Special Broadcasting Service Corporation (SBS) Reports 1999-2000 (2024)

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Special Broadcasting Service Corporation (SBS) Reports 1999-2000

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SBS Charter SBS was established as an independent statutory authority on 1 January 1978 under the Broadcasting Act 1942. The Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991 (Cwlth) came into effect on 23 December 1991 and established SBS as a Corporation.

Section 6 of the Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991 gives SBS a Charter setting out the functions and duties the Parliament requires of SBS as a public broadcaster. These are:

1. The principal function 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.

2. The SBS, in performing its principal function, must:

a contribute to meeting the communications needs of Australia’s multicultural

society, including ethnic, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; and

b increase awareness of the contribution of a diversity of cultures to the continuing

development of Australian society; and

c promote understanding and acceptance of the cultural, linguistic and ethnic

diversity of the Australian people; and

d contribute to the retention and continuing development of language and other cultural skills; and

e as far as practicable, inform, educate and entertain Australians in their preferred

languages; and

f make use of Australia’s diverse creative resources; and

g contribute to the overall diversity of Australian television and radio services,

particularly taking into account the contribution of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the community broadcasting sector; and

h contribute to extending the range of Australian television and radio services, and

reflect the changing nature of Australian society, by presenting many points of view and using innovative forms of expression.

SBS - Enabling Legislation

SBS was established as an independent statutory authority on 1 January 1978 under the

Broadcasting Act 1942. T h e Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991 (Cwlth) came into

effect on 23 Decem ber 1991 and established SBS as a corporation. T h e M inister responsible

is the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts,

Senator T h e Honourable Richard Alston.

report of operations 1999 - 2000

SBS Vision Statement

SBS: Uniting and enriching our society by creatively communicating

the values, the voices and the visions of multicultural Australia

and the contemporary world.

SBS The Voice and the Vision of Multicultural Australia

SBS is a national multicultural and multilingual broadcaster unique in the world. SBS Television, which broadcasts in more than 60 languages, reaches a potential audience of about 18 million Australians. SBS Radio is the world’s most linguistically diverse radio network, broadcasting in 68 languages to a potential audience of more than 2.5 million.

The radio network began in 1975 with two fledgling radio stations - 2EA in Sydney and SEA in Melbourne - broadcasting four hours a day in seven and eight languages respectively. It was a three-month experiment in multilingual broadcasting confined to Australia’s two largest cities. SBS Radio today broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on AM and FM frequencies in Sydney and Melbourne and is heard Australia-wide on a national signal that reaches all capital cities and many regional centres.

SBS Television began in 1980 and it too started first in Sydney and Melbourne. Gradually other cities as well as regional and rural centres joined the network and it is now viewed by more than six million Australians each week. More than half of all programs are in languages other than English. These programs are made accessible to all Australians through the use of English language subtitles. With more than 400 international and local program sources, SBS Television draws upon the largest range of source material of any television network in the world.

In 1999-2000, SBS Radio celebrates its 25'1 ’ anniversary. Fifteen of those original volunteer broadcasters are still with SBS. Ten of them joined 2EA in Sydney on 9 June 1975 on the first dav of broadcasts, and the other five were among the first broadcasters when 3EA went to air in Melbourne on 23 June 1975. This year’s Annual Report pays tribute to these broadcasting pioneers.

Contents Report of Operations 1999-2000 Freedom O f Information 57

Special Broadcasting Service Access and Equity 57-58

Enabling Legislation Inside Front Cover Community Advisory Com mittee 58-59

SBS Charter Inside Front Cover SBS Radio and TV Youth Orchestra 59

Vision Statem ent 1 Governm ent and Corp. Relations 59-61

Chairm an’s L etter to the M inister 4 International 61

Financial Summary 5 Industry Participation 62

Board of Directors 6-9

Organisation Chart 10 4. Our Position In The Marketplace

Performance Report 1999-2000 11-21 TV Advertising and Sponsorship 63

Radio M arketing 63

1. Our Audiences SBS M erchandising 64

Television Program M arketing 64-66

Ratings and Reach 22 SBS Arts and Cultural Sponsorships 67-68

Viewing By Ethnicity 22 SBS and Pay TV 68

Audience Opinions 23

Reception Extensions 23 5 .Technology and Resources

Audience Surveys 24-25 New Transmission Arrangements 69-70

Radio Digital 71-73

Reach 26 Capital Planning 73-74

Audience Surveys 26 Com puting and Information Services 74

Audience Feedback 26

Youth Audiences 26-27 6. Leading, Managing and Developing The

Organisation

2. Our Programs

Finance 75-78

Human Resources 79-81

Television

Corporate Services

SBS Productions 28

51

News and Current Affairs 32-35

Appendix

Sport 35

1. SBS Act - Compliance with Sect. 73 117

Indigenous Programs 35-37

2. Financial and Staffing Resources Summary Acquired Programs 37 118

Programming Highlights 37-39 ■3. Television Services 119

Special Programs 39-41 4. SBS TV - Languages Broadcast 121

SBS Independent 42-44 5. SBS TV Programs by Category 122

Awards 44 6. SBS TV Program Classification 122

Radio 7. SBS Independent 123

General Programs 44-45 8. Radio Services 127

Special Programs 45-46 9. Radio Schedules 127

News and Current Affairs 46-50 10. SBS Radio - Language Broadcast 130

Awards 50 11. SBS TV Sponsors 131

N ew Media 51 12. SBS TV Advertisers 132

Internet Services 51 13. SBS Radio M arketing Clients 133

N ew O nline C ontent 52-53 14. SBS Com munity Advisory

Com m ittee 134

3. Building Relationships W ith Our Community 15. SBS Awards 138

Consultations 54 16. E E C Statistical Analysis 138

Radioathons 54-55 17. Brief History of SBS 138

Radio Outside Broadcasting 56

Codes of Practice 56 Index 143

Audience Feedback 56-57 3

c h a ir m a n ’s Letter to the Minister

Senator, the Honorable Richard Alston, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts

Dear Minister,

In accordance with the requirements of section nine and schedule one of the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997 and section 73 of the Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991, and on behalf of the SBS Board, I am pleased to present the SBS Annual Report for 1999-2000.

The following sections of this Report demonstrate SBS’s performance against the SBS Corporate Plan, elaborate on the Television, Radio and New Media programming we have provided and the reaction of our audiences. We also report on the steps we have taken to interact with Government, community and stakeholders and the manner in which we have organised our human, financial

and technical resources, including new transmission arrangements.

In accordance with the requirements of the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Order 1998, SBS reports there were no relevant judicial decisions and reviews by outside bodies or any ministerial directions under the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997.

The corporation completed its first accrual budget under the Government’s new accounting framework. The transition went smoothly, although there remain considerable training and resource issues associated with its further implementation into cost centre and project-level budgets.

SBS continued to manage staff issues under the umbrella of the three-year Certified Agreement which was established in December 1999. A performance management program for all staff was introduced during the year. The resources to implement a program of this magnitude are considerable and priority has been given to ensure that all appraisals are completed in a timely fashion.

To prepare staff for the significant technical and production changes inherent in the move to digital technology, SBS conducted extensive and on-going training courses.

During the year, SBS’s operations were reviewed through a number of internal audits.

The program was productive and highlighted areas requiring improvement in performance and compliance. SBS managers were responsive to the audits’ findings and remain committed to improvement.

SBS participated in several external reviews, including three reviews of the Corporation’s strategies and funding requests for the implementation of digital technologies, and several audits conducted by the Australian National Audit Office.

On 16 December 1999, Sir Nicholas Shehadie completed his term as Chairman of SBS after almost 19 years. When he was appointed Chairman in 1981, SBS Radio was six years old and SBS Television had just begun. Sir Nicholas presided over the formative years of SBS and helped shape it into what it is today.

I began my Chairmanship 17 December 1999. Also in December, the appointment of non­ executive director. Peter Carroll was extended for a further three years until 12 January 2002.

Yours sincerely,

Carla Zampatti, Chairman

Financial Summary

Operating Revenue

Expenditure by Classification

Expenditure by Classification 1 9 9 8 -9 9 ,1 9 9 9 -2 0 0 0

$ Employees

80000_____________________________

Suppliers Depreciation Interest

1 1 E 1

” £CO

E

■JH_________ ■M

5

b o a r d of Directors

December 1999 for five years. Ms Zampatti is Executive Chairman of the Carla Zampatti Group and

holds directorships with Westfield Holdings Limited, Me Donald’s Australia Limited, and British American Tobacco Australasia Limited. She is

also a Member of the Australian Graduate School of Management, Board of Management, and the Australian Graduate School

of Management, Advisory Council. Ms Zampatti is a Trustee of the Sydney Theatre Company

Foundation Trust, and a Member of the Textiles, Clothing and Footwear Advisory Panel.

Appointed 31 August 1998 for three years. Mr Roach is Chairman of Fujitsu Australia, having been CEO for 10 years and Chairman and CEO for three years. He is also an advisor to the global parent company, Fujitsu Limited of Japan. He is chairman or a member of a number of government bodies including Chairman of the Council for Multicultural Australia. He is also President of the Asian- Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation and Chairman of the Australia-

India Business Council.

Other appointments include Director of NRMA Building Society and Adjunct Professor at the Australia-

Asia Management Centre at the Australian National University.

Nyra Bensimon -

Q Non-executive director

Appointed 15 April 1999 for three years. Ms Bensimon is Partner and Director of Shiels Jewellers and Grahams Jewellers in South Australia. She is a

prominent member of the Women’s International Zionist Organisation and actively involved in fundraising activities. Ms Bensimon maintains a strong association with the South Australian Migration Museum.

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Peter Carroll -Non-executive director

First appointed 20 December 1996 for three years and re-appointed for a further three-year term in

December 1999. Mr Carroll is a graduate of Sydney and NSW universities and of the Central School of Speech

and Drama in London. He was Head of Voice and Speech at the National Institute of Dramatic Art

from 1970-73 and then began an extensive performing career as a company member of Sydney’s Nimrod Theatre.

He has worked in film and television and with all State and commercial theatre

managements. He is President of the NSW Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

November 1997 for three years. Dr Galla is Director, Australian Centre for

Cultural Diversity Research and Development at the University of Canberra. In 1996-97, he was Visiting Professor, Faculty of Arts, University of South Africa.

His research, teaching and community service expertise are in the arts, community

development and heritage fields. He was one of the principal international advisers on restructuring the

National Parks system and the National Arts, Museums and Arts sectors in South Africa during 1994-1999. A

member of the Chief Minister’s Multicultural Consultative Council (ACT), Dr Galla is the President of

the Asia Pacific Executive Board and Chair of the Cross Cultural Taskforce of International Council of Museums, Paris.

Ted Gregory -Non-executive director

Appointed 15 April 1999 for four years. Mr Gregory is Managing Director of AAV Australia, Pty Ltd, an electronic communications, production

and manufacturing company serving the film, television and advertising industries. He is a Board member of

Interact Events Pty Ltd, a Victorian Government- owned company responsible

for staging the region’s largest Multi Media Festival, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Cinema Papers.

Martine Pop -Non-executive director

Appointed 15 April 1999 for three years. Ms Pop is a law graduate and post graduate of Paris Pantheon University (France). She has extensive risk management, corporate management experience in the Australian banking sector as an executive of a regional bank and later as a risk management/corporate governance consultant with one of the big five. She holds a number of non-executive director positions on the board of Statutory Authorities.

November 1997 for three years. Dr Trang Thomas is currently Professor of Psychology at RMIT

University. She was formerly full-time chairperson of the Victorian Multicultural Commission and former

Director of the Centre of Applied Social Research. Current appointments include Member of the National Council for the Centenary of Federation, Council for Multicultural Australia, National Health and Medical Research Council and the Victorian Casino and Gaming Authority; Member of the advisory boards of the

International Conflict Resolution Centre and the Australian Heritage Foundation.

Nigel Milan -

Managing Director

Appointed 2 February 1998 for five years. Mr Milan has a long association with broadcasting - public and commercial - and marketing.

He was formerly Chief Executive of Australian Radio Network Ltd, one of Australia’s largest commercial radio networks, and before that Chief Executive of Radio New Zealand. Mr Milan was previously Chief Executive of the Nine Network’s Radio Division and Deputy General Manager of the Macquarie Network. He is a director of the Fred Hollows Foundation and a member of the Advisory Board of the Walkley Awards.

New Chairman

On 17 December 1999, Sir Nicholas Shehadie completed his term as Chairman of SBS after deciding not to seek re-appointment to the post he had held since

1 July 1981. At his last Board meeting, 16 December 1999, Sir Nicholas thanked all current and previous Board members for their loyal support over the years and said he was extremely proud of his association with SBS. His replacement, Ms Carla Zampatti, assumed her five-year appointment as Chairman of SBS the following day.

Board Re-appointm ent

Board member, Peter Carroll, was re­ appointed for a further three years, until 12 January 2002, after completing his first term on 20 December 1999.

Board Attendances - July 1999 to June 2000

The SBS Board met 11 times during the year. Attendance is shown for the number of meeting available during the membership of each Board member.

Present:

Sir Nicholas Shehadie (Completed his term December 1999) Ms Carla Zampatti (First Board meeting in February 2000) Nyra Bensimon Mr Peter Carroll

Dr Amareswar Galla Mr Ted Gregory Ms Martine Pop Mr Neville Roach

Professor Trang Thomas Mr Nigel Milan

5 of 6 meetings

5 of 5 meetings

11 of 11 meetings 10 of 11 meetings 10 of 11 meetings 10 of 11 meetings

10 of 11 meetings 9 of 11 meetings 10 of 11 meetings 11 of 11 meetings

s b s organisation chart 2000

Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts

Senator The Hon Richard Alston

Board of Directors

Community Advisory Committee

Chairman:

Carla Zampatti

Directors: Nyra Bensimon, P eter Carroll, Amareswar Galla, Ted Gregory, M artine Pop, Neville Roach, Trang Thomas

Managing Director

Corporate Counsel Lesley Power

Manager Corporate Communications Keith Dalton

I Nigel Milan

Peter Cavanagh Tuong Quang Luu Will Berryman Maureen Crowe Pat Quirke-Parry Chris Sharp

Network National Editor Manager Manager Human Director Media Policy Adviser

Programmer Diane Wilhnan ! Computing Resources Marketing John Goozee

i Rod Webb Manager Resources & Information 1 Helen Mavne Graham Butler Policy Adviser

Director News and Training Services 1 Manager Corporate j Merchandising Geoff Abbott

& Current Affairs David Ingram i Alex Surplice Services Services Manager

Programs Chief Engineer Editorial Content | David Mapstone 1 1 Vanessa Power

Ϊ Phil Martin Yuan Chan Manager Director 1 Program Sales

General Manager Publicity & Media | Anne Markey j Communications i Supervisor

SBS Independent Liaison Manager Business & Planning I Penny Nemcansky

I Bridget Ikin : Simone () Brien Development 1 David Sootliill

Manager Television r Manager Manager I Manager Finance

Engineering Community 1 Paul Vincent Jon Torpy

I ling Slick Relations Creative Director t Manager

Manager Language | Raymond Moti jί Michelle French | Transmission Sydney Production | Services

Tina Centre Manager ί Hugh Janies

1 Koutsogiannis Peter Wall

Manager Program Managers

Operations j Robert Minshull

? Tonv Aslanidis 1 Efthymios Kallos Manager . Melbourne

Presentation Production Centre

& Design i Manager

'··' John Staliel Mike Zafiropoulos

Manager Local Program Managers Production : Ayinir Cagli

$ Craig Collie Wang Yi

Manager Program Marketing Purchasing ! Manager, Sydney

1 Jenny .Vilen ; Kate Hannaford

Manager Publicity Marketing Michael Field Manager, S u b s id ia ry

Manager Sport | Melbourne Multilingual Subscriber Television Ltd

1 Les Murray

X ivienne Kost ACN 061 014 480

Manager Subtitling 1 Gilbert Sant Chairman:

Manager Television Carla Zampatti

Resources | Ή111 Burke Directors:

Audience Research Nigel Milan, Quang Luu, Maureen Crowe

Consultant 1 Ken Sievers Secretary:

David Mapstonc

REPORT 1999 -2 000

This 1999-2000 Performance Report assesses performance against five achievement goals under the Corporation’s current Corporate Plan 1999-2002

OUR AUDIENCES

Task: Increasing the audience reach and the frequency of viewing and listening to SBS.

SUCCESS INDICATORS

TELEV1S0N RADIO

Nielson surveys show: Standard industry audience measurement

- SBS's national weekly reach was surveys did not provide figures relevant to 6.178 million people in 1999 SBS Radio, but Quadrant Research surveys (up 6.1% from 1998) conducted for SBS (see below) provided

Its weekly reach in the five major cities quantitative data on audiences for was 4.459 million (up 6.1% from 1998) individual language programs.

- A marginal increase in younger demographics (13-24 year olds)

TELEVISION most languages

Newspoll findings confirmed the high value - High satisfaction rate across languages placed on SBS by Australians: (80-90%)

- 71% of people surveyed valued SBS - Difficult to gauge listenership patterns - 86% agreed it was important SBS be over time

available to provide an alternative to - Surveys suggest need to further

commercial stations publicize programs and timeslots

- 78% agreed it was important that SBS Highlights included:

be available as an alternative to ABC - 77% of all Turkish speakers had listened

television to SBS Radio in the past seven days

- 94% of Ukranian respondents had

RADIO listened to SBS Radio at some time

Quadrant Research surveys conducted in 11 - 96% of Vietnamese speakers said SBS

additional languages found: Radio provides useful information to help

- Significant penetration achieved across settle in Australia

- 90% of Khmer speakers said SBS Radio helped them retain their original

language An additional survey was commissioned in June 2000 to assess awareness of SBS

Radio, listening in six major groups under threat from competition, and Internet

usage.

Outside broadcast units attracted young people.

- Correspondence in support of extending possible most callers receive a follow-up SBS Radio to regional Australia call once the problem is identified.

increased following visits of SBS Radio's - The SBS Television analogue extension outside broadcast units to various program generated much audience localities. interest with many callers seeking

- Audience feedback on technical information about when they will have problems was mostly facilitated using access to SBS Television.

SBS's 1800 free call number. Faxed - The Self-help Subsidy Scheme feedback is received and, increasingly, administered by SBS received an E-mail. overwhelming positive response with 16

- New forms are being trialed to successful applicants in its first round.

streamline the feedback process. Most Almost 3,000 self-help booklets were calls receive adequate responses distributed.

immediately, but where this is not

TELEVISION/MARKETING RADIO

- TV advertising and sponsorship revenue - Radio advertising and sponsorship reached an all-time record ($22.026m), revenue also reached an all-time record exceeding revenue target by 14%, and of $1.98m, exceeding revenue target by representing a revenue growth of 27% 22%, and representing a revenue growth on the previous financial year. of 17.5% on the previous financial year.

TELEVISION

- SBS obtained through A.C.Nielsen research a comprehensive demographic

profile of audiences - program by program - across five capital cities and in major regional centres.

RADIO

- Audience profiles for several radio language programs were obtained as a result of Quadrant surveys. Individual broadcaster/journalists generally have close knowledge of the demographics of their communities, supplemented by

audience feedback through talk-back, telephone, letters and the Internet. Radio management hosts regular formal

consultation meetings with different language community representatives.

