ‘

The government professes strong support, but that’s not paired with strong funding. In the last funding round, SBS won $20 million extra, but the ABC got $180 million, while the worthwhile commercial networks were relieved of $250 million in licence charges. SBS runs two Television channels and four radio stations on 1 / 4 of Channel Seven’s cash and less than a 3rd of the ABC’s.

The internet has brought a deeper challenge, undercutting the reason for its existence. Folk can now hear, see and read their own languages and cultures online when they desire from their homelands.

But SBS’s new MD, Michael Ebeid, believes it is required now more than ever.

Ebeid, 45, personifies the broadcaster’s inclusiveness. Born in Egypt, schooled at Epping Boys High and a previous head of marketing at the ABC, Ebeid lives in East Sydney with his partner, Roland, a Qantas pilot.

A quarter into the job, he has settled into his pitch. ”Today, we’ve got double the quantity of folks who talk another language than 35 years back when SBS was set up,’ ‘ he says. ”So I might argue that cultural complexity [means] SBS is required and is more important today than ever.’ ‘

Cultural enclaves may develop if migrants get all of their stories from home. ”It means they are not getting news and current affairs from an Australian point of view and, more importantly, news and current affairs about Australia,’ ‘ he is saying. ”I think that sure is a real worry for our society.’ ‘ SBS can help by reporting Australian issues in migrants ‘ languages.

As for the tougher question of the SBS identity, he would like to take it back to charter basics : less Top Gear and more Go Back To Where You Came From, which took six Australians distrustful about asylum seekers to Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the time it aired it was SBS’s preferred program of the year – 524,000 viewers on the 1st night. The other networks frequently do double that. Its prime-time chunk of the national audience has been about 6 per cent for the past six years.

But its point is to be niche, and Ebeid welcomes it. ”We are returning to being a rather more distinctive organisation,’ ‘ he says. A ”large majority’ ‘ of programs will concentrate on a charter that needs ”multilingual and multicultural’ ‘ programs which ”inform, entertain and educate all Australians and, in doing therefore reflect Australia’s multicultural society”.

His main worry is whether he is able to afford to get there.

The responsible minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, announces SBS is ”one of Australia’s most important cultural institutions’ ‘ – but there is no doubt SBS is struggling.

This week while it announced a real life show, Bollywood Star, it also canned its only forthcoming local drama. Dusty was to be a series based mostly on a detective in Darwin, in the tradition of current offerings East West 101 and The Circuit.

It just hasn’t got the money for expensive Australian drama. ”We don’t have anything on our commissioning slate for significant drama and I suspect that’s a real shame.’ ‘

The additional $20 million Conroy won for SBS is, in television terms, peanuts, especially as it must compete with other broadcasters scrambling to fill their digital channels.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says : ”They are getting hit from a spread of fronts, and we think the most significant concern for the station is a substantial increase in public funding.’ ‘

Its three-year deal will be displayed in the subsequent budget, and Ludlam says the Greens will make ”a large deal’ ‘ about its future.

Of its $207 million income in 2009-10, two thirds came from the govt. Its stake in the pay TV channels World Films and Stvdio provided $6 million, while $78 million came from advertising, first authorized on a public broadcaster by the Work central authority in 1991.

Those rules were re-interpreted to permit commercial breaks to interrupt programs and SBS told a Senate guesses investigation this year junking them would cost it $45 million a year – just about 1 / 4 of its earnings.

Ebeid is optimistic about a funding boost, but given the government’s determination to revisit surplus, he is not assured. His minister may be ”very supportive’ ‘ but he’s ”very realistic”.

If the money does come, SBS wants to offer four channels within 5 years, improved reports and current affairs, more local programs and lots more online and on-demand.

And if the money doesn’t come? Ebeid warns of ”a lot harder decisions’ ‘ on what to show and what to skip. It raises the chance of having to choose between entire migrant groups ; already some African groups miss out.

The government has asked it to launch a native Television service with the $15 million it gives Countrywide Indigenous Television, displaying on pay Television and in remote Aboriginal communities. Ebeid wants an indigenous channel but says the quality needs to improve and so does the money.

”I don’t want to be running 3 underfunded TV networks,’ ‘ he says. ”Fifteen million may seem like a lot but it’s not when you have to commission content. You can’t buy indigenous content from the BBC.”

Ebeid spends much of his time lobbying for money – the government, other parties and the ethnic communities who are his network’s first audience. Their support is seen as vital to winning extra money. ”Arguably, not a lot of politicians watch SBS, but I am able to bet that a lot of their constituents do’ as reported tagza.com.