OUR PROGRAMS

Task: - Offering distinctive and attractive programs in a more crowded and rapidly changing marketplace - Encouraging risk and innovation - Building on SBS’s reputation for quality - Increasing the amount of Australian programming while assessing

the impact on other activities

SUCCESS INDICATORS

2a. The number of industry awards relevant to SBS’s objectives

TELEVISION

The major award was the Global Outstanding Achievement Award presented at the Banff Television Festival in Canada. SBS-produced and commissioned programs

and related activities won more than 40 other national and international awards and nominations. Highlights: Hephzibah won Best Documentary and Original

Schtick, Best Television Documentary at the AFI Awards. Robert Grasso, Toyota World Sport won the Tennis Australia

Award for Best Electronic Media Story for 1999.

RADIO

SBS Radio staff won a number of media awards during the year. Highlights: Shpend

Osmani, Sani Kajtazi and Sally Spalding received the 1999 Austcare Refugee Media Award for coverage of the Kosovo displaced persons. Ms Majida Abboud-Saab was

named 2000 Media Woman of the Year For services to the media by the Australian Arabic Welfare Council. The Khmer Language Program received a Khmer New

Year and Business Award For services to business from the Khmer Community of NSW. Annabel Cotton won the 2000 NSW Law Society Award for Excellence in

Journalism for her story Mandatory Sentencing. Vita Kristovskis and Mark Henderson were finalists in the 2000 New York Festivals Radio Programming for an

exclusive interview with alleged war criminal Konrad Kalejs.

2b. Audience response (phone, E-mail, requests for repeats etc)

TELEVISION and E-mail continued to be positive. There j

Ratings figures from A.C.Nieslen allow was overwhelming audience appreciation of £

1 SBS to track viewing patterns across the the Unfinished Business - Reconciling the schedule. Nation television season.

Audience feedback by both telephone The volume of telephone responses 13

varied from week to week - depending on the programming content - but was never less than in the hundreds. On average, 25 E-mails were received per day about programming, with about 80% positive comments or suggestions.

The number of queries about repeats and sales was such that a new system was introduced to streamline responses.

RADIO Many telephone calls are received by individual broadcasters in the language of the program. These responses were not

logged. Radio management in both Sydney

and Melbourne receive and respond to all correspondence.

TELEVISION RADIO

SBS Publicity generated an estimated The language programs continued to 642,000 column centimetres of coverage in provide forums for the discussion of

newspapers and magazines and 15,860 contentious community developments, minutes of coverage was broadcast on opinions and disputes to inform listeners radio and television stations. objectively and fairly.

The weekend of Corroboree 2000 was In addition to covering domestic a milestone for SBS. SBS Television was debates such as reconciliation and host broadcaster for all the events industrial reform, the language programs organised by the Council for Aboriginal also gave comprehensive coverage to

Reconciliation. regional and international issues. For

SBS Television also made a major example, the head of the Portuguese and contribution to debates about the republic Indonesian language programs were taken referendum, the Pratt/Wallace Care to Dili by UNTAET to report on Jose Australia affair, and the unfolding Ramos-Horta's return to East Timor.

challenges of Australian foreign policy in SBS Radio stories - especially the Asia-Pacific. exclusives such as the interview with

alleged war criminal Konrad Kalejs - are increasingly being used by other media.

SBS's success in winning of the Global Outstanding Achievement Award of the Banff Television Festival received considerable press coverage. The Banff Festival President and CEO, Pat Ferns, commented "...SBS responsibly and effectively reflects Australia's very diverse

and dynamic society".

SBS received wide support from media and stakeholders following suggestions

from the Managing Director of the ABC that SBS would be better placed if it were part of the ABC. For example, the

president of the Ethnic Communities' Council of Western Australia, Mr Ramdas Sankaran commented that "If indeed there is a case for amalgamation, ABC should

become SBS2 and not the other way around." The distinctiveness of SBS

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Television is often commented upon. For example, Ross Warneke TV columnist of The Age, commenting on the summer schedule, wrote: "Trust SBS to drag us out

of our silly-season doldrums... SBS, which has prided itself of delivering a real alternative over summer in recent years, has done it again."

Ian Warden of The Canberra Times commented in August 1999 that "SBS still attracts six times more viewers in prime­ time than are attracted to pay-television's

most popular channel, Showtime." SBS Radio received extremely positive press coverage during its 25th anniversary year, with a prominent article appearing in virtually every major newspaper in the country. The 12 June 2000 editorial of The

Sydney Morning Herald commented: "It has become a crucial force for social and cultural good in Australia... SBS Radio is a rare example of social engineering that has

worked."

2f.The amount of quality Australian multicultural programming

TELEVISION Treating multiculturalism as an historical and evolving entity was central to the slate of Australian-made programs and

international co-productions broadcast by SBS in 1999-2000. SBS output rose substantially in documentary and drama. These programs were produced in-house, or externally produced by a commercial production company or commissioned by

SBS Independent.

- Total hours of local documentary programs transmitted rose from 29.5 in 1998-1999 to 43.8 in 1999-2000.

- Total hours of first-run local drama transmitted rose from 11.5 in 1998­

1999 to 30.5 in 1999-2000.

- Total expenditure on documentaries, drama, short films and features virtually doubled from $7.8m in 1998-99 to

$15.2m in 1999-2000.

Many of the new programs received industry awards and a positive audience response in ratings and feedback.

Innovation has come to be seen as hallmark of SBS programming. Programs such as Going Home and Pizza explored new themes and production styles, while the Unfinished Business - Reconciling the

Nation television season comprehensively exposed past and contemporary indigenous issues and controversies. These and other programs commissioned by SBS Independent presented innovative works from emerging Australian film makers, many of them indigenous.

RADIO SBS Radio programs were all Australian made and reflect Australian multiculturalism.

Following a review of English language programs on SBS Radio, news analysis, cross-cultural and multicultural formats were implemented on the weekday World View program. On-air quality and consistency improved and audience

response was positive.

Outside broadcasts enriched the content of the SBS Radio schedules by allowing broadcaster/journalists from different languages to work together in English and to share experiences with their traditional audiences. For example, at the Corroboree 2000 event at Darling Harbour in Sydney, the Aboriginal broadcaster/journalist was able to cross live into several language programs during the day.

I

s

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BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH AUDIENCES

Task: - Gaining an accurate appreciation of the changing nature of Australia’s cultural communities, including the interests of second- or third-generation Australians from non-English speaking backgrounds. - Being open and responsive - collaborating and communicating in

many ways with the broader community as well as indigenous and non-English speaking communities. - Building a sense of community partnership and involvement with SBS. - Ensuring continued government, audience and stakeholder

recognition of the value, and importance of SBS as a public broadcaster. - Extending the network of our relationship with our community to reach younger people.

SUCCESS INDICATORS

The SBS Triennial Funding budget and the The Government granted $70m to fund Digital Phase 2 submissions were analogue television extension to regional instrumental in securing Government Australia, including many areas that

funding. The outcome in the 2001-2002 have been campaigning for years to receive Budget reflected the Government's SBS.

understanding of SBS's special SBS was unsuccessful in obtaining

requirements. additional funding from the Federal

The provision of additional funds for the Government for closed captioning to meet purchase of overseas programming in the future statutory obligations, and this was new Triennial Funding Agreement was disappointing.

particularly welcome.

SBS Radio forged strong relationships with State and Federal governments, particularly in areas of mutual concern such as immigration and communications.

The SBS Communications and Planning unit and Transmission Services branch developed a reputation for the quality of its

contributions and its professional attitude in dealing with government departments

and agencies during protracted discussions on the new transmission arrangements.

SBS maintained strong relationships with key players in the Government's decision-making process. SBS made carefully structured representations in the

lead-up to Government decisions on triennial funding and legislation for digital television, and received positive attention.

16

3c. Support and involvement by the community - recognition of the value of SBS - practical involvement (interaction with different community, government and educational institutions) - use of SBS services (ratings etc. as described earlier in the Plan).

RADIO

Radio increased its face-to-face involvement with the communities through more outside broadcasts - including visits to regional Australia - as part of its objective to extend the reach of SBS Radio. Outside

broadcasts at high profile events such as Corroboree 2000 added a new dimension to Radio's involvement with the community. Interstate and regional outside broadcast tours regularly included receptions and

other forms of official hospitality and consultation.

The 25th anniversary of SBS Radio provided an excellent opportunity to enhance contacts with stakeholders in direct and positive ways.

Radioathons, to raise money for local and international humanitarian causes, continue to cement relationships with

language communities. Since 1998, more than $3.5m has been raised, with a record $2ni pledged in radioathons in 1999-2000.

Radio maintained close involvement with universities and colleges through various training initiatives, particularly with the University of Wollongong and

Monash University in Victoria.

Radio managers sat on a number of external bodies such as the Australian Museum, the Refugee Council of Australia, the Ethnic Communities' Council of

Victoria and NSW Culture Research Education and Training Enterprise (CREATE).

The SBS Community Advisory Committee began developing a regional consultation pilot project in recognition of the need to increase the direct contact with SBS's audiences in regional Australia.

OUR POSITION IN THE MARKETPLACE

Task: - Protecting and promoting the distinctive SBS brand - Building on loyalty to quality, risk and innovation - Promoting inclusion by making it clear that SBS is relevant to all Australians

- Showcasing public broadcasting and highlighting our independence and our diversity - Making a respected and relevant contribution to contemporary Australia

SUCCESS INDICATORS

4a. SBS-commissioned and other research into - recognition of brand and values - loyalty to brand - position (“what does SBS stand for?”)

->

TELEVISION

Surveys by National Newspoll Research

have shown that SBS is a valued alternative to commercial stations

(86% agree) and the ABC (78%). The figures have increased since the first survey in 1997 (84.6% commercial, 68.2% ABC). This indicated public recognition that SBS maintains a distinct place in Australian broadcasting.

RADIO SBS Radio undertook a major re-branding campaign and utilised the 25th anniversary celebrations and its outside broadcast units to increase its public profile. The campaign featured the positioning statement 'The many voices of one Australia'. Strong and

positive media coverage of SBS Radio in the latter part of the year indicated the

campaign's success.

Quadrant Research independent surveys continued to highlight the public perception of SBS Radio as a producer of quality

programs.

M A R K E T I N G A study by Keig Research in May 2000 provided positive feedback about the reputation of SBS in the marketplace and an understanding of its purpose and role in public broadcasting.

Success in maintaining advertising and sponsorship customers and in acquiring new accounts was achieved in both Radio and Television. This indicated client acceptance of audience research and other data confirming SBS's distinct brand personality.

4b. Web site usage

Content on the SBS web site www.sbs.com.au was considerably expanded and a total revamp was launched

in 1999-2000 following the establishment of the SBS New Media division. The comprehensive soccer Web site www.theworldgame.com.au became one of the most popular sports web sites in

Australia. New sites under development included a major world news web site www.theworldnews.com.au, an international cuisine web site,

www.theworldfeast.com.au and a multicultural youth service. The Going Home site received a strong response, complementing the distinctive and innovative nature of the program.

Audio-on-demand is available on the

SBS Radio web site and by July 2000 included the French, Vietnamese, Maltese and Norwegian languages (with others to follow in the new financial year) as well as the English language current affairs

program, World View.

TECHNOLOGY AND RESOURCES

Task: - Take full advantage of new digital broadcasting technology - Consolidate and improve the impact of SBS commercial operations - 1 se new media in distinctive ways to develop and enhance the

way SBS implements its Charter

SUCCESS INDICATORS

5a. Planning and implementation of digital technology and new media

Digital Phase 2 plans were accepted after a thorough appraisal by Government and procurement processes begun for the supply of major digital components to meet the January 2001 deadline for the

commencement of digital television transmissions.

Digital recording and editing equipment has been introduced throughout the production areas of SBS Radio.

Preparation is well advanced for installation of the digital Integrated Audio Server. DAT or mini-disc technology is used for portable recording. Staff are being trained on digital audio workstations. A

digitally-based video-conference system is being purchased to link Sydney and Melbourne Radio Production Centres.

Since its formation in February 2000, the New Media division has installed a digital Storage Area Network (SAN) capable of holding one terabyte of

information. This will enable SBS to harness all types of digital content worldwide for use in a variety of ways, including administrative information and for creative output.

SBS has installed its own Solaris world wide web server and upgraded its Internet access from 128 kilobytes to 100 megabytes, allowing program makers greater use of international multimedia sources in their program development. SBS began exploring ways of maximising opportunities in datacasting.

5b. High Web site usage

Accesses to the SBS web site have increased substantially with the advent of sites giving comprehensive world news coverage (including transcripts of the SBS W orld News, Dateline, Insight,

W orldW atch); multilingual text and audio

on the SBS Radio site; interactive

feedback on the Going Home site; detailed soccer news on the www.theworldgame.com.au site; and expanded information on many specific program sites as well as a revamped television schedule.

5c. Success of language services business

SBS Language Services, providing multilingual services to external clients, has improved its profitability following the appointment of a new manager and the development of a concise business plan.

Turnover virtually doubled to more than $lm and profit increased from $17,000 in 1998- 99 to an estimated $250,000 in 1999- 2000.

LEADING, MANAGING AND DEVELOPING THE ORGANISATION

Task: - Promoting effective leadership and management - Acquiring, keeping and developing skilled people who are committed to achieving the aims and aspirations of SBS - Ensuring efficient, adaptable and responsive systems and

processes - Promoting a culture of collaboration, loyalty and inclusiveness

SUCCESS INDICATORS

l.The number and quality of collaborative processes within and between divisions and work areas

SBS's divisions collaborated on new media initiatives, policy development, triennial

funding and general management and financial positions. The Language Services unit was used by both Radio and Television. A digital television working party facilitated closer collaboration between television departments. Corroboree 2000 brought together staff from many areas for a highly successful

outcome on SBS Television, Radio and

online.

There was considerable cross-over between Radio and Television on corporate activities including voice-over work, staffing the switchboard and training programs. In Melbourne, the Manager of

SBS Radio Melbourne also represents the Corporation in Victoria.

2. Evidence of pride and commitment in working for SBS 3. Ease of filling jobs with highly skilled people 4. Retaining valuable, committed staff

S

I

SBS is well known for its capacity to attract and retain people and for the pride and commitment of those people. The organisation is in the bottom quartile of companies in staff turnover - both

voluntary and involuntary.

There was considerable enthusiasm among most broadcaster/journalists to work on Radio's outside broadcast units, in addition to normal broadcasting duties.

20

The 25th anniversary celebrations revealed the depth of pride and commitment that staff have for SBS.

The most talented people in SBS

Television - on-screen and off - work for the organisation because of a strong commitment to its values and Charter rather than for high remuneration.

5. Feedback from managers on their level of involvement and support 6. Effective implementation of a performance management system over the life of the Plan.

SBS implemented the SBS Performance Management Program (PIMP) which came into effect with the SBS Certified Agreement in February 1999. In year one, the focus was on training all managers and staff. Training was delivered and

implementation targets met. The numbers of PMP agreements and completed appraisals, however, did not meet expectations.

Most managers accepted the importance of PMP as a tool for necessary

cultural workplace change in the organisation, in particular to effect a shift from time-based to performance-based advancement. Most staff welcome the opportunity for structured communication about work performance.

Radio managers undertook a major strategic planning exercise in May 2000 from which feedback was extremely positive. There was a genuine sense that the organisation was supporting and

involving them in the process of change.

ONE

our audiences

TELEVISION

Ratings and Reach Each week, more than 6.2 million people tuned to SBS Television in 1999, an increase of 300,000 viewers over the previous year.

In the five major cities - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth - the average weekly reach was 4.459 million viewers, an increase of 6.1% over the previous year. In the five cities, SBS’s audience share was 4.25% compared to 3.67% in 1998.

A C Nielsen surveys in 1999 showed that nationally SBS Television reached 51.3% of all homes in an average week, an increase of 0.8% over the previous year. The Nielsen figures, however, do not include SBS viewers in Darwin and 121 self-help areas where the potential audience exceeds 200,000 people. (See graph 1: Weekly reach of audiences - in service areas)

Viewing by Ethnicity Viewing of SBS Television by ethnic communities remained strong. More than 53.1% of'people born overseas in a non-English speaking country’ reported that they watched SBS Television at least once a week. The weekly SBS viewing patterns of ‘all people’ and ‘people born in Australia or in an overseas English speaking country’ were 35.1% and 32.4% respectively. This was a 2% increase in both categories over the previous year.

Since 1996, SBS has commissioned Quadrant Research to conduct surveys into 36 individual language groups. The collective results for the latest survey showed that 76.7% of the respondents in the 10 language groups surveyed had watched SBS Television in the past week. Of those, 62.8% agreed that they “wouldn’t be without” or “find a lot of value” in SBS Television. (See graph 2: Weekly viewing by ethnicity)

‘My first broadcast remains my most memorable day at SBS/

22 Vivienne Kost - Marketing Manager, Melbourne

Audience Opinions SBS Television operates in markets that contain not only four alternative free-to-air services, but also a wide range of niche program channels delivered by three pay television services. Under these circumstances, SBS Television has commissioned a number of qualitative surveys over the past three years which have

investigated a range of key issues which are relevant to the role of SBS as a public broadcaster with a special purpose charter.

These national Newspoll surveys canvassed the opinions of people 18 years of age and over. T he latest survey, in May 2000, showed that SBS has maintained its

favourable image among its potential audiences, and continues to be seen as a valued alternative to other free-to-air television services. T he survey found:

• 86.0% agreed that: “It is important that SBS be available to provide an alternative to the commercial stations.” • 78.0% agreed that: “It is important that

SBS be available to provide an alternative to ABC Television.”

• 86.8% agreed that: “SBS has types of programs you would not see on other TV stations." • 68.0% agreed that: “SBS has better

coverage of overseas news than other TV stations.” • 71.47% agreed that they “find value in SBS”.

(See graph 3: Top Programs)

Reception Extensions About 18 million people now live in areas serviced by SBS Television, but regular Newspoll surveys indicate that over 17% of

homes within existing service areas do not receive viewable SBS broadcasts, either because they live in reception ‘black spots’ or they have not tuned their sets to receive

UHF signals.

Under the Federal Government’s Television Fund, announced in June 1999, the SBS signal is progressively being extended to transmission areas with

populations over 10,000. In 2000-2001 a further 78 new services will be provided. As a result, one million Australians in regional centres will receive SBS Television.

Over the years, many communities unable to receive SBS, have raised funds and established their own re-transmission facilities. In this financial year, 16

applications for Self-Help Subsidies were approved under the Federal Government Self-Help Subsidy Scheme which is administered by SBS. Five are already on air. There are now 121 self-help services

throughout Australia.

In 1963, ten pounds paid for passage on board the ship th at brought

13-year-old Vivienne and her family to Australia from Malta. Vivienne

joined the ABC in 1972 where she stayed for 17 years working in

graphics, sales and archives. Vivienne became a volunteer broadcaster

with 3EA's Maltese language service in 1975, eventually joining SBS

Radio in 1989 as community liaison officer. She became marketing

manager, Melbourne in 1994.

23

1. W eekly reach of audiences - in service areas

Homes Potentials [0 00s] Homes Reach

% [0 00s]

People Reach

% [000s]

Five Cities Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane Adelaide, Perth 4,534 52.3 2,372 35.1 4,459

NSW Regional Northern Rivers, Newcastle, Wollongong, Canberra Orange/Dubbo/Wagga, Tamworth

1,054 49.1 518 32.4 910

Victorian Regional Ballarat, Bendigo, Gippsland. Albury 320 44.4 142 29.8 261

Queensland Regional Toowoomba/Darling Downs, Townsville, Cairns, Maryborough 388 49.2 191 34.8 360

Tasmania Hobart/Southern Tasmania Launceston/Northern Tasmania 174 55.7 97 39.8 188

National Totals >1999 6,470 51.3 3,320 34.5 6,178

>1998 6,292 50.5 3,179 33.7 5,824

>1997 6,527 47.4 3,097 30.5 5,210

Trends >1996 5,765 45.8 2,640 29.0 4,856

>1995 5,326 45.3 2,413 29.2 4,541

>1994 5,250 42.2 2,216 27.5 4,229

* Includes only those areas measured by A.C. Nielsen and does not include SB S viewers in Darwin and 121 self-help services where the potential audience exceeds 200,000.

2. W eekly viewing by ethnicity (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth combined)

Born overseas in a non-English speaking country

Total People

Born in Australia or in an overseas English speaking country

32,4%

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

The above figures were compiled from the regular industry audience reports of A. C. Nielsen

3 . Top program s (n a tio n a l) Based on average per minute audiences

000s

South Park Com edy Series 1,067

Unknown Images: The Vietnam War Special 658

Stone Movie 658

The Day the Earth Was Hit As it H appened 605

Ancient Egypt Docum entary series 597

Meet the Ancestors Docum entary series 575 Gracious Curves Docum entary 545

Hitlers Warriors Docum entary series 527 Turkish Passion Movie 509

The Viking Saga As it H appened 508

FA Cup Final Soccer 506

Decisive Weapons Docum entary series 490 Stone Forever Docum entary 484

Nature of Things: Yellowstone to Yukon Docum entary series 481 The Extinction Files As it H appened 479

Sounds of the Sixties Docum entary series 478 Russia's War: Blood Upon the Snow Docum entary series 468

Egypt’ s Lost City As it H appened 461

Out of Asia As it H appened 452

South Park Discovered Docum entary 448 Eurovision Song Contest Special 445

The Snowy Docum entary series 444

World News - Sunday World News 436

000s

Assault on the Mind: The Battle Against Alzheimers T h e Cutting Edge 428

At Your Service Special 425

Glyn Christian Tastes Royal Thailand Cooking series 422

Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story Documentary series 419 Stonehenge (rpt.) As it Happened 419

Fate of the Neanderthal Man Documentary series 412 Girl On a Motor Cycle Cult Movie 411

The Laundrymen T h e Cutting Edge 409

Gourmet Ireland Cooking series 409

The Irish Empire Documentary series 408 Bill Bryson’ s Notes From a Small Island Documentary series 407 English Premier League Soccer 403

Chrissy Documentary 400

Wildfish Fishing series 398

Fdephants or Ivory T h e Cutting Edge 398 Project A {rpt.) Movie 394

Healing America's Youth T h e Cutting Edge 389

Nagasaki: A record of Life and Death As it Happened 385

A Fork in Australia Documentary series 383

4. W eekly reach by age and sex >% ofCategory

[000s] [000s] [000s] [000s]

M en 18-24 ' 238 Women 18-24 163 Children 0/4 147 People 18/39 1,527

Men 25-39 634 Women 25-39 492 Children 5/12 236 People 40+ 2,310

M en 40-54 622 Women 40-54 447 Teens 13/17 239 Men 18+ 2,142

M en 55+ 646 Women 55+ 595 Women 18+ 1,695

RADIO

Reach SBS Radio broadcasts to all major cities across Australia and reaches a potential

national audience of more than 2.5 million people who speak a language other than English in the home. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that 41% of these people reside in NSW, 33% in Victoria, 8.2% in Queensland, 7.1% in Western Australia, 6.6% in South Australia, 1.7% in the ACT, and 0.5% in Tasmania.

Audience Surveys Since 1996, SBS Radio has been progressively surveying its language

audiences to determine listening habits and to elicit feedback on how to improve services.

To date, 38 surveys of 36 language communities have been conducted by the independent Quadrant Research. This year’s surveys were of the Thai, Hungarian, Assyrian, Hindi, Tamil, Sinhalese, Punjabi,

Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati and Kannada language communities. In previous years, the surveys have included the following language communities: Vietnamese, Italian, Greek, Arabic (twice), Cantonese (twice), Mandarin,

Khmer, Spanish, Polish, Macedonian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian, Bosnian, Maltese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Indonesian and Persian/Farsi.

The Quadrant surveys showed continued high approval rating of SBS Radio broadcasts in almost all languages. Responses to questions on ‘satisfaction’, ‘programming content’ and the ‘professionalism of SBS Radio broadcasters’ regularly scored approval ratings of 80-90% across most languages. While the surveys showed significant

listening to SBS Radio, they also demonstrated the need to publicise SBS Radio services more widely to Australia’s language communities.

In late June 2000 an additional survey was launched to assess the awareness of SBS Radio among the general population as well as among people from non-English speaking backgrounds. The survey will also review the listening habits of people from the country’s six largest community groups - Italian, Greek, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Cantonese/Mandarin.

Audience Feedback In recent years, a new gauge of the value and popularity of SBS Radio programs has

emerged: audience participation. Over the past year, thousands of people have participated in outdoor broadcasts conducted by SBS Radio in every capital city, in every State and Territory, as well as in many country and regional towns. The two Outside

Broadcast units - one based in Sydney and another in Melbourne - have proved immensely popular with listeners and broadcasters alike (see Chapter Three ‘Building Relationships with Our Community').

Radioathons, the other highly successful gauge of audience participation, have become synonymous writh SBS Radio. Over the past three years, SBS Radio has helped raised an estimated $3.5 million for humanitarian causes, both at home and overseas (see Chapter ‘Three Building Relationships with Our Community’).

Youth Audiences TELEVISION

In recent years, SBS Television has gained a considerably higher profile among audiences in the 13-17 years and the 18-24 years demographics, primarily through the introduction of animated series such as South Park and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Early inroads had been made with cutting edge animation programs such as Aeon Flux, The Maxx, and Liquid Television, but it wasn’t until the first series of South Park, in

December 1997, that youth audience numbers increased substantially.

Programs skewed towards younger audiences have been among the most popular on the network, including the SBS production, Pizza, the aforementioned Neon Genesis Evangelion, Strangers With Candy, and Dr Katz. Other programs that appealed to the youth market in the past year include the SBS production, Alchemy, Classic Albums, Rock Family Trees and a number of stand-alone documentaries on artists such as Blur, Iggy Pop, Bob Marley, and Jimi Hendrix.

Among children and people aged up to 24, SBS’s average weekly reach in Australia’s five major cities has increased from 628,000 in 1997 to 880,00 in 1998 -

a 40% jump. In 1999, the youth audience was almost identical - 876,000 - despite the fact that the biggest program drawcard, South Park, included a number of repeats.

(See graph 4: Weekly reach by age and sex)

RADIO

T he SBS Radio project, Training in Radio for Young People (T RY!), continued to train younger broadcasters in program presentation and the

production of program segments for younger listeners. Since it began in 1997, TRY! has trained more than 100 young people from 42 language backgrounds.

In the past year, young broadcasters from Arabic, Armenian, Cantonese, Croatian, Indonesian, Japanese, Macedonian, Spanish, Thai, Hungarian, Urdu and Vietnamese backgrounds received

training. Many language programs now contain youth segments, children’s drama, and segments on science and the

environment for younger listeners. Graduates from the TRY! project provided valuable live performances,

broadcasts and recordings from many of the outside broadcasts in Melbourne and Sydney. Young broadcasters trained through the TRY! scheme have been

able to expand their skills on Alchemy, SBS Radio’s youth music program, which continues to build an audience among second-generation Australians through

the common language of English.

Alchemy attended the Adelaide Festival and Womad and recorded a number of items performed by various local and visiting artists. Requests for musical material from young Australians resulted in the receipt of more than 30 CD, minidisc and cassette ‘demos’ and

many of these recordings have been broadcast by Alchemy. Early discussions have been held on building a comprehensive youth site on the SBS web site.

TWO

our programs

TELEVISION In 1999-2000, SBS Television broadcast 6,529 hours of programming, of which 57% were in languages other than English. News and current affairs programming accounted for 42% of total broadcast hours, films 22%, and documentaries and documentary series 13%.

i

s

28

SBS PRO DUCTIONS

SBS Television Production department generated more than 260 hours of programs during the year. The programs reflected a wide spread of subjects, cultural issues and production styles in keeping with SBS’s Charter responsibilities and its reputation for diversity, innovation and quality. Most of the programs were produced in-house, but where necessary or appropriate, some productions or facilities were out-sourced.

C0RR0B0REE 2000

The two-day reconciliation conference and people's march was the biggest logistical exercise ever undertaken by SBS Television.

As host broadcaster, SBS provided live coverage of the May event including the reconciliation ceremony at the Sydney Opera House and a 23-camera coverage of the

Harbour Bridge walk and Darling Harbour concert the following day. The broadcast, hosted by Jana Wendt, Indira Naidoo and Vivian Schenker and involving many

indigenous SBS staff members, was produced through the joint efforts of News, Production and Operations. Footage of the historic event was specially packaged and made available to

other Australian broadcasters and the international media. Comprehensive coverage on the SBS web site, including audio and video, attracted strong interest with 12% of all accesses from the USA.

GOING HOME

Commissioned from major production house, McElroy Television, Going Home is recognised as one of the most innovative programs on Australian television. Scripted, filmed, edited and

broadcast on the same day. Going Home grew out of SBS’s desire to explore new forms of television programming. Set in a nightly inter-urban commuter train over 65 episodes, the program

realistically intertwines the fictional lives of its nine characters with the news and issues of the day. Broadcast each weeknight at 7.30pm, Going Home encourages viewer feedback via the SBS web site, including plot and character

suggestions that are regularly incorporated into subsequent episodes.

PIZZA

T he nine-episode comedy sitcom, Pizza, was an instant hit, becoming the most popular comedy on SBS after the very successful South Park series and the

network’s most successful in-house production. The streetwise, knockabout series was particular popular with

younger audiences. The brainchild of writer/director/actor, Paul Fenech, Pizza was a slice of life seen through the eyes of two pizza delivery boys and the owner

of a pizza business in the wrong end of town.

ALCHEMY

Tapping into the subculture of dance dubs, the popular SBS music program caters to a previously neglected music genre. Presented by Frank Rodi, Nicole

Fossati and Robbie Buck, Alchemy has an edgy visual style that reflects the spirit of electronic and experimental music. In its fourth series. Alchemy went to New York to profile the city’s finest cutting edge artists and clubs. The program’s web site remained extremely active,

reflecting Alchemy’ s continuing popularity among dance and funk followers. The three co-hosts were among the presenters at the 1999 ARIA Awards and Nicole and Robbie performed this role again at the 3D Dance Awards 2000.

A FORK IN ASIA

Following the success of his internationally-focused series, A Fork in the Road, Pria Viswalingam turned his attention to home-country wanderings. A

Fork in Australia took him to Kulin in Western Australia’s wheat belt, Melbourne, Cairns, Broome, Adelaide,

‘My proudest day was when the Greek program in Sydney raised $120,000 for the Thessalica earthquake victims’ Alex Catharios - Head of Greek Language Program, Sydney

Alex was a lieutenant in the Greek Army and a director of the Army radio station in the northern Greek town of Kavala shortly before he migrated to Australia in 1968. While employed as a service engineer with Rank Xerox, he becam e a volunteer broadcaster with 2EA in 1 9 7 5 .Three years later, Alex was chosen to head SBS Radio's Greek Language program in Sydney. His professional highlights include interviews with past Greek

presidents, Karam anlis and Sargetakis, and former Australian Prime Ministers, Whitlam and Fraser.

Canberra, Sydney and Tasmania. He even caught up with some expatriates in London.

EAT CARPET

Now into its l l ,h year, eat carpet remains the vanguard of short and experimental film and video works. It’s the only regular television outlet in the world for such works, eat carpet is recognised for its unique blend of animation, comedy, documentary, fringe arts events and works that defy categorisation. During the year, eat carpet gave awards at Flickerfest in Bondi and the St Kilda Film Festival and seven of its own productions were screened at Expo 2000

Hanover.

FRONT UP

Andrew Urban’s Front Up continues to draw, from people in the streets and malls of Australia, fascinating insights into their lives and their views on almost any subject. In the seventh series of the highly-regarded program, Andrew visited Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, as well as country Victoria and New South Wales.

FUTURE TENSE

SBS was a participant, along with CafE Productions (UK), Discovery Channels International (US), VM Productions (France) and Discovery Canada in the international co-production of a 13-part science magazine series, Future Tense.

SBS contributed segments to the series

which was coordinated by CafE, and retains the right to make an Australian version. The thematic episodes explore critical international issues in science

using contemporary post-production technology. The series will be screened in late 2000.

GLOBAL VILLAGE

'The popular program in the 6pm weekday timeslot continues to build a loyal and appreciative audience. Comprised of mini-documentaries about people and places throughout the world, and linked by Silvio Rivier’s commentary, Global Village has become one of SBS’s most successful early evening programs. During the year, SBS’s Production unit filmed a number of short segments - from Broome in Western Australia to Ingham in

Queensland - for inclusion in the program.

HOTLINE

Electra Manikakis’s audience feedback program settled into its first permanent timeslot this year - 5.50pm Mondays. Hotline, which began in 1990, remains

the only regular viewer feedback program on Australian television. In its tighter five-minute format, Hotline gives viewers the opportunity to air and share their views about SBS programming.

'At SBS you have a sense of doing something important. You are part of the making of a society’ Sophia Catharios - EEO Coordinator, SBS Human Resources

ICAM

The Indigenous Cultural Affairs Magazine (ICAM) remains the only prime-time indigenous affairs program broadcast nationally on Australian

television. It is re-broadcast by Imparja Television in Alice Springs for the benefit of remote indigenous communities. Another 26 episodes were broadcast during the year. Series eight included coverage of the Croc

Eisteddfod, programs about prisons, youth and the Aboriginal rugby league team, a profile of Senator Aden Ridgeway and a film made by the

Irrunytju Community at Wingellina, WA. Series 9 included a two-part progress report on reconciliation, programs about land and hunting rights, profiles of

Evonne Goolagong Cawley and the band, Tiddas, and a special about an indigenous art exhibition in St Petersburg.

;

THE A F I AWARDS

For the second year, SBS broadcast live the annual Australian Film Institute awards. The two-hour November broadcast from Sydney’s Horden

Pavilion reaffirmed SBS’s commitment to quality Australian film making. The presenters included Nicole Kidman, Russel Crowe, Cate Blanchett and John Poison. A live web-cast of the awards

was also carried on the SBS web site with comprehensive background information. Almost one third of all visits to the site were from the USA.

THE BRIDGE

TV Production supplemented the pre­ purchase of Israeli producer, Nili Tabs documentary about the collapse of a temporary bridge at the 1997 Maccabiah

Games which killed four Australian athletes and injured 60 others. This powerful documentary, which detailed

shoddy construction, official incompetence and personal grief was broadcast several days before an Israeli court handed down its verdict of criminal negligence against those

charged.

THE FOOD LOVERS’ GUIDE TO

AUSTRALIA

The Food Lovers’ Guide to Australia built on the popularity of the first series to produce an even stronger, more confident second series this year. Presented by Maeve O’Meara and Joanna Savill, the program traversed the

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food cultures of Australia, from the Northern Territory to Tasmania, from Western Australia to the eastern seaboard, showcasing the talents of individual chefs and an astonishing array of cuisines, culinary specialities and produce. It was accompanied by a colourful and informative web site of recipes and background details on featured stories.

THE MOVIE SHOW

After 13 years, The Movie Show remains the only in-depth cinema review and analysis program on Australian free-to-air television. Hosts Margaret Pomeranz and

David Stratton continued their lively debates about the merits or otherwise of current cinema releases. Once again the

program visited the Venice and Cannes film festivals and throughout the year secured many exclusive interviews with leading international and Australian actors, producers and directors.

THE SNOWY

One of the showpieces of Australian post-war development was the Snowy Mountains hydroelectricity scheme, important both as visionary engineering and a milestone in the history of multiculturalism in this country.

Drawing extensively on the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectricity Authority’s archives and on personal stories, the two one-hour documentaries attracted a strong audience and confirmed a continuing interest in an historical milestone.

News and Current Affairs The nightly SBS World News at 6.30pm and the World News Tonight at 9.30pm week nights continued to provide Australians with a

unique window to international events. Of all the free- to-air networks, SBS news bulletins give the most comprehensive reportage of world events. This was acknowledged in the

latest Newspoll survey that found 63.3% of people agreed that 'SBS has better coverage of overseas news than other TV stations’.

In 1999, audience figures for the 6.30pm SBS World News bulletin (Monday to Friday) rose 20.1% over the previous year, while audience numbers for the Saturday and Sunday editions were up 9.1%. Audience figures for the mid-evening news bulletin have also increased. Although World News Tonight (at 9.30pm) did not begin until May

1999, its average weekly audience reach during the year was 16.4% higher than the World News at Nine which broadcast during 1998.

Each week, 51.5 hours of international news bulletins in 17 languages are broadcast in the news omnibus program, WorldWatch and many of these bulletins are translated and regularly edited into locally produced reports for the SBS World News and World News Tonight. At the height of the crisis in

East Timor, for example, the WorldWatch telecast of the TVRI bulletins from Jakarta provided an insight into domestic Indonesian coverage and analysis of the unfolding dispute. An SBS news team in East Timor, from July until September, provided on-the- spot coverage, and SBS was in Darwin to report on the departure of Interfet forces to

Dili.

World News travelled to another regional hot-spot, Fiji, within 12 hours of the coup’s announcement and continued to provide satellite-fed reports in the following weeks.

DATELINE

SBS’s long running international current affairs program, Dateline, consolidated its audience in its Wednesday 8.30pm timeslot. Dateline reporters covered events in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United States and South America during the year. The 38 feature stories covered were:

INSIGHT

SBS’s national current affairs program, Insight, focused its attention on many of the issues confronting multicultural Australia. Insight reported on national and state politics and examined a multitude of issues - ethnic, political, social, ethical, religious and economic - in the 40 episodes broadcast in 1999-2000. The feature stories covered were:

mm MANDATORY SENTENCING BULLYING REPUBLIC FORUM GM CROP TRIALS LARIUM KOSOVAR REFUGEES RECONCILIATION FORUM GENE TECHNOLOGY SMALL SHAREHOLDERS CHILDREN’S RIGHTS FORUM Y2K BUG

MULTICULTURAL WORKERS NATIVE TITLE DIVERSE ELECTION ELITE ATHLETES ATSIC EAST TIMOR MEN'S REFUGE HISTORY’S VALUE HEROIN ADDICTION ARTS IN AUSTRALIA GRANDPARENTS MILK INJECTING ROOMS

MARIJUANA ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS LEGAL AID ABORIGINAL LEADERS

BULLY AT SCHOOL MOBILE PHONES VICTORIAN POLITICS CITY COUNTRY ALLIANCE

HOUSING FECCA URBAN DEVELOPMENT GM

CLOTHING INTERNATIONAL EYES NEW MEDICINE GST FORUM

The divide over law and order in the Northern Territory

The impact of intimidation in the workplace

The issues debated on the eve of the vote

Genetically modified foods grown in Tasmania

Side-effects of a well known anti-malaria drug

The refugees who fled Kosovo return to their homeland

Kempsey discusses how it could happen in their town

The political, social and ethical implications

Small investors stand up for their rights in big companies

A panel debate on what they are and how they are protected

What could happen if Australia is not prepared

The benefits of diversity in business

Western Australia test case on the rights to natural resources

The Chinese community's role in Sydney City Council election

The impact of competition on elite athletes and children

ATSIC's role through the eyes of community leaders

Post-ballot voice of refugees living in Australia

Abused men get their first refuge

The decline of the history lesson in schools

Cabramatta's drug problem and the way to deal with it

The effect of the funding report on the arts community

An appraisal of their role in a changing society

Deregulation of the dairy industry

One church's attempt to tackle the issue head on

A controversy about its value as medicine

How to handle people who seek asylum

The way the system has coped with cuts to Legal Aid funding

A profile of three styles of aboriginal leadership

Schools acting to end bullying

Health issues surrounding mobile phones

Election eve in the State

The Queensland party seen as a successor to One Nation

The impact of the Olympics on low-cost housing in Sydney

A review of the Council's role

Consolidation is the trend, but should it continue?

FoodThe pros and cons of genetically modified food

New push for better conditions for out-workers

The attitudes of overseas media in Australia for the Olympics

The arrival of high-tech medicine and the marketing tactics

A GST-eve discussion on what it w ill be like

3 4

Sport SBS Sport’s flagship program,Toyota World Sports, drew 8.3% more viewers to its nightly coverage of world sports in 1999.

SBS also consolidated its status as Australia’s ‘cycling network’ with its comprehensive reporting of the Tour de France and Jacob’s Creek Tour Down Under.

T he organisers of the Jacob’s Creek event approached SBS to be the host broadcaster for international coverage (SBS highlights

were screened in 52 countries) as well as broadcaster for the national coverage which extended over six days.

'The Tour de France coverage was watched by a 1.7 million Australians and SBS Sport later negotiated a new four-year license agreement for terrestrial coverage of the event until 2003, the centenary of the world’s most important cycling race.

A new venture involving a partnership between SBS and UK-based content provider, Sportal, resulted in the launch in May of a comprehensive soccer web site. With SBS content provided by the Sports

department, theworldgame.com.au has helped insure that SBS retains its leading position as Australia’s premier provider of

soccer news and information services.

Although SBS lost a major soccer fixture, Euro 2000, to a pay TV network, SBS was able to retain its prominent soccer profile due to its coverage of some of the world’s most important annual events - the English Premier League, the European Champions League and the Italian Serie A - as well as the continued broadcast of the long-running

World Soccer program, the On The Ball panel discussion program, and exhaustive news coverage on Toyota World Sports.

The English Premier League weekly program and the FA Cup Final again attracted very good audiences and there was sharp growth in the popularity of the

European Champions League, a series of 17 choice matches screened on Thursday

evenings, culminating in live coverage of the final from Paris in May.

SBS further enhanced its reputation for coverage of a wide spectrum of sports with its broadcast of the Golden League of Athletics, the most important annual event in track and field outside the Olympics. Other under­

exposed sports covered by SBS during the year included waterpolo, ice hockey, beach soccer, badminton and figure skating. The

weekly series Sportswoman and Asia Sports continued and there was also event coverage of the Pacific Cup international women’s soccer tournament and the Pacific School

Games.

Indigenous Programs SBS Television broadcasts more programs about indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders than any other network.

Preceding the telecast of Corroboree 2000 and the People’s Walk for Reconciliation, SBS Television broadcast Unfinished Business - Reconciling the Nation, a 10-day season of

indigenous programs including six hours of documentaries and dramas specially commissioned by SBS Independent. The programs included the documentaries: A Cry From the Heart; Stolen Generations; Land of the Little Kings; and The Habits of New Norcia.

Four half-hour dramas were also shown:

Where the Two Rivers Meet; My Mother, My Son; Confessions of a Headhunter; and Dust (see SBS Independent page 44).

ICAM, which began in 1996, remains the only prime-time indigenous affairs program broadcast nationally on Australian television. Nineteen half-hour episodes of

ICAM - 9.5 hours - were transmitted this year (see above). Also during the year, SBS’s national current affairs program, Insight, devoted five programs to indigenous issues.

These included reports on mandatory g

sentencing, reconciliation and native title. j

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More than 40 hours of indigenous programming were broadcast during 1999-2000. These programs (below) included 29 documentaries and one documentary series, 10 dramas and one drama series, three animation and one special.

The vast majority of the 45 indigenous programs broadcast in 1999-2000 were commissioned by SBS Independent. In 1999-2000, SBSI commissioned a further 12 hours of indigenous programs, including:

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SBSI also committed funds to two projects. The first is for the development of four 26-minute monologues, They Call Me Mum, and the second is for two feature films

from indigenous film makers. This Indigenous Features Initiative was originated by SBSI and the National Indigenous Media Association of Australia (NIMAA) through

Indigenous Screen Australia (ISA).

ACQUIRE D PROGRAMS

During the year, SBS Television acquired 2,133 programs from more than 400 international programming sources. These programs from 81 countries, featured 154

languages and 184 cultures.

These programs are made accessible to Australian audiences through the use of subtitles. During the year, 637 hours of English-language subtitling was created by SBS Subtitles. In addition, the unit subtitled

the award-winning Tibetan/Australian film, The Cup, into English and French for the Cannes Film Festival and subsequent worldwide distribution. SBS Subtitling also produced the English version of the

documentary series. Hitler's Children, for international release by Germany’s ZDF network.

Programming Highlights DOCUMENTARIES

In 1999-2000, SBS Television broadcast 428 hours of documentaries, more than any other free-to-air network. These documentaries, both commissioned and

purchased from outside sources, cover a broad range of subjects, including: current affairs; human relationships; science; the arts; religion; sexuality and gender issues; race and racism; culture;

food and health; and ancient and modern history. The majority of these are 30 or 60 minutes in length, although feature- length documentaries also appear in the schedule on occasion.

Highlights of the past year include: McLibel - Two Worlds Collide, about the lengthy libel case fought in the British courts between McDonald’s and two

environmental activists; Football Hooligans, a behind-the-scenes look at organised soccer violence; Elephants or Ivory, on the debate surrounding the

partial lifting of the ban on the trade of ivory; The Child Brides, which looked at the Ethiopian custom of arranging marriages of girls as young as seven and the terrible consequences of this practice; and Is Scientology Above the Law? an analysis of the relationship between the Church of Scientology, its members and the law.

DOCUMENTARY SERIES

Some of SBS Television’s most popular and high rating programs in 1999-2000 were documentary series. During the year, they accounted for 422 hours of broadcast time. Among the most popular were: Meet the Ancestors, a series wherein facial reconstruction techniques are used to recreate images of early Britons from skull fragments; Sounds of the Seventies, which showcased the popular music of that decade through the use of archival material; Hitlers Warriors, which profiled some of the generals behind Hitler’s war machine; Empires - The Greeks, an examination of ancient Greek civilisation; Fat Files, a study of the causes of obesity;

The Dirt Detective, in which comedian Craig Ferguson travelled to various ancient sites in Scotland; The Food Lovers’ Guide to Australia II, the second series of Maeve O’Meara’s and Joanna Savill’s food odyssey around Australia; and Africans in America - America’ s Journey Through

Slavery, which promulgated the theory that the USA would never have acquired the economic power that it has were it not for slavery.

4

FEATURE FILMS

With the broadcast of 1,443 hours of feature films during the year - an average of 18 films per week - SBS Television remains the premier film network among Australia’s free-to-air broadcasters. Movies are presented each

evening Monday to Friday at 10pm, on Saturday nights at 9.30pm, and on Sundays at 10.30pm. Movie matinees are seen most days at 12.30pm and late- night movies are shown most nights of the week

Each night features a different variety of film: the Sunday evening movies are billed as Cinema Classics and are presented by David Stratton; Monday movies are dramas and crime stories aimed at young adults, introduced by

Des Mangan; on Tuesdays, Margaret Pomeranz presents ‘quality’ movies, many of which have had an Australian theatrical release; David Stratton hosts his selection of the world’s best contemporary films in Wednesday’s Movie of the Week; Thursdays see movies from a wide variety of cultures; on Fridays the movies are of general interest to the widest possible audience; and on Saturdays Des Mangan introduces the cinematically weird and wonderful in the Cult Movie slot.

Among the most popular movies of the year were: La Celestina (Spain); The Big Boss (Hong Kong); The Smile (France); A Girl Called Rosemarie (Germany); Stone (Australia); Self­ Portrait With a Lover (Poland);

Nude for Satan (Italy); and The Flodders trilogy (The Netherlands.)

DRAMA SERIES

Going Home, the 65-episode SBS commissioned program, launched in May, won strong viewer support and

broke new ground in production methods with its same-day shoot and broadcast schedule. Other drama series came from Austria (Inspector Rex), Ireland (Tales From the Poorhouse), Denmark (The Kingdom), and Lebanon (The Storm Rages Twice). In addition, repeat series from Malta (Time Will Tell), Syria (The Silk Market), and Greece (Anastasia, and Dual

Truth) were shown.

COMEDY

One of the most enjoyable ways of sharing cultural diversity is through comedy, and these programs are consistently among the most watched on SBS Television. During the year, some of the most popular comedies were: Pizza, SBS-Television’s own series about tw'O pizza delivery guys; South Park, the highly successful animated series about four eight-year- old boys growing up in Colorado; Goodness Gracious Me, a spoof on cultural and racial stereotypes set among England’s Indian community; Operation Good Guys, a fly-on-the-w'all ‘mockumentary’ series set in a British police station; and Baddiel and Skinner

Unplanned, billed as ‘two men, a sofa, and no script.’

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‘SBS was an experiment and I was happy to be part of that experiment. The response ■■■■■was wonderful from the start’ Ivana Serdarevic - Croatian Language Program, Sydney

A R T S P R O G R A M S S E A S O N S

Thirty three operas, grouped into two seasons, aired on SBS Television during the year. These were scheduled in Arts on Saturday (a three-hour block of arts

programs between 12.30 and 3.30pm every Saturday) and, occasionally, on Sunday nights. On many occasions, complementary programs were shown about the operas’ composers, conductors and artists. These seasons were in addition to the regular Masterpiece programs which profiled many leading artists from various disciplines, including the authors Graham Greene, Lawrence

Durrell and Stephen King, the artists Paul Gauguin, Salvador Dali and Marcel Duchamp, the film directors Franco Zeffirelli and Andrzej Wajda, the pianist Sviatoslav Richter, and the violinist Maxim Vengerov. Both Masterpiece and Arts on Saturday are hosted by Nym Kim.

During 1999-2000, SBS Television continued its innovative programming tradition of broadcasting special seasons of programs on a single theme. The

subject - examined through a broad range of feature films, documentaries, short dramas and comedies - is thoroughly dissected and examined from

a variety of perspectives, some serious and some in a lighter vein.

In the past year, four of these seasons were broadcast. They included Fall of the Wall commemorating the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall; Australian films and documentaries broadcast in the week prior to SBS’s live telecast of the Australian Film Institute Awards; Ffor Fake, a week of programs about frauds

and forgers; and Unfinished Business - Reconciling the Nation, a season of programs focusing on issues surrounding reconciliation and the stolen generations which was broadcast to coincide with the

National Declaration of Reconciliation Conference. In addition, between mid- October and the end of the year, 34 programs relating to the end of the

millennium and the Y2K bug were broadcast under the umbrella title Pre­ Millennium Tension.

Special Programs INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF

OLDER PERSONS

A number of programs were broadcast

In 1973, Ivana arrived in Australia as part of a spouse-assisted scheme and worked as a international telephone operator and then as a doctor's receptionist while also working part-tim e with 2EA. Later, her broadcaster/journalist role with SBS Radio was made a

permanent part-tim e position. A poet and novelist, Ivana says her most memorable day a t SBS Radio was her first broadcast and hearing her voice on radio.

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throughout the year covering an array of topics of interest to, or focusing on, older people. Among these were: the SBS1- produced documentaries A Calcutta Christmas, about the elderly residents of the Tollygunge Home in Calcutta, India; Ports of Destiny, which followed a 76- year-old Australian man on a visit to

Buenos Aires to find his 96-vear-old aunt; The Producers, about the attempt of two elderly Sydney gentlemen to produce a feature film; and Growing Old Disgracefully, on the Ulysses motorcycle gang whose members are all over the age of 50.

In addition, there were many purchased programs of particular interest to older viewers. These included:

Natural Love, in which a number of elderly Brazilians read the erotic poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade and reminisced about their love lives; The Life and Times of Life and Times, a

documentary dealing with the effects of aging on the body; the eight-part series The Fourth Season, canvassing the attitudes of people towards older persons in a range of diverse cultures; the two- part documentary series Assault on the Mind - The Battle Against Alzheimer’ s; and

the three-part series The Older the Better, which examined ways in which the aging process can be slowed.

NAIDOC WEEK

Almost 12 hours of programming were scheduled during NAIDOC Week.

These programs appeared throughout the schedule and included the SBSI- produced documentaries Marluku Wirlinyi: The Kangaroo Hunters, and

Walking Through a Minefield, and three- and-a-half hours of programming in Arts on Saturday.

HIROSHIMA DAY

The documentaries Long Shadows: The Lives of A-Bomb Orphans, Loose Nukes, and Nagasaki: A Record of Life and Death, were broadcast to commemorate the

bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

WORLD AIDS DAY

The SBSI documentary Chrissy, a video diary of the final year of life of a young HIV-positive woman, was shown to acknowledge World AIDS Day on

1 December.

UNICEF INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S

DAY OF BROADCASTING

Joining over 100 television stations around the world, SBS Television contributed to the UNICEF International Children’s Day of

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Broadcasting in December by broadcasting the films The Purse Snatcher and Wanted: Grandfather, the SBSI short Taniwha, and the documentary Children

of Cairo.

AU STR ALIA DAY

Australia Day was acknowledged by the transmission of a number of relevant programs: Eternity, about the man who, for 40 years, wrote the word ‘Eternity’ in

beautiful copperplate hand-writing around Sydney and whose work was acknowledged in the Sydney new year's eve fireworks spectacular; Moana - A Moshumentary, an SBSI documentary

about the phenomenon of ‘moshing’ (dancing in a close-knit pack to live rock music); Dead Heat - The Race to Find a Cure fo r Influenza, a look at the ground­

breaking research into the ‘flu conducted by two Australian scientists, and a repeat screening of Shifting Sands, SBSI’s collection of six short indigenous

dramas.

IN TER N ATIO N AL WOMEN’ S DAY

The documentaries The Child Brides and The Flying Nun, together with the feature film, The Story ofQiuJu, were shown to acknowledge International Women's Day.

HOLOCAUST DAY

The SBSI documentary, Uncle Chatzkel, and a repeat screening of the classic film, The Gold of Rome, were scheduled to mark Holocaust Day.

ANZAC DAY

The SBSI short drama, Harry’ s War, together with a repeat of SBSI’s documentary, Jack Sue: A Matter of Honour, were broadcast on Anzac Day.

CHINESE NEW YEAR

Chinese New Year was marked by showings of a classic Chinese feature film, Plunder of Peach and Plum, a repeat of the SBSI documentary, Mao’ s New Suit, and the Jackie Chan film, Twin Dragons.

SPECIALS

• Corroboree 2000 -9.5 hours over 27-28 May 2000.

• The 1999 Australian Film Institute Awards.

• The 1999 Ethnic Business Awards.

• The 2000 Eurovision Song Contest.

• The 2000 Faraday Lecture.

• The 2000 Oz Concert.

• The 2000 San Remo Festival of Italian Song.

• The World Food Media Awards.

‘As a broadcaster, the most important thing is to listen, to be diplomatic, and to act in a way that doesn’t offend listeners.’ Hussam Cheebo - Arabic Language Program, Melbourne

Hussain was a primary school teacher in Lebanon when, in 1975, he migrated to Australia to join his sister. In Melbourne he became a language teacher and volunteer broadcaster with 3EA's Arabic Language service. Hussam has to balance the needs of his audience who come from 15 different ethnic backgrounds.

M arried with two children, he's m ost proud of the radioathon appeals th at helped raise money for earthquake victims in Egypt and Lebanon.

SBS INDEPENDENT This was SBS Independent’s most active year since it was established in 1994. It commissioned 79 hours of programs - 34.5 hours of documentary and 44.5 hours of drama and animation. Over the same period, 48 hours of completed SBS1 projects (documentary, drama and animation) were broadcast by SBS Television.

SBSI continues to maximise its funding by spreading it across a wide production slate, concentrating on lower budget productions, and continuing to encourage the work of innovative and emerging Australian film makers. Many SBSI films and documentaries have been made

in regional Australia, and SBSI places particular emphasis on multicultural themes, involving indigenous film makers and those from non- English speaking backgrounds.

Since 1994, SBSI has received more than 3,700 proposals from all over Australia and has commissioned more than 420 hours of high- quality, distinctive Australian documentary, drama and animation, with every dollar of its Special Production Funding going to the independent Australian production industry.

The SBSI web site was launched online in December. It provides news and current information on proposal guidelines and initiatives to film makers. It also contains a complete and growing catalogue of all the films and documentaries which SBSI has commissioned, thus providing information to prospective buyers, internationally and domestically, about the distinctive work SBSI has supported.

SBSI films and documentaries continue to receive wide acclaim, winning 34 international and national awards during the year, including seven Australian Film Industry awards and five Dendy awards.

In accordance with its strategic principles, SBSI has actively supported Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander productions, commissioning more than 50 indigenous projects in the past six years. The biggest

project to date was the commissioning of four one-hour documentaries and four half-hour drama programs about indigenous issues which were broadcast in May as part of a special season, Unfinished Business - Reconciling the Nation, in the lead-up to SBS Television’s

extensive coverage of Corroboree 2000.

(See Indigenous Programs page 35-36) This block of programs was the most substantial contribution SBSI has made to one of SBS Television’s ‘theme’ weeks. Most of the films were from indigenous film makers, or a collaboration between white and indigenous film makers, and they focused on indigenous legacy, family, land, and the ‘stolen generations’.

SBSI, with the National Indigenous Media Association of Australia (NIMAA), is also committed to an Indigenous Features Initiative through Indigenous Screen Australia (ISA) to provide funding for two features films by indigenous film makers.

SBSI received a grant from the Centenary of Federation Fund for the production of a series which explores the experiences of second- and third-generation Australians from migrant backgrounds. More than 200 submissions were received and SBSI has fully funded eight documentary and four drama proposals to be broadcast in prime time under the title. Hybrid Life.

SBSI’s seven-part drama series, Bondi Banquet, began its television run in early June, accompanied by the launch of a web site with recipes, additional culinary material, and more information about the cast and crew.

Other SBSI initiatives include the approval of development funds for the production of a low budget feature film, The Meaning of Life, and the commissioning of a 26-minute satirical animated history of the 20th century by Academy Award-winning animator, Bruce Petty.

SBSI continues to increase its co-financing arrangements with all national and State funding bodies. Some of these ventures, such as Space Stories, involve more than one State film body.

SBSI co-financing arrangements with national and state film bodies 1999-2000:

In July-August, SBS Television broadcast the five one-hour episodes of The Irish Empire, an SBSI co-production with RTE and BBC Northern Ireland about the

Irish diaspora. Also screened during the year was Winds of Change, an SBSI co-production

with BBC, RTHK and FFC. The documentary series of three one-hour episodes was shot by film makers in Indonesia, Vietnam and Hong Kong. The

series was also selected in competition at the Banff Television Festival 2000.

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SBSI and S4C Wales are involved in a unique animation co-production. Animated Tales of The World, which brings together 26 of the world’s broadcasters. Each country is required to produce a 13-minute animation pertaining to their country’s indigenous tales and mythology.

Two other ventures are: Pitch ‘N Punt, involving the co-development by SBSI and Channel 4 of two documentaries Honne Pm Home and The Gay Gene; and The Big Pitch, an arrangement between SBSI, ZDF and Screen West for documentary development of two WA projects, Dealing with Dinosaurs and Dealing With the Devil.

Awards Among the awards received by SBS Television in 1999-2000 were the Banff Global Outstanding Achievement Award,

seven Australian Film Institute awards, five Dendy Awards, and the United Nations Association of Australia Media Award. (See Appendix 15).

RADIO General Programs SBS Radio broadcasts in 68 languages - more than any other broadcaster in the world - and each week transmits more than 650 hours of programming, including news - local, national and international - and a mixture of current affairs, interviews, community information, sport and music.

SBS Radio is a powerful tool in meeting the settlement, information and communication needs of Australians of non- English speaking backgrounds. It’s a multilingual national radio network,

broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week on the AM and FM band in both Sydney and Melbourne as well as on single frequencies to Adelaide and the Adelaide

Hills, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Geelong, Hobart, Newcastle and the Hunter Valley, Perth, Wollongong and Young (NSW).

Beginning at 6am, a different language program is heard every hour. Programs are based on language not ethnicity, and some programs (Arabic and Spanish for example) reach people whose origins are in many

different countries. The major language programs are broadcast twice daily, seven days a week, while some smaller language groups broadcast only one hour a week. How much air time a particular group is allocated is calculated according to the size of the community as well as other factors including proficiency in English, unemployment levels, the number of people aged over 55, and the proportion of new arrivals.

SBS Radio’s broadcaster/journalists present to their listeners the widest possible range of programs - news and current affairs, sport, interviews, talk-back, documentaries, drama and music. More than 15,000 hours of individual programs are produced each year and every day 36 unique news bulletins are

produced.

To do this, the SBS Radio network draws on a range of program sources. Each of the Melbourne and Sydney production centres generate programs for broadcast across Australia. Stories from outside of Sydney and Melbourne are generated by three full-time state correspondents.

All language programs deliver specific community information - often through

Ί never left SBS because I want to be ■■in touch with the world and the Macedonian community here/ George Businoski - Macedonian Language Program, Sydney

talkback, experts, panel discussions and street vox pops - and occasionally raise contentious community issues in order to inform listeners in an objective and fair

manner. News stories and interviews provide background information, personal experiences and analysis of the events and issues affecting their communities and shaping Australia.

SBS Radio covered all the major national and international events during the year, often with new perspectives and from different angles. For example, while most of the Australian media covered the Republic referendum from the same point of view, SBS Radio took its listeners deep into the debate about what it meant to be Australian in a modern multicultural society and what the Monarchy meant to migrants and their children who came from countries where the

Queen was not head of state. The so-called flood of boat people was examined for its human impact, the national significance of Anzac Day and the Melbourne Cup were explained, and SBS Radio looked beyond the Olympics hyperbole to examine stories such

as a ban on people taking food into Olympic venues, which could have left many visitors unable to eat because of religious or cultural beliefs.

Special Programs During the year, SBS Radio showed continued commitment to two key Charter obligations: assisting migrants to settle in Australia, and providing news and

information to Australians from non-English speaking backgrounds. In every State and capital city, and many regional centres in between, SBS Radio’s two outside broadcast

units brought broadcasters and the public together at scores of public events and festivals (see Chapter three. Building Relationships With Our Community).

In promoting a cohesive, inclusive society, SBS's multilingual radio network is often the principal source of settlement information. Everything from information about social security benefits to medical and educational news is therefore a vital part of every program. For example, a pilot scheme

trialed by the Vietnamese Language program for listeners to receive taxation advice from bi-lingual Australian Taxation Officers in

their own language was so successful it was extended to the Arabic, Cantonese and Spanish language communities. This was invaluable to consumers and small business operators prior to the introduction of the GST.

The Cantonese program provided regular items about English idioms, their meaning and context, while relating them to similar expressions in Cantonese. Similarly,

George arrived by ship from Macedonia in 1972. He'd been in Australia two years earlier as p art of a folk dancing group and liked the country. He established a dance group and was involved in community issues, becoming the migrant health worker for the St George area. For his first 18 m onths at 2EA, George was a volunteer producer. Later he became a broadcaster.

the Vietnamese language program devised, produced and broadcast ‘Learning English’, a series on everyday English words and accents heard in Australian cities and towns. The German program has a long-running segment teaching the German language while incorporating English extensively.

During the year, SBS pioneered a collaborative project to make English language learning more relevant and rewarding. Called the EasyNews project, its aim is to facilitate better understanding of

radio and television news and current affairs for listeners and viewers who come from non-English language backgrounds. The partnership involves SBS, the Adult Migrant Education Services of Victoria and the Multicultural Affairs Unit of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet. SBS is contracted to provide news content and to

produce the news segments that are written and recorded at SBS’s Melbourne studios and then published on the Adult Migrant

Education Services’ web site.

SBS Radio also produces the long- running Homereach project. These specialist segments, in more than 20 languages, provide information to housebound people and their carers. During the year, Filipino and Greek were the latest languages to be added to the service and SBS has won the tender for the project to be produced in 14 more languages over a two-year period. Homereach is jointly funded by the State and Commonwealth governments under

their Home and Community Care Program and administered by the NSW Ageing and Disability Department.

NSW's Transcultural Mental Health Centre engaged SBS Radio Marketing to produce a three-part radio series in 15 languages. The series specifically targeted | older people and explored issues such as

1 loneliness and social isolation, detailing how these social issues can impact upon their .a mental health.

Special additional Albanian language programs were included in the schedule during the months when thousands of Kosovo refugees were housed in safe havens in Australia (see News and Current Affairs), and throughout the year a succession of radioathons raised a total of $2,052 million for local community projects and international relief causes (see Chapter 3, Building Relationships With Our Community).

News and Current Affairs Many stories, because of their international or national significance, are newsworthy in anyone’s language, and because SBS Radio’s broadcasters and journalists talk to Australians in 68 languages the year saw some remarkable news scoops.

The Latvian program, for example, gained a world exclusive interview with the alleged Nazi war criminal Konrad Kalejs. Not only was it rapidly translated into English and used in the World View current affairs

program and more than 60 SBS Radio language programs, it also was picked up by national and international media.

During the year, the Portugese and Indonesian language programs became regular sources of breaking news before, during and after the referendum and subsequent Indonesian withdrawal from East Timor.

Time and again, SBS Radio broadcasters’ personal contacts and professional networks provided invaluable intelligence to evolving events as well as unrivalled access to the news makers and those affected. One example was SBS

Radio’s access to Kosovo Albanians in Australia and their families overseas. The first interview with Kosovo Albanian refugees as they arrived in Australia was obtained by SBS’s Albanian language broadcasters.

Due to the exceptional circumstances, the number of Albanian language programs was temporarily extended from two to eight programs a week to provide news and

information to the 4,000 Kosovars in safe havens across Australia. Coverage was supplemented by outside broadcasts from several safe havens. For the community, for those who stayed and for those who returned home, SBS Radio became an essential source for information, interviews and talkback providing an Australian perspective on the

Kosovo tragedy.

T he coup in Fiji provided similar comprehensive and exclusive coverage, including the first interview with an eyewitness to the coup from her office inside

the Fijian parliamentary building. Another hot spot, the Middle East, gave SBS Radio’s Arabic language program the opportunity to bring full coverage and insight to the

casualties and brinkmanship of Middle East negotiations throughout the year.

Domestically, there was extensive coverage of State elections, the introduction of the GST and other tax issues, insurance complexities, banking fees and branch closures, Federal and State budget coverage,

and other business and finance-related matters from a non-English-speaking background perspective.

SBS RADIO NEWS

T he radio newsrooms in Sydney and Melbourne, together with interstate correspondents, provided 525 news and background features to SBS’s 68

language groups for translation and use in their programs. In addition, the newsrooms produced more than 7,000 news stories and 650 interviews in languages other than English. International features produced by SBS Radio news included:

Asia-Pacific

Unrest in the Solomons, Fiji, Timor,

Ambon and West Papua, Korean detente, Vietnam 25 years after the war, Tibet, Chinese human rights, India and Pakistan nuclear tests, human rights in

Burma, muslim guerillas in the Philippines.

Middle East

Israel pulls out of Lebanon, death of Syrian President Assad, Camp David peace talks, Iraqi and Afghani refugees, sanctions on Iraq.

Europe

Latvian war crimes, the Elgin marbles, the war in Kosovo, holocaust compensation for Jews, Croatian

elections. Northern Ireland peace, new Russian president, death of the Serbian war lord Arkan, Euro 2000 soccer, Tour de France.

Africa

The war in Sierra Leone, conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, crisis in Zimbabwe, AIDS in Africa, cricket corruption in South Africa.

Americas

General Pinochet trial, US Presidential race, trans-migration in Brazil.

Indigenous Issues

Corroboree 2000, reconciliation, the stolen generations, mandatory sentencing, the tent embassy, health issues, housing, road safety, art fraud, artist profiles, Cathy Freeman, deaths in custody, the ‘treaty’ issue, returning

body remains from overseas, nationalism, the millennium from an indigenous perspective.

Social Issues

GST, health insurance, parent migrant visas, immigration and population

4 8

planning and policy, genetically modified food, new nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney, centenary of Federation, constitutional referendum, industrial relations changes, Australian honours, ASIO and police powers, heroin injecting rooms, Olympics, defence review, Telstra privatisation, salinity, digital broadcasting,

International Events in Australia

International Whaling Commission (Adelaide), Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition, Olympic torch relay, May Day in Australia, drugs in sport conference,

International Deafness conference, International Human Rights Conference (Perth), Australian Tennis Open, Australian FI Grand Prix, numerous Olympic test events.

M ulticultural Events

Crime, justice and policing, youth gangs, lunar new year, age discrimination, bullying, female genital mutilation, culture and the environment, ethnic communities and reconciliation,

FECCA, changing a person’s ‘ethnic’ name to an ‘anglo’ name, Snowy River project reunion, cultural diversity in Australia, crime in Cabramatta in Sydney, illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, Olympic arts festivals, foreign films in Australia, women’s health.

Each weekday (at 6am and at 5pm) the one-hour English language news and current affairs program, World View, provides a multicultural perspective to national and international events.

During the year, World View produced more than 2,080 current affairs reports, features, panel discussions and interviews, including a one-hour documentary on the 25-year history of SBS Radio.

Australian features

Asylum seekers, mandatory sentencing, the citizenship debate, the Kosovo refugees, Nazi war criminals in Australia,

ethnicity and crime, history of West Papua’s annexation, the FECCA conference, CARE hostages in Yugoslavia, reconciliation issues, Victorian election.

International Features

- The Chinese diplomat in WW2 Vienna who saved thousands of Austrian Jews

WORLD VIEW

- UNHCR criticism of Australia’s policy of Kosovo refugee repatriation - Fiji’s coup and its cultural, ethnic, labour, economic, social and

international effects.

- Indonesia’s ethnic and religious violence and separatist movements in Aceh and West Papua - Korea and the possibility of

reunification - Conditions in Australia’s refugee detention centres - The renaissance of jews in Poland and

Germany - Droughts in Africa and the sub­ continent - The US presidential elections

- The Middle East peace talks

Panel discussions and general features

- The Greta Migrant Camp - Broadcast ethics - English as the world’s dominant language - 50th anniversary of the Geneva

convention - Citizenship: Asian versus Caucasian perspectives - Migration and population limits

- War crimes in East Timor - Indonesian nationalism versus democracy - The media’s role in East Timor - Human rights - Australia’s refugee policy

- Turkish and Arabic languages on the rise in Europe - Sexual abuse and apartheid in South Africa - Australian multieulturalism - Indian prisons - Views of an indigenous doctor - Austria’s emerging right-wing - Mandatory sentencing - Corroboree 2000 and reconciliation - The release of Adolf Eichmann’s

diaries - Escalating Christian-Muslim violence in Nigeria - White farm expropriation in Zimbabwe - Taiwan's election - Worker exploitation in the Marianas - Nazi war criminals in Australia - The Esmerelda and PNG cyanide

spills - Violence against journalists world-wide - Suicide among migrants - The media in South Africa and

Indonesia - The 25rl' anniversary of the fall of Saigon - Extensive coverage of the Fiji coup.

Special segments on women, the elderly,

youth, m igrant and cultural issues

- Halal fast food - Cooking to keep teenagers healthy - Internment impact on Japanese- Americans

- Possible closure of a French consulate

1 As a broadcaster, you’re a guest in people’s

homes or their cars. I’ve learnt not to impose myself and not to be patronising.’ Joe Axiaq - Maltese Language Program, Melbourne

Joasa left Malta in 1974 after finishing his education. He settled in Melbourne where he was employed 1 as an administrative officer with Telecom. At 3EA, he was persuaded to become a broadcaster after ■submitting some program scripts. The day of his first broadcast remains his m ost memorable, and his I biggest 'scoop' was his exclusive interview with M alta's visiting opposition leader. I

- The Olympics and indigenous Australians - Danish seniors establish their own supermarket - Child soldiers in Africa - Discussion with indigenous leader -

Lester Bostock - Greek Orthodox Church opposition to cremations - Are children inherently racist?

- The Melbourne nursing homes scandal - International Women's Day - Adelaide’s first Asian-born mayor - Interview with a female aboriginal

Anglican priest.

The arts and cultural stories

- Director David Bransen who staged a play by Christos Tsolkas called Elektra A-D - Neill Duncan of the New Zealand-

based group called the Jews Brothers Band - Maori tattooist Inia Taylor - National Youth Week - Vietnamese-Australian comedian Hung Le - Indigenous artist Ningli Lawford - The Tokyo Shock Boys - Korean violin prodigy Yura Lee - The Anne Frank exhibition - An Aboriginal Culture Gallery in Adelaide - Religious training for the Victoria Police

- Interview with Lookingfor Alibrandi director

SPORT

As befitting its multicultural and multilingual obligations, SBS Radio provided comprehensive sports coverage during the year, ranging from soccer and cricket to table tennis. Coverage of the Australian Tennis Open included 42

interviews in 19 languages as well as news comments from 70 players in 22 languages. The Australian Formula 1 motor racing championship provided SBS programs with 60 interviews in nine languages with drivers and team members from 10 countries.

Commentary of the Euro 2000 soccer championship was provided in French, Italian, Dutch, Turkish and Romanian. Other coverage included the touring Indian cricket team and the table tennis world championships.

Awards Among the awards received by SBS Radio in 1999-2000 were the Austcare Refugee Week Media Award, the NSW Law Society Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the National Youth Media Award.

(See Appendix 15)

‘Radio has given me the opportunity to enrich my life through the experiences of people I m eet/ Florencio Saiz - Head of Spanish Language Program, Melbourne

Internet Services NEW MEDIA SBS New Media division was formed in February 2000 with the amalgamation of the Computer and Information Resources division and the Mulitmedia unit. This followed the completion in October 1999 of a commissioned New Media Business Plan and

a $2 million funding commitment from the Federal Government for the establishment of an SBS New Media division. Priority has been given to providing multilingual audio-on-

demand to the SBS Radio web pages, building multimedia activities and services, and expanding the multicultural content and audience reach of SBS through the world wide web.

T he New Media division was established with two broad aims for content development. These were: to re-develop the main SBS web site in order to represent and complement

programs broadcast on SBS Radio and Television; and to create new multimedia services which are brand extensions of SBS -

original multimedia products based on SBS’s distinctive style and specialist content areas, presented in new and innovative ways.

The SBS web site - www.Nbs.eom.au - features content that directly reflects the Charter of SBS, and supplies information to audiences about media content from SBS's

Radio and Television services, including comprehensive program guides and supplements. Major initiatives included:

TELEVISION NEWS AND

CURRENT AFFAIRS

Journalists use in-house developed software to edit and publish material directly to the web site. At least three different news bulletins are published each day as well as a nightly transcript of the 6:30pm SBS World News. The Insight and Dateline teams are also able to self-

publish their news and current affairs stories online.

RADIO AUDI0-0N-DEM AND

Radio broadcast journalists have been provided with self-publishing tools to place features on the SBS web site. By July 2000, a number of programs had

been launched online and it was hoped that all 68 language programs would be online within six months, providing a

valuable information and entertainment resource for the various language communities. This material is accompanied by text introductions and is

available in high-quality Internet audio.

Florencio migrated to Melbourne in 1969 shortly after his m arriage in London to Guna who had settled in Australia 20 years earlier. While working for the Health Insurance

Commission, Florencio was a volunteer broadcaster at 3EA and later became SBS Radio's first coordinator of the Spanish Language program in Melbourne. He's met and interviewed people from all walks of life and particularly enjoys making radio documentaries.

GOING HOME

Innovative online support for the nightly topical drama Going Home has proved a success. The program encourages television viewers to visit the web site and contribute story ideas and feedback;

information that's been very valuable for both the program’s production and for the development of an online community of viewers. Since its premiere (22 May) until the end of the financial year, there were 11,000 visits to

the Going Home ‘story contribution’ page.

C 0R R 0B 0R E E 2000

New Media joined SBS Radio and Television in covering the two-day Corroboree 2000 event. The Multimedia

unit received audio and video feeds of the broadcasts, which were digitised, edited and placed online with most material being published within 10 minutes of it taking place. Twelve per cent of the audience for this highly successful web production came from overseas, the majority from North America.

BONDI BANQUET

The commissioning of SBSI’s innovative cuisine/drama program, Bondi Banquet, included the rights to recipes and other information. A fully data-based web site was developed to access this

information.

New Online Content SBS New Media is actively developing new interactive services, principally web sites, which will be derived from the content

traditions and strengths of SBS, although much content will be commissioned that is new and exclusive. These services will be capable of being deployed on various distribution platforms including broadband and terrestrial digital TV carriage, as opportunities arise. SBS regards these types of services as ‘Internet satellite’ sites, several of which are already developed or planned.

SBS’s Internet satellites are based on a business model designed to sustain the growth of the content through sponsorship and strategic partnerships. New Media is working closely with the Stenmark Organisation, who sell sponsorship and advertising for SBS Television, to develop a limited number of high-value sponsorships for these Internet services.

Ί love bringing information to the ■■Macedonian community/ Boris Dobrosavlev - Macedonian Language Program, Sydney

w w w .t h e w o r l d g a m e .c o m .a u

This is the first Internet satellite developed by SBS and is one of the most comprehensive soccer web sites in the world. It was developed with a content partner,

Sportal, a UK-based sports Internet content company. T he site was launched in May and achieved immediate success. At times, during the Euro 2000 soccer tournament, the

site was the second most popular sports web site in Australia. Since its launch, the site was consistently in the top 10 of all web sites in Australia and regularly outperformed the

Olympics web site.

SBS Multimedia staff provided the graphic design, while Sportal developed the back-end, or data transfer tools, of the site - a valuable technology transfer between the

organisations. T he original relationship with Sportal was identified by SBS TV Sport, and content contribution from SBS continues to be led by this department which self-

publishes regular updates to the site.

w w w .t h e w o r l d n e w s .c o m .a u

The World News web site, the second of SBS's Internet satellites, is being developed. In its current format it includes World View audio reports, television news transcripts, and

international news reports transcribed from the WorldWatch program. The completed site will gather comprehensive world news information produced by SBS Television and

Radio and incorporate new information sourced by New Media. It is designed to be a quick tour of news developments worldwide, with added focus on the impact of these events on communities in Australia.

The site features audio and video media and is updated throughout the day. It is planned that news content will be enriched by links to an encyclopaedia of world events and information. Other satellites planned for

development in the new financial year include an international cuisine web site, www.theworldfeast.com.au, and a multicultural youth service.

Boris was a veterinarian technician in Macedonia before migrating to Australia in 1967. His wife and fellow broadcaster, Zaga, and their son arrived six months later. They opened a travel agency in 1973 and two years

later joined 2EA as volunteer broadcasters. The first broadcast coincided with Macedonia National Day and triggered many congratulatory phone calls, "som e were crying and offering their support, it was wonderful".

THREE

building relationships with our community

Consultations During the year there were community consultations at Board and management levels, regular dialogue with the SBS Community Advisory Committee, and frequent community relations activities by program managers and program makers.

Individual SBS Board members met community groups or umbrella organisations in their home States to discuss SBS policies and practices, and the Chairman and Managing Director held many similar consultations. In March, a Board meeting in Perth gave all Board members the opportunity to meet representatives of Western Australia’s many community groups.

During the year, Radio and Television managers and production staff were involved in more than 600 community functions, consultations and seminars with representatives of a variety of language communities. One of the biggest functions, the celebration of the International Year of Older Persons, was organised by SBS in Melbourne. With the support of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care and the City of Melbourne, older listeners to SBS Radio from more than 60 language groups across Australia were brought to Melbourne in acknowledgment of their contribution to multiculturalism and to receive awards. At the other end of the age spectrum, SBS Radio received 3,700 entries from schoolchildren who entered an essay competition on the subject of learning another language.

SBS held a number of special events to celebrate 25 years of broadcasting, including a reception attended by government, political and community leaders at Canberra’s High Court in March, and another reception at Melbourne’s State parliament in June.

Radio Outside Broadcasting SBS Radio’s Outside Broadcast Units, one in Sydney and the other in Melbourne, maintained a busy schedule throughout the year. Teams of broadcasters from both cities presented programs live, or pre-recorded interviews and other segments during the vehicles’ visits to Perth, Adelaide, Darwin, Brisbane, Canberra, the Gold Coast and regional NSW, Victoria and

South Australia.

Coverage by the Sydney-based unit ranged from live broadcasts from the 50'1 ’ anniversary celebrations of the Greta Migrant Camp in the Hunter Valley to the historic Corroboree 2000 celebrations at Darling Harbour in Sydney. The Melbourne-based unit travelled more than 15,700 kilometres during the year, making contact with listeners as far apart as Fremantle and Geelong. Many of the outside broadcasts were at community festivals, in shopping centres and at major public venues where there was maximum contact with listeners and the general public.

Ί he major events covered by the SBS outside broadcast units during the year included:

Radioathons In recent years, radioathons have become one of SBS's most successful points of contact with the community. Program time and SBS facilities are set aside to organise these fund-raising campaigns, and broadcaster/journalists and managers assist in taking calls. But a great deal of the success of these ventures relies on hundreds of volunteers from many different language communities who staff specially installed

phone banks at SBS offices in Sydney and Melbourne.

This year was the most successful to date. A total of $2,052 million was pledged by SBS listeners from around Australia. Since 1998, more than $3.5 million has been raised

through SBS radioathons for causes ranging from hospital construction in Australia to relief supplies to overseas victims of natural disasters.

In radioathons held during the year, the Turkish language groups helped raise $1.2 million for earthquake relief while the Greek language programs won pledges of more than $280,000 for earhtquake victims in Athens. The Chinese language programs raised more than $20,000 for relief aid to Taiwan, and the Vietnamese language program helped raise

more than $300,000 for flood victims in Vietnam and an additional $70,000 for Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.

Codes of Practice In July 1999, SBS published a new' edition of the SBS Codes of Practice following an extensive review in w'hich public input was an important feature. The revisions to the Code are aimed at achieving greater public understanding of SBS’s programming policies and practices.

Audience Feedback SBS encourages audience feedback. To assist viewers and listeners, SBS has published its Service Commitment. First issued in July 1998,

the document was reviewed and a new edition issued during the year. The document contains a short description of SBS services, its commitment to its audiences, including a set of ‘principles of service’, and mechanisms for providing feedback about SBS services.

The Service Commitment draws attention to the SBS Codes of Practice and the process for making a complaint against SBS if the complainant believes the corporation has acted contrary to its Codes of Practice. Alleged breaches not satisfactorily resolved can be investigated by the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA).

In 1999-2000, the ABA investigated eight complaints about SBS programming. The ABA found SBS in breach of its Codes of Practice in twro instances. One for not

providing an adequate response to a complainant, and the other for inappropriate televising of a promotion in a ‘G’ time zone.

The SBS switchboard remained a major source of feedback about programming, as well as a means of providing people with information. Systems are in place to enable

people to comment in languages other than English. Overnight telephone responses to SBS programs continued to be distributed to all SBS programming staff. Comments made on-line were similarly distributed.

SBS Public Relations received 1,441 letters during 1999-2000.

They included: 841 requests for additional information or videos of programs; 209 general comments; 200 compliments; 61 requests for program repeats; 70 complaints; and 60 miscellaneous

comments. The total number of letters was slightly more than the previous year’s (1,290). E-mailed comments reached about 210 a week compared to about 200 per week in

1998-99.

The Television Network Programming branch replied to 265 letters during the year. The vast majority w'ere requests and

compliments. The letters included:

60 requests for repeat transmissions; 41 complaints about program content; 38 requests for the transmission of a program; 26 requests for further information on a

program; 25 compliments on programming; 19 enquiries about the availability of programs; 19 complaints about the content of program promotions; 14 general scheduling enquiries; 12 requests for programs of a particular genre or language; 6 complaints about a change to the movie start times; and 5 general programming complaints.

Hotline, the audience feedback program, which televised viewers’ comments each week, remained the only program of its type on Australian television, highlighting the

importance SBS places on audience responses.

Following the sale of the National Transmission Agency to ntl Australia, SBS is now responsible for all its transmission services, including complaints and enquiries. Audience feedback on technical problems is

mostly facilitated using SBS’s 1800 free call number. This ensures that viewers and listeners throughout Australia can provide

feedback at no cost. Most calls received immediate responses, but when this was not possible callers received a follow-up call once the problem was identified. Facsimile and E- rnail correspondence was also commonplace.

T he SBS analogue extension continues to generate enquiries. The Self-Help Subsidy Scheme administered by SBS received an overwhelming positive response during the

year with 16 successful applicants. All 3,000 copies of the self-help information booklets have been distributed and a second print-run has been ordered.

Freedom of Information There were three valid requests for documents under the Freedom of Information Act. One of the requests was

withdrawn, another was refused access, and

the third was not finalised at the end of the year. The refused request was an application for transcripts of an SBS Radio program. The reason for refusal was that transcripts of the

program were non-existent.

SBS believes that all Australians should have access to its multilingual and multicultural services, and works with the Government

towards achieving this aim.

With $70 million in Federal Government funding, 78 new services will receive SBS Television in the next financial year. These are communities of more than 10,000 people

identified under the Government’s $120 million Television Fund.

Under a separate funding arrangement with the Federal Government, SBS administers a re-transmission subsidy scheme that provides financial assistance to eligible communities to establish self-help radio

and/or television services for SBS programs.

The main objective of the scheme is to assist with the cost of delivering SBS radio and television programs to communities that are not able to receive SBS broadcast

transmissions from a fully publicly funded installation. The scheme is open to applicants who started transmitting after 1 January 2000. SBS also provides reception and technical advice.

To assist prospective self-help communities, SBS issued two booklets, the SBS Self-Help Guide, jointly published by SBS and the ABA, and the SBS Self-Help Re­ transmission Subsidy Scheme Guidelines.

To ensure that its Access and Equity goals are met, SBS Radio broadcasts cross-cultural news and current affairs programs, and provides community service announcements and information programs. The extensive use of two SBS Radio outside broadcasting units (see above) contributed greatly towards making SBS Radio more accessible to audiences outside of Melbourne and Sydney.

Access and Equity

Over the past three years, the SBS Radio project, Training in Radio for Young People (TRY!) has trained more than 100 people from 42 language backgrounds in radio production techniques, providing them production work on youth programs and the opportunity to supply segments in language

programs.

SBS Television - which this year broadcast 57% of its programs in languages other than English - produces programs which do not reinforce racial stereotyping, and which combat racism or any other form of

discrimination. More than 40 hours of indigenous programming - including 9.5 hours of the SBS-produced indigenous current affairs program, ICAM - were broadcast during the year (see Indigenous Programs page 35-36)

The weekday WorldWatch program provides 23 different news services from 18 countries in 17 languages. The nightly SBS World News and World News Tonight are captioned and English subtitles provide deaf and hearing impaired people with access to many other SBS Television programs.

The SBS Radio web site pages include text in both English and 68 other languages, and audio-on-demand facilities in English, French, Vietnamese, Maltese and Norwegian. In the next year, it is hoped all 68 languages broadcast by SBS Radio will be available online. News segments from the

English-language current affairs program, World Vim are also online.

SBS is an active participant with the other free-to-air networks in the Australian Film Commission-sponsored Women in Television project. Training and mentoring is provided

for women in the industry, particularly those in non-traditional areas.

Community Advisory Committee The Community Advisory Committee, Chaired by Mr Victor Hamit, met twice during the year, instead of the usual three times. There was a meeting on 28 June 1998 and a meeting scheduled for 7 July 2000 -

both just outside the reporting year. (For CAC membership, see appendix 14.) The Committee discussed ways SBS could strengthen its relationships with

people living in regional and remote Australia, noting that in the past, SBS’s consultation activities had mainly been restricted to metropolitan areas. The Committee is expected to make a

recommendation to the Board on this issue during 2000.

At the request of members, previewing of an SBS program was established as a standing agenda item.

The Committee discussed ways that SBS could be involved in highlighting the significance and importance of Australian citizenship. Members requested and received a Report of the Australian Citizenship Council for consideration at its first meeting

in 2000.

The possibility of SBS developing a community arts related initiative was raised by members. The Committee noted the difficulties of securing funding for proposals

that would provide genuine benefits to SBS and the community, recognising that sponsorship opportunities may need to be built into proposals. Three members of the Committee undertook to investigate how this

I

Ί like what I do. That's why I've ■never left SBS Radio.'

58

Zaga Dobrosavlev - Macedonian Language Program, Sydney

Zaga, with her four-year-son, flew to Australia in 1967 to join her husband who had migrated six months earlier. An accountant and personnel officer in Macedonia, Zaga eventually opened a travel agency with her husband, Boris.

In 1975, the couple volunteered to join 2EA, the forerunner of SBS Radio, and remain the corporation's only husband and wife broadcast team .

initiative could be taken further.

The Committee met Sir Nicholas Shehadie, SBS Chairman (October 1999), Ms Carla Zampatti (SBS Chairman, February 2000), Ms Maureen Crowe, Head of

Resources, Mr Ken Sievers, Audience Research Manager, and Ms Vivian Schenker, Presenter Insight.

The SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra Under the baton of its founding conductor, Matthew Krel, the SBS Radio and Television

Youth Orchestra had one of its busiest years since its formation in 1988.

T he Orchestra travelled to China in July 1999 for a number of concerts including performances in the Beijing Concert Hall, the Australian Embassy, and the prestigious

International Guest House. During September and October, the Orchestra performed in Estonia, Finland and Russia, receiving unanimous praise and a return

invitation from the Conservatoire in St Petersburg. It was one of the Orchestra’s

most successful tours in its 11 year history.

During 1999-2000, the Orchestra performed at the Jenolan Festival, the ‘Highlights of the Opera’ at the Sydney Opera House, and participated in a live

broadcast - linking the Opera House and Shanghai’s Grand Theatre - in February.

The Orchestra marked the 25th anniversary of SBS Radio and the 20th anniversary of SBS Television with a sell-out concert at the Sydney Town Hall in May where it performed the world premiere of Four Reasons, an orchestral piece composed

by Judy Bailey and performed by James Morrison.

Government and Corporate Relations Regular senior-level contact was maintained throughout the year with relevant ministerial offices, the Department of Communications,

Information Technology and the Arts, and the Department of Finance. SBS representatives had high-level contact with government and other corporate bodies,

particularly in relation to major broadcasting policy developments, digital television legislation, a new triennial funding agreement between the Government and

SBS, and the funding arrangements for extensions to the SBS Television analogue transmitter network and for the transition to

digital broadcasting.

SBS made a comprehensive submission to Government in support of its case for a new triennial funding agreement. Other submissions made during the year included:

!

59

THE SBS SUBMISSION TO THE SENATE

LEGISLATION COMMITTEE ON

ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNICATIONS,

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS

INQUIRY INTO THE BROADCASTING

SERVICES AM ENDMENT (DIGITAL

TELEVISION AND DATACASTING) B ILL 2000

SBS argued that Australian audiences should be offered demonstrably new and innovative services at the outset of digital television broadcasting.

SBS reiterated its preference for a flexible, light-touch, consumer-friendly regulatory approach to digital television, and expressed disappointment at the prevention of national broadcaster multichannelling and

the highly regulatory approach to data casting embodied in the Amendment Bill.

SBS contended that Australian audiences would be better served, and'the take-up of digital services affected more swiftly, if the national broadcasters were able to offer additional channels which, as dictated by their Charters, would be distinct from the services offered on commercial free-to-air and pay television.

SBS also contended that the datacasting provisions in the Bill seemed likely to severely limit the inventiveness of datacasting and its broad audience appeal. SBS expressed its regret that datacasting had been restricted by genre in the Bill, and recommended that datacasting content should not be prohibited from including self- contained segments or from having ‘entertainment value’.

In addition, SBS noted that the datacasting provisions of the Bill would prevent SBS from providing its radio service in a practical, low-cost way to regional and rural Australia. The submission pointed out that SBS Radio, which broadcasts in 68 languages each week, is currently only transmitted to the state and territory capitals plus Newcastle and Wollongong, and that

SBS would like to be able to deliver its radio service into the homes of ah Australians via digital television.

SBS also expressed concerns about the requirement in the Bill that national broadcasters must apply to the ABA for datacasting content licences, and that they be subject to charges for content provision. The national broadcasters, as distinct from the commercial sector, have not hitherto been subject to a licensing regime. SBS argued that it should not be required to apply for a licence to operate datacasting services specifically designed for the public benefit, as part of SBS’s multicultural Charter.

SUBMISSIONS TO DIGITAL TELEVISION

REVIEWS

SBS made follow-up submissions to the Government’s digital television reviews in response to Options Papers published by the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. These covered multichannelling for public broadcasters, captioning requirements, HDTV standards and re-transmission rules. By and large, the submissions reinforced positions already put by SBS in the first round of submissions to the digital television reviews. The first round of SBS submissions was summarised in the 1998-99 SBS Annual

Report.

ABA INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF

RIGHTS TO LIVE SPORTING EVENTS ON

FREE TO AIR TELEVISION

In response to an ABA Issues Paper, SBS expressed its belief that if an event or series of events is deemed important enough to be placed on the anti-siphoning list, then the event or series of events should be covered by the new ‘must-offer’ rules. SBS argued that if this did not occur the value of the anti-siphoning list as a public interest mechanism is diminished.

SBS expressed its support for the ‘must- offer’ rules as a key element in ensuring that the public is able to watch major events on free-to-air television. SBS said that it would

use its best endeavours to help make this happen, but SBS may not be able to make use of unused rights when offered by the commercial networks. This could be for

reasons of other program scheduling priorities, production or satellite distribution costs.

SBS noted that appropriate offer times were a critical factor. SBS believes that in most instances, 30 days offer time is far too short a period for SBS to prepare for the

transmission of a major sporting event, particularly if the event is of a relatively extended duration. More realistic offer times would be a minimum 60-day notice in the case of single events (e.g. a single soccer match like the FA Cup final) and a minimum 90-day notice for a series of events

like the World Cup Soccer Tournaments for which coverage preparation is much more complex. SBS argued that, generally

speaking, commercial television networks will have settled their schedules this far in advance, and notices of these durations would add to the chances of SBS being able

to broadcast an event or series of events.

SBS also advocated that some important soccer events, which have proven public support on free-to-air television in Australia when shown live, should be added to the

anti-siphoning list. SBS noted that Australian public support for soccer had grown considerably in the past decade and SBS believes this support should be reflected on

the anti-siphoning list. The recommended events were: each full international soccer match involving the senior Australian representative team, whether played in Australia or overseas; all matches in the

European Football Championships (as in the recent ‘Euro 2000’), which occur every four years; and the finals of the two European

football club championships, the UEFA Cup Final and the UEFA European Champions League Final, which are played every year.

International SBS maintains mutual cooperation agreements with:

- Canal France International (CFI/TV5)

- China Central Television (CCTV)

- Deutsche Welle (DW)

-Tele-Liban (Lebanon)

- Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHIO

- Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI)

- Satellite Communications for Learning (SCOLA)

-Turkiye RadyoTelevizyon Kuruma (TRT)

- Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)

-Telewizja Polska

SBS was a co-host of the 36th General Assembly of the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union and the associated committee meetings held in Sydney from 28 October to

5 November 1999. This major undertaking, co-ordinated by the ABC, was the result of over two years' planning.

SBS organised the opening ceremony on 3 November 1999 at the Sydney Town Flail. The Governor General, His Excellency the Hon Sir William Deane, AC, KBE opened

proceedings. The ceremony included speeches from Katsuji Ebisawa, President of the ABU and President of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Brian Johns,

Vice-President of ABU and Managing Director of the ABC, a ‘welcome to the land’ from Allan Madden from the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, a digeridoo

and vocal performance from Matthew Doyle, a performance from the SBS Radio and Television Orchestra, and the ABU prize giving.

The SBS Prize for Televison, an initiative of the SBS Community Advisory Committee, was awarded to China Central

Television, People’s Republic of China, for Love Never Fails. The prize, only awarded in 1999, was for a television drama, feature or

documentary which most effectively exhibited understanding of different values, cultures and perspectives. It was received by Ms Zhou Guizhen, Director of Asia, Africa and Latin-American Division. Foreign Affairs

Department, RTPRC.

Industry Participation SBS contributed directly in the developing fields of Digital Radio Broadcasting (DRB/DAB) and Digital Terrestrial

SBS involvement in other industry forums included:

- Broadcasting Industry Technical Advisory Group (BITAG)

- Remote Area Broadcasting Services (RABS)

- Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU)

- European Broadcasting Union (EBU)

- Digital Radio Advisory Committee (DRAG)

- Digital Television Standards Selection Committee

- Australian Communications Information Forum (ACIF)

- Australian Telecommunications Users Group (ATUG)

- WorldDab Forum

- Standards Australia (SA)

- Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations (FACTS)

- Federation of Australian Radio Stations (FARB)

- Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA)

- Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA)

- International Telecommunications Union (ITU-R)

- SMA's Radio communication Consultative Council (RCC)

- National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasting Council (NEMBC)

Television Broadcasting (D 1 ΓΒ). SBS is a member of Digital Broadcasting Australia (DBA) which was officially launched in May 2000 with the aim of working towards an efficient and effective transition from analogue to digital television. DBA’s membership is made up of free-to-air broadcasters, television manufacturers, suppliers and retailers, and the intention is that DBA will provide a mechanism for a co­ operative approach across these industry sectors to such issues as digital television consumer information.

FOUR

our position in the marketplace

Television Advertising and Sponsorship Total revenue for Television advertising and sponsorship in 1999-2000 grew by 27% over the previous year. The ratings and revenue impact of South Park, which was such a major contributor in the first half-year, diminished by the second half, although SBS still exceeded budgeted revenues.

1999-2000 was a year in which SBS consolidated revenues from its major advertising customers and forged significant new business relationships. Revenue came from a broad range of advertising categories, but automotive, telecommunications, financial services, travel and tourism and government advertising were the core of SBS’s revenue base. Investments made

three years ago in advertising signal splitting have continued to build more business from State governments and other regionally focused campaigns.

The year also marked a junction where competition for revenue from Pay TV and the Internet began to be felt. In anticipation of this revenue squeeze, SBS invested in media research studies of light television viewers and audiences from non-English speaking backgrounds. Findings from this research have strengthened our advertising sales credentials by giving a factual and realistic perspective to the challenges posed by Pay TV. SBS made this information the subject of a trade advertising campaign targeted to further increase SBS’s profile among key advertising customers.

SBS Television’s commitment to a new program management and sales/traffic system to replace the existing Qantel system has coincided with an accelerated move in the advertising industry towards online trading of media time and space. To capitalise on this, an integrated communications system between SBS, our out-sourced sales force, and our advertising customer

base is underway.

Radio Marketing Combined revenue for SBS Radio advertising and sponsorship in 1999-2000 was $1.98 million which exceeded budget by 22%, and which was 17.5% more than the previous year.

Government information campaigns contributed more than $1.45 million with most of this income due to a GST information series in 20 languages and an information campaign for the Australian Electoral Commission on the republic referendum.

Radio Marketing secured a contract to produce Homereach (the information series for housebound people and their carers) in an additional 14 languages over the next two years. Information packages, in Filipino and Greek, were produced during the year, adding to the 20

other languages in the Homreach series already produced by SBS Radio Marketing. Homereach is jointly funded by the State and Commonwealth Governments under their Home and Community Care Program and administered by the NSW Ageing and

Disability Department.

NSW’s Transcultural Mental Health Centre engaged SBS Radio Marketing to produce a three-part radio series in 15 languages targeted to older people. The series, on loneliness and social isolation and their possible impact on mental health, was broadcast on SBS Radio.

SBS Radio produced election information for the Victorian Electoral Commission on two occasions. These were a 10-language campaign on voter rights and obligations prior to the Victorian state election, and a 12- language campaign in the lead-up to the Victorian council elections.

Among new clients were: The Financial and Consumer Rights Council which targeted three language communities in a bid to increase consumer awareness about lay-by, door-to-door sales, and second-hand car sales; Transurban which ran road safety messages

in six languages; and Preston Market which is developing a campaign promoting ethnic specialities.

The immediacy and effectiveness of SBS Radio was recognised by the Victorian Government when it hurriedly broadcast details about power restrictions in 10 languages.

Revenue from the commercial sector increased, with telecommunication companies remaining the major clients.

1

SBS Merchandising From July to September 1999, SBS Merchandising undertook the telemarketing and fulfilment activities in-house and ran several campaigns including Wildfish series two, The Fifties in America, Food Lovers’ Guide to Australia series one, Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, SBS World Guide 6'1 ' edition, and Cooking With Kurina.

In October 1999, SBS Merchandising entered into an agreement with Dymocks Bookstores, a retail franchiser of 88 bookstores throughout Australia, for it to promote and sell SBS merchandise. In return, SBS Merchandising agreed to exclusively promote Dymocks as the supplier of SBS merchandise. These products comprise mainly the companion books to documentary and cooking series broadcast on SBS.

From October 1999, SBS Merchandising, with Dymocks, ran 10 successful book promotions, including: Bill Bryson’ s Notes From a Small Island; SBS World Guide 7Λ Edition; Africans in America; Ken Horn Travels â–with a Hot Wok; The West: An Illustrated History; Wine Lovers’ Guide to Australia; The Greeks; United Tastes of America; Dorinda Hafner’ s Tastes of Britain; and Mysteries of Lost Empires.

Program Marketing Program Marketing sells SBS programs to the Australian home video market as well as SBS footage and SBS subtitled program versions worldwide.

In April 2000, the Program Marketing Coordinator attended the international television market MIP TV 2000 to promote SBS’s English subtitled and re-narrated versions of programs as well as to promote SBS’s video distribution service and footage sales service.

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The following subtitled program sales were concluded:

Program Marketing’s strong promotion campaign to boost market awareness and sales of SBS’s footage service resulted in sales to the following customers:

Program Marketing also source SBS and some external programs for distribution to international and local broadcasters and the educational video market. The marketing of

these programs is handled by specialist distributors - JC Media for all international sales, and Marcom Projects for Australian educational video sales.

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In 1999-2000, JC Media attended three major international television markets, MIPCOM ’99, MIPTV 2000 and MIPDOC 2000. As a result of these markets and promotion of the documentary catalogue and program mailouts, the following sales were concluded:

A Fork in Australia A Fork in the Road -Hong Kong A Fork in the Road - Series 1-3 A Fork in the Road - Series 1-5 (German Rights) A Fork in the Road - Japan and New Zealand

Brainstorm Food Lovers’ Guide to Australia - Series 1 Tutti - Old Wrinkly and Beautiful

Swiss Television (SSR) Switzerland

Stellar Inflight for Aircalin - New Caledonia

West Media Services Ltd, New Zealand

AB Droits Audiovisuels, France

Stellar Inflight for Aircalin, NewCaledonia

RTSI - Switzerland

A rait Multimedia S.A Spain

ABC TV, Australia

Programs that were added to the educational video catalogue included: Red Chapters; The Celts; Ahheimers - Assault on the Mind; Sound and Fury; Chrissy; Grandfathers; and Revolutions.

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SBS Language Services SBS Language Services expanded its multilingual communications business during the year, increasing gross revenue twofold over 1998-99. Net revenue for the year was $251,855.

Specialising in more than 60 languages, SBS Language Services re-versioned multilingual material for clients in the following fields: advertising, consumer products, government services, health, scientific, educational, technical, computer software and hardware, tourism, programming, film, production houses, telecommunications and corporate communications.

In particular, the services included re­ versioning videos and television commercials for clients ranging from audio tour guide producers, government organisations and agencies, tourist venues, educational

institutions, financial organisations, hospitals, and community organisations.

Other projects included: corporate video subtitling; translating and typesetting brochures for museums, banks, universities,

advertising agencies and health organisations; re-versioning multimedia presentations, CD Roms and web sites for corporations and government organisations; translating documents and articles for law firms and magazine publishers; interpreting for law firms; and translating and formatting software for computer software and hardware

suppliers.

SBS Arts and Cultural Sponsorships During the year, SBS maintained a sponsorship alliance with the following organisations and festivals, providing on air support through promotional ads.

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

As part of a three-year support program, SBS was the electronic media sponsor for the Museum’s ‘Hitchcock’ exhibition.

MELBOURNE FESTIVAL

In the second year of a three-year support program, SBS was as a supporting sponsor of England’s celebrated all-female acapella group,

Black Voices.

MU SICA VIVA

SBS was a supporter and major electronic media sponsor for the Musica Viva - International series during the year.

THE ANNE FRANK EXHIBITION

In cooperation with the Dutch Consulate, SBS supported the Anne Frank exhibition which was launched in Melbourne in May at the start of a

national tour.

HISTORIC HOUSES TRUST

In partnership with the National Houses Trust, SBS promoted Bamaradbanga (‘to make open’), an indigenous collection of exhibitions, collaborative installations and public events.

CARNIVALE

1999 was the last year in a three-year sponsorship arrangement with Carnivale, the multicultural arts organisation which produces the annual cross-cultural arts festival in Greater Sydney and NSW.

M A R ITIM E MUSEUM - SYDNEY

SBS continued to support the Maritime Museum’s Welcome Wall at Darling Harbour where thousands of ‘settler’ names are etched on a bronze plaque.

CANBERRA NATIONAL MULTICULTURAL

FESTIVAL

Both SBS Radio and SBS Television provided sponsorship support to the 2000 Canberra National Multicultural Festival, comprising more than 100

events and activities.

'As a person, I’ve learnt to respect all people, regardless of nationality, colour, religion or sex/ Ljiljana Spasojevic - Serbian Language Program, Sydney

Born in the Macedonian town of Bitolj, Ljiljana married an Australian citizen in 1974 and the following year volunteered to join the Serbian language program on 2EA. It was "providence" th at brought her to SBS Radio.Twenty-five years on, her enthusiasm remains. "I like the job. It's challenging and full of variety. It brings me into contact with the community and opens the door to the world."

THE A F I AWARDS

SBS Television was a major sponsor of the Australian film industry’s premier awards night with a national telecast and international webcast.

THE SBS ETHNIC BUSINESS AWARDS

SBS, in conjunction with the National Australia Bank, telecast the Ethnic Business Awards which recognises the

success of migrant businesses.

SNOWY MOUNTAINS AUTHORITY

In support of the 50th anniversary of the Snowy Mountain Hydroelectricity Scheme, SBS sponsored and promoted a photographic exhibition, ‘A Vision for Australia’. SBS Radio assisted in the search for original workers and SBS Television produced a comprehensive

documentary on the project and its place in Australia’s multicultural history.

SBS and Pay TV Multilingual Subscriber Television Limited (MSTL), a wholly-owned subsidiary- company of SBS, maintained its 40% shareholding in PAN TV Ltd. The other shareholders are Australian Capital Equity and Australian Provincial Newspapers.

PAN TV produces a multilingual movie channel (the World Movies Channel) which is sold throughout the year to Australian pay TV operators Foxtel, Austar and Optus Vision. PAN TV is performing well against its

business plan and, in line with the plan, paid its first dividend to shareholders in 1999­ 2000.

MSTL is in the last year of its current corporate plan which identifies three key objectives. These relate to meeting the changing needs of Australian audiences, good resource management, and the need to continue to explore business activities relevant to the MSTL charter. MSTL continues to perform according to its objectives.

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technology and resources

New Transmission Arrangements As a result of the sale of the National Transmission Agency (NTA) to ntl Australia in April 1999, SBS has assumed responsibility for all its radio and transmission services. The services previously provided by the NTA are now provided under contract by ntl Australia. This is a

service contract requiring ntl Australia to meet certain performance obligations, primarily in terms of coverage, technical quality, and service availability to the audience. It also imposes other obligations in regard to the monitoring of SBS’s transmission network performance and reporting to SBS.

The ntl Australia contract is a fixed price contract for a period of five years which is optionally renewable by SBS for three further periods of three years each. The ntl Australia contract is further underpinned by legislation under the National Transmission Network Sale Act, 1998.

The sale of the network was accompanied by the establishment of a Compact with the Government which places an obligation upon SBS to maintain the same level of coverage and service quality to the audience as existed at the time of the sale. In return, the Government has agreed to fund SBS for the cost of the existing analogue services operating at the

time of the sale.

Importantly, the contractual arrangements between SBS and ntl Australia place no obligations upon SBS to use the service of ntl Australia for future analogue or digital transmission services.

RADIO TRANSMISSION

SBS has 14 radio transmitters. Of these,13 are provided and operated by ntl Australia. The other is a self-help service. No further SBS radio services were established in 1999-2000, although there has been increased interest in radio self-help, especially since the commencement of the Self-Help Subsidy Scheme.

TELEVISION TRANSMISSION

Nationwide, SBS now has 249 television transmitters, comprising 120 provided and operated by ntl Australia, 121 services licenced under the Self-Help Broadcasting Reception Scheme (SBRS), and eight awaiting licences. Some Aboriginal broadcasting communities also optionally re-broadcast SBS Television. Extension of SBS Television continued in 1999-2000 with two new services established in Queensland. One is channel

54 at Boyne Island and the other is channel 57 at Redlynch.

SELF-HELP SUBSIDY

In 1999-2000, SBS received $450,000 in government funds to assist self-help groups with up to 50% of the cost of installation of an SBS Radio or Television service. Since the release of the SBS Self­ Help Re-transmission Subsidy Scheme Guidelines in January, 16 self-help television services have had subsidy applications approved. Five of these services are already on air.

PLANNED NEW SERVICES

Two new services are under construction by ntl Australia at Lilydale and Meander in Tasmania.

SYDNEY TELEVISION IMPROVEMENT

SBS has long sought improved coverage and reliability for its Sydney television service. As part of the sale of the National Transmission Network, the Government has provided SBS with funding in 1999­ 2000 to undertake this upgrade.

During the year, the project has proceeded through the design, tender and Heads of Agreement stages, and is currently awaiting local government

approval. Subject to local government approval, ntl Australia will provide the improved service from the tower currently shared by channels 7 and 10.

The existing service from the ntl Australia tower at Gore Hill will be used as a standby to improve reliability

ANALOGUE EXTENSION

As a result of the sale of the second portion of Telstra, $120 million was set aside to become the Television Fund. SBS has received $70 million of this to extend SBS Television to all

communities of more than 10,000 people. This project will see 78 new SBS services established in the next 12 months by three different service providers, ntl Australia, Broadcast Engineering Services and Imparja.

DOMESTIC SATELLITE SERVICES

SBS has four digital satellite services, all on national beams, which deliver its programming in the correct local time across Australia, except for television in the Northern Territory. A local time zone delay system installed at the ntl Australia transmitter site in Darwin provides correctly timed SBS programming for our Darwin audience.

The national beam services cover all of Australia, including Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. The satellite technology takes advantage of digital compression to provide a highly reliable

and cost-effective delivery service. The four satellite service time zones are: S.E. Australia, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.

SBS’s satellite services share a common delivery technology with the ABC, Telecasters Australia Ltd (TAL), Imparja, Golden West (GWN) and WIN Television. This arrangement provides a

direct to homes (DTH) satellite service

T ve seen in the last 25 years the birth of a new and different Australia. A better Australia, more tolerant and open’ Ken Gavrilovic - Head of Serbian Language Program, Sydney

across Australia which enables satellite viewers to receive both the ABC and SBS as well as two commercial services. This system is referred to as the Remote

Area Broadcasting Service (RABS). It provides an essential service to over 10,000 households, predominantly in remote Australia.

SBS delivers its radio and television programs to a network of more than 200 re-broadcast transmitters across Australia using the Optus satellite service. SBS

provides a duplicate Western Australian satellite service, also on a national beam, delivered through PanAmSat’s PAS2

satellite. This is provided through an arrangement with Telstra.

Digital

1999-2000 following the completion of a number of reviews. The outcome is that SBS has a range of obligations and options for its digital television services. Some of these are summarised below:

• to commence digital television in the five metropolitan markets - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth - by 1 January 2001;

• to provide a standard definition (SDTV) simulcast of SBS's analogue television service at all times;

• to meet certain minimum levels of high definition (HDTV) television broadcasts, which must also simulcast the analogue service;

• to continue to simulcast the existing analogue services until at least the end

DIGITAL TELEVISION (DTTB) of 2008;

In 1998-99 the Government passed legislation for the conversion of analogue terrestrial television services to digital. This legislation was supplemented by further legislation towards the end of

• to meet minimum levels of closed captioning for the hearing impaired; • to optionally multichannel, offering one or more new channels providing

additional television services; • to optionally carry SBS Radio services on the digital television channels

thereby extending the reach of these programs; and • to optionally offer datacasting services.

A detailed strategy plan and funding estimates, the Phase 2 digital funding proposal, was submitted to Government late in June 1999. This was considered

by consultants appointed by the Government, which endorsed SBS’s

Ken arrived in Australia in 1966 via Sweden, where he had lived for six years after leaving his native Serbia. His wife, Dr Mirjana and twins, Aleksandar and Danica, migrated with him. Their third child, Dean, was born in Australia. Ken worked with the Commonwealth Bank's Migrant Information Services as an interpreter and translator in four languages. In 1975 he began a twice weekly Serbian language program on 2 EA. Today he broadcasts five times a week. He's remained with SBS because "the challenge is big and the job is never finished".

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strategic approach and initial cost estimates. During the year, SBS called public tenders for:

• its transmission services in the five metropolitan markets; • the telecommunication services to distribute its digital television

programming streams from its studio centre at Artarmon to each of the metropolitan transmitter sites; and • the capital equipment required to build

its automated digital playout centre, including encoding, multiplexing and time zone delay facilities.

The primary transmitter services in each of the five metropolitan areas will comprise redundant facilities at diverse sites. This is aimed at achieving close to

100% service availability. The first facility in each capital city is scheduled to commence broadcasting by 1 January 2001 with the redundant facility being commissioned some six months later, subject to reaching agreement on and satisfying local government planning requirements.

Highly diverse facilities have also been acquired for both the playout and the distribution services. The transmitters contract was awarded to ntl Australia Pty Ltd with the distribution tender awarded to Telstra Corporation Ltd.

The transmitter services proposed are fully compliant with the Australian Broadcasting Authority’s Digital Channel Plans for these markets. Most of these

plans were issued by the ABA in July 1999, except for Perth which was issued in February 2000.

A key element in this process was the preparation and approval by the Minister of SBS’s Implementation Plans for the five metropolitan markets. This is a requirement under the legislation. This approval was granted following a further Government review of SBS’s transmitter services purchasing arrangements and strategies, under consultants appointed by the Government.

Further industry spectrum studies have continued during 1999-2000 with the emphasis upon the design of single frequency networks (SFNs) for meeting a range of more difficult coverage requirements especially in areas such as the Central Coast of NSW and the Gold Coast in Queensland.

SBS continues to be heavily involved with the industry in standards setting, common operational practices, receiver performance matters and conformance issues.

DIGITAL RADIO (DRB)

SBS has continued to work with the Government and industry towards the establishment of digital radio broadcasting services, mainly through the Government’s Planning and Steering Committee. Development of the basic planning and policy requirements continued during 1999-2000 although perhaps not as quickly as SBS had expected.

‘Australia allows you to think freely, live openly, and mature gracefully.7 Antoine Said Pullicino - Maltese Language Program, Sydney

Expenditure in 1999-2000 was $2,548 million. In Television, one of the more important changes was the replacement of the sequential analogue tape playout system

used for SBS news broadcasts with a digital server based unit. The new facilities offer a significant improvement in operational and production aspects of news bulletins by

removing major constraints in these areas, both in the preparation and production of each bulletin. This equipment also offers a quantum improvement in the technical performance.

The process of upgrading the edit booths and post-production areas continued with digital conversion of the on-air suite in the Presentation area and upgrading of the edit controllers in all 12 edit booths. Conversion of videotape equipment to DVC-PRO technology continued with the focus this year being more on the higher performance

units. Equipment conversion in the studio areas mainly covered digital still stores and character generators.

Further digital changes were completed in the subtitling and captioning area through the digital conversion of a captioning booth, including an ability to handle widescreen

material.

In Radio, a dual redundant logger system, which records all Radio programs on computer hard disk as they go to air, was installed in the master control room in

Sydney. It records and stores programs for 90 days. In other developments: video conferencing facilities were installed in the Sydney and Melbourne offices; satellite

An Australian holiday in 1965 convinced Maltese-born Antoine to migrate to Australia in 1974. His wife had emigrated from M alta 10 years earlier. Antoine had studied journalism in London, and was co­ founder and managing director of M alta's daily Il-Hajja newspaper before settling in Sydney where he gained a diploma in credit management. Antoine's service with SBS Radio began as a volunteer broadcaster with 2EA in June 1975. His biggest scoop was his interview with Prime Minister Adami of Malta.

While there is considerable interest in digital radio by SBS and other broadcasters, the slow progress in the roll-out of this technology on a worldwide basis and the lack of low cost

receivers has been of concern.

A subcommittee of the Digital Planning and Steering Committee completed an initial investigation of the spectrum requirements related to the

establishment of DRB. A key output has been the preparation of a draft national channel plan and identification of areas of expected channel congestion. These studies are expected to make further

progress in 2000-01.

Capital Planning 1999-2000 was the second year of SBS’s five year Phase 1 Digital Capital Plan. This plan provides for $22.7 million over five years to

convert SBS’s standard definition television and radio studio equipment from analogue to digital technology.

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phones were installed in the two outside broadcasting units, linking them to the studios in Sydney and Melbourne from anywhere in Australia; and trials were held of a new talk back telephone system for the studios.

As the year ended, the process of selecting a new digital radio production and presentation system for SBS Radio was close to finalisation. A tender committee drawn from across the Radio division oversaw the selection process which included major on­ site trials of the two front-runners. The new system, which will include broadcasting on the Internet, will bring SBS Radio securely into the digital age.

SBS submitted its Phase 2 Digital Television strategy plan and funding estimates in June 1999. This covers forecast expenditure requirements to convert SBS’s television transmission network, and related studio and distribution systems, from analogue to digital technology. The change from analogue to digital broadcasting is scheduled to take at least eight years and is the largest change to television in Australia in decades. The plan submitted by SBS was subject to an independent review by external consultants. Since then, several major projects have commenced which are necessary for meeting the commissioning date of 1 January 2001 for SBS’s capital city digital television services. Details of the activities undertaken to date are provided elsewhere in this Report.

In Television, the Dubsat system for automated distribution of television commercials to all broadcasters was commissioned at the end of June 2000. This system has been provided and installed free of charge for all commercial broadcasters including SBS. It provides the industry with a more efficient and reliable method of delivering and tracking of television

advertisements. It is expected that this system will be used increasingly for the delivery of television commercials rather than the present tape-based arrangements.

Computing and Information Services Infrastructure changes undertaken during the year by Computing and Information Services (CIS) included the design and installation of a digital Storage Area Network (SAN) capable of holding one terabyte of information. This will allow SBS to harness all types of digital content worldwide for use in a variety of ways, including administrative information as well as creative output.

In response to greater online use, SBS installed its own Solaris world wide web server and upgraded its Internet access from 128 kilobytes to 100 megabytes, allowing program makers greater use of international multimedia sources in their program development.

SBS undertook a very comprehensive program of systems testing and implementation, including the purchase of required hardware and software, to ensure that it was Y2K compliant. A contingency plan was also developed to ensure operations continued uninterrupted from midnight and

into 1 January 2000. As expected, the transition into the new year proceeded incident free.

In preparation for the introduction of the GST, modifications were made to the Oracle Financials Systems and other inventory systems used by SBS.

The upgrade of the Avstar newsroom system was completed for Television in July 1999 and for Radio in November 1999. CIS provided training to journalists and broadcasters so that data can be drawn from Television and Radio newsroom systems and

published on the SBS web site

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leading, managing and developing the organisation

Finance FIN AN C IAL RESULTS FOR THE YEAR

The Corporation finished the 1999-2000 financial year with a surplus of $2,285 million (1.6% of available resources).

1999-2000 saw the introduction of accrual budgeting by the Commonwealth for its agencies including the introduction of a Capital Usage Charge Significant contributors to the 1999-2000 Operating Surplus were the Capital Usage Charge, external program commissioning through SBS Independent and advertising revenue. In respect to SBSI, an excess of operating revenue over program amortisation of $0.800million was shown due to the long lead times experienced between the commissioning and screening of programs. Advertising revenue was $2.6 million above

target.

The Corporation’s total assets increased during the financial year from $92,861 million to $173,883 million. The majority of this increase related to financial assets which increased from $19,672 million to $96,215 million. The bulk of the investment recorded at 30 June 2000 related to funds provided through the part sale of Telstra for the analogue extension

program.

T he level of Equity Capital has increased from $4.8 million to $14.7 million. This increase reflected an $9,999 million equity injection received in 1999-2000. The bulk of this injection was to provide for digital conversion and the Sydney transmission upgrade ($7,899 million).

INTRODUCTION OF THE NEW TAX SYSTEM

A major project undertaken in 1999-2000 was related to the introduction of the new tax system. This involved the development and implementation of a system to deal with GST, amendments to the SBS Financial Management Information System (Oracle Financials), review of existing contracts, and training of staff in new procedures.

With regard to the other major project undertaken during the year - the Year 2000 compliance issue - no problems were encountered. |

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ACCRUAL BUDGETING

The 1999-2000 financial year marked the first year of accrual budgeting in the Commonwealth and it was successfully introduced in SBS. 'Phis involves budgeting as well as reporting on a full

accrual basis, with a focus on outcomes and outputs. A set of accrual based financial statements are prepared and entered into the Department of Finance and Administration AIMS system monthly.

SBS ACCOUNTING MANUAL

SBS’s financial policies and procedures are contained in the SBS Accounting Manual. This manual is widely distributed within SBS to Cost Centre Managers and key staff. A major revision occurred this year to cater for the introduction of the GST.

TR IEN N IAL FUNDING

During 1999-2000, SBS negotiated a new triennial funding arrangement with the Government.

The Corporation's Business Recovery Plan was also reviewed during the year to adjust for the impact of the Y2K effect on its operations.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL SCRUTINY

During the 1999-2000 financial year the Corporation continued with its Corporate Governance policy of reviewing all relevant legislation and ensuring compliance where appropriate.

The audit of the annual financial statements is carried out by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO). The ANAO gave an unqualified opinion on the

1999-2000 financial statements of the Corporation. In addition, in September 1999 the ANAO presented its report on the general performance audit of a range of financial issues associated with the SBS’s conversion of analogue equipment to digital. The audit concluded that SBS digital strategy reflected the minimum

BUSINESS PLAN

SBS’s Business Plan was revised and published in May 2000. This plan reflects the aims of the latest SBS Corporate Plan. Included was the SBS Risk Management Plan which outlines the structured approach adopted by SBS in managing risk and also identifies the 10 most significant risks facing SBS.

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reasonable costs for this phase of conversion to digital broadcasting. It also found that the system to record and track digital conversion expenditure

functioned appropriately.

SBS was also included in a Financial Control Audit on the Management of Contracted Business Support Processes. The audit found that SBS performed above other agencies in terms of its contract management practices. The ANAO recommended further development of policies. These

improvements to policies have since been carried out. SBS also took part in four ANAO bench-marking studies. These were the finance function, public sector travel, fraud control arrangements, and internal audit.

The Internal Audit program was conducted by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu on a contract basis. The company performed audits in accordance with a rolling three-year plan. In all cases, the results were satisfactory with

associated recommendations for improvement to the control environment being brought to management’s attention. The audits conducted in 1999­

2000 were: Television Engineering, Radio Engineering, Radio Operations,

Radio Melbourne, Television News and Current Affairs, Television Sport, Publicity, Television Presentation, Credit Cards, Fuel Cards, CabCharge

and Petty Cash, Corporate Services, Assets, Human Resources and Marketing (including Advertising and

Sponsorship).

AUD IT COMMITTEE

The SBS Audit Committee met four times during the year and considered audits conducted by both the Australian National Audit Office and the internal auditors, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. For the first two meetings the Audit Committee consisted of the full Board.

In May 2000 a revised SBS Audit Charter and terms of reference for the Audit and Finance Committee were

adopted.

In addition to reviewing the findings and recommendations of the audits conducted, the Audit Committee approved the internal audit program for

the year and discussed the preparations for the financial statements audit.

The following is a list of Audit Committee attendees, their position within SBS, and the number of meetings they attended:

liste n e r s whom I’ve never met come up and address me as an old friend, as someone whose house I visited only last night.’

Bob Radulovich - Head of Serbian Language Group, Melbourne

Serbian-born, Bob arrived at Melbourne's Essendon airport as an assisted migrant in 1969 intending to return to Paris after two years. It was 20 years before he returned to Europe, but only for a holiday. Bob learnt English fast and became involved with ethnic broadcasting as a law student at Melbourne's Monash University prior to joining 3EA in 1975. Bob has been involved in migrant welfare, and has dabbled in farming, retailing, building, flying aeroplanes and share trading. An ardent supporter of the Essendon Football Club, Bob describes himself as a "proud Australian of Serbian descent".

MAJOR INVESTING AND FINANCING

ACTIVITIES

SBS has borrowings of $39 million which were used to finance the lease and refurbishment of its Artarmon premises. Annual interest on this loan to the value of $4.2 million is paid in quarterly instalments. A sinking fund to partially offset the principal amount has been established, and at 30 June 2000 the

balance in this fund was $14.9 million. The loan will be renegotiated in 2002.

During 1999-2000, SBS received $70 million from the Government’s Television Fund to meet the costs of analogue transmission services to areas of Australia with population over 10,000 that are currently unable to receive SBS television transmissions. Until the contract negotiations are finalised with

the transmission suppliers, SBS has invested these funds in accordance with the investing requirements of the SBS

Act and the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997 (CAC Act).

SBS actively manages its finances. This involves preparation of estimates for appropriation and equity injection funding taking into account movements in the inflation parameter applicable to SBS. SBS also hedges some of its foreign currency liabilities by monitoring foreign exchange movements and liaising with managers as to scheduled payments. Cash holdings are monitored throughout

the year and where funds are not immediately required for operational activities, investments are made.

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IN D E M N ITIE S AND INSURANCE

PREMIUM S FOR OFFICERS

As part of its general insurance protection, SBS has a Directors and Officers Liability Insurance Policy in place.

Human Resources PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

PROGRAM

The SBS Certified Agreement 1999- ZOO 1 includes a Performance Management Program. The comprehensive Performance Management training program for all

employees continued, with most employees having attended their training and developed performance agreements. The first appraisals became

due after 19 February 2000, with staff being given feedback on their performance and the opportunity for performance-linked salary increases.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

SBS aims to provide a high standard of occupational health and safety for all staff. 'Phe SBS Occupational Health and Safety Agreement and Policy, and associated strategies, were the basis for

occupational health and safety activities throughout the year. These activities included building improvements, policy

reviews, training and individual workplace assessments.

There were no accidents or dangerous occurrences that required the giving of notice under s 68 of the Occupational Health & Safety

(Commonwealth Employment) Act 1991.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

The three key result areas in the SBS Equal Employment Opportunity Program are recruitment, training and the work environment. Training and

advice were provided in all these key result areas. The SBS guidelines for the prevention of workplace harassment were re-issued and a regular program of training courses was delivered throughout the year. The SBS

Harassment Contact Officer network was supported by the EEO Co-ordinator.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

W ork Experience:

SBS continues to offer a one-week work experience program in Television, Marketing and Sport. The program is well-supported by the relevant areas of

SBS and is popular with Year 10 school students. Occasional placements for university students are offered in Television Production. Television News

‘SBS Radio’s role in the community is very, very important. It’s helped unite the Slovenian community in Australia.’ Mariza Lican - Head of Slovenian Language Group, Sydney

Formerly a teacher in Slovenia before she married her Australian-Slovenian husband and migrated to Australia in 1966, M ariza joined 2EA as a volunteer broadcaster “ because the community chose m e". She's continued teaching the Slovenian language a t Sydney's Bankstown. M ariza recalls a'sco o p 'w h en recording news from Slovenia in 1991, the year of its independence, and hearing bombing in the background. She's never left SBS because "SB S Radio and I have a special friendship".

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and Current Affairs is developing with local universities an internship program for journalism students.

Corporate Induction:

Corporate induction programs were presented in Sydney by senior members from all Divisions to new employees. The full-day program, introduced by the Managing Director, aims to convey the Vision and Charter of SBS as well as familiarising staff with the essential practical information needed when commencing work at SBS. Discussions are conducted by representatives from Programming, Production, Radio, Television Operations, Subtitling, Policy,

and Resources Division.

The one-day Induction Program is followed by half-day sessions on equal employment opportunity and occupational health and safety.

AFC Women in Television Network:

SBS is a member of the Australian Film Commission ‘Women in Television’ network. This network aims to increase opportunities for women’s employment in the television industry, particularly in non-traditional areas such as technical and operational areas. All the free-to-air television networks are members of the project. The majors activities in 1999­ 2000 were lunchtime networking meetings for women in areas such as Engineering, Television Production and News and Current Affairs.

General Training:

SBS employees attended a range of general training courses covering areas such as computer software; management skills; presentation skills; Code of Conduct; and first aid courses.

Radio Training:

Professional development courses were provided in journalism, broadcasting skills, studio operations, voice presentation skills, publicity and promotion, outside broadcasting, broadcast law, computing, broadcast management, ethics and standards, documentary and feature making and interviewing skills.

SBS is the only Australian broadcaster to have its core training courses nationally accredited to Certificate III and Certificate IV levels through the Vocational Education and Training Accreditation Board (VETAB) under the new Australian Qualifications

Framework.

Over a four-month period, more than 200 broadcaster/journalists in Sydney and Melbourne attended two- day courses on the new N T operating system and the Avstar computerised

news software. Training is ongoing in Internet research techniques and digital audio editing in preparation for the installation later in 2000 of the Integrated Audio Server.

Funded by USAid, SBS Radio provided a trainer to spend three weeks in East Timor training a media unit for the Office of the President of the National Council of Timorese

Resistance (CNRT) Xanana Gusmao and designed and installed a specialist computer system to support the unit.

Radio Training continued to provide training expertise to the Australian Ethnic Radio Training Project and to be represented on its supervisory body, the National Ethnic Radio Training Taskforce. Positions within training courses provided by SBS Radio are also offered to broadcasters from community radio stations.

8 0

SBS Radio Training markets its consultancy services to Government departments and agencies, commercial companies, training organisations and

individuals across Australia and ran several fee-for-service courses in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra during the year. Radio Training’s multicultural

Media Management course is now offered as a paying adjunct to Monash University’s Graduate Communications Program and is being marketed through

the Victorian Council for Adult Education (CAE) Business Unit.

Corporate Services Throughout the year, there was continued consultation, planning and negotiation involving the relocation of SBS in Melbourne

to Federation Square. Discussions mostly concerned architectural planning and documentation, and preliminary lease negotiations.

At the Sydney premises, Corporate Service’s principal focus was on providing accommodation for the broadcasting of digital television. This meant the temporary

relocation of some work areas, demolition of others, and the specialised construction of digital broadcast facilities.

The refurbishment of Human Resources, Transmission Services, Sport and TV News and Current Affairs took place, and a series of safety upgrades were completed, including

emergency and evacuation warning systems, and the installation of additional security cameras in the car park and entry points to the building.

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

f i n a n c i a l statements

L ·

Australian National

Audit Office

Independent Audit Report To the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts

Scope

I have audited the financial statem ents of the Special Broadcasting Service Corporation

for the year ended 30 June 2000. T h e financial statem ents include the consolidated

financial statem ents of the economic entity comprising the Special Broadcasting Service

Corporation and the entities it controlled at the year’s end or from tim e to time during

the year. T h e statem ents comprise:

• Statem ent by Directors

• Operating Statem ent

• Balance Sheet

• Statem ent of Cash Flows

• Schedule of Com mitments

• Schedule of Contingencies, and

• Notes to and forming part of the Financial Statements.

T h e members of the Board are responsible for the preparation and presentation of the

financial statem ents and the information they contain. I have conducted an independent

audit of the financial statem ents in order to express an opinion on them to you.

T h e audit has been conducted in accordance with Australian National Audit Office

Auditing Standards, which incorporate the Australian Auditing Standards, to provide

reasonable assurance as to w hether the financial statem ents are free of material

misstatement. Audit procedures included examination, on a test basis, of evidence

supporting the amounts and other disclosures in the financial statem ents, and the

evaluation of accounting policies and significant accounting estimates. T hese procedures

have been undertaken to form an opinion whether, in all material respects, the financial

statem ents are presented fairly in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards, other

mandatory professional reporting requirem ents and statutory requirements in Australia so

as to present a view which is consistent with my understanding of the Corporation and

the economic entity’s financial position, the results of their operations and

their cash flows.

T h e audit opinion expressed in this report has been formed on the above basis.

A udit Opinion

In my opinion,

(i) the financial statem ents have been prepared in accordance with the Schedule 2 of

the Finance M inister’s Orders

(ii) the financial statem ents give a true and fair view, in accordance with applicable

Accounting Standards, other mandatory professional reporting requirem ents and

Schedule 2 of the Finance M inister’s Orders, of the financial position of the Special

Broadcasting Service Corporation and the economic entity as at 30 June 2000 and

the results of their operations and their cash flows for the year then ended.

Australian National Audit Office

P Hinchey

Senior Director

Delegate of the Auditor-General

12 Septem ber 2000

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

St at ement by Directors

In our opinion, the attached financial statem ents give a true and fair view of

the matters required by Schedule 2 to the Finance M inister’s Orders made

under the Commonwealth Authonties and Companies Act 1997 for the year

ended 30 June 2000.

Signed

Carla Zampatti

Chairman

Signed

Nigel Milan

Managing Director

12 Septem ber 2000 12 Septem ber 2000

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Operating St at ement fo r the year ended 30 June 2000

Consolidated Corporation

Notes

2000 $’000

1999 $'000

2000 $’000

1999 $'000

Operating revenues

Revenues from government 5(a) 107.586 92,777 107.586 92,777

Sales of goods and services 5(b) 27,143 23,722 26.783 23,363

Interest 5(c) 2,220 1,361 2.191 1,349

Reversals of previous asset write-downs 5(d) 155 - 84 -

N e t foreign exchange gains (non-speculative) l(v), 14(c) - 78 - 78

Other 5(e) 4,519 5,110 3.417 5,110

Total operating revenues 141.623 123,049 140,061 122,677

Operating expenses

Employees 6(a) 51,235 46,374 51,235 46,374

Suppliers 6(d) 71.375 60,376 71,365 60,360

Depreciation and amortisation 6(e) 4,088 4,674 4,088 4,674

W rite-down of assets 6(f) 264 288 264 86

N e t losses from sale of assets 6(g) 29 80 29 80

N e t foreign exchange loss (non-speculative) Hv), 14(c) 25 - 25 -

Interest 7 4,501 4,584 4,501 4,584

Total operating expenses 131,517 116,376 131,507 116,158

Net operating surplus 4 10.106 6,673 8,554 6,519

Equity interests

N e t surplus attributable to the Commonwealth Accumulated surpluses at beginning of reporting period 10.106 24,918

6,673 18,245

8,554 25,665

6,519 19,146

Total available for appropriation Capital use provided for or paid l(u)

35,024 (6.266) 24,918 34,219 (6,266)

25,665

Accumulated surpluses at end of reporting period 28,758 24,918 27.953 25,665

The above statement should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Balance Sheet as at 30 June 2000

Consolidated Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

Notes $’000 $'000 $’000 $'000

ASSETS Financial assets Cash 8(a) 4,656 10,379 3,592 9,697

Receivables 8(b) 6.477 5,035 9,044 8,702

Investments 8(c) 85,082 4,258 82.769 2,016

Total financial assets 96,215 19,672 95,405 20,415

Non financial assets Land and buildings 9(a),(d),(e) 38.358 39,178 38,358 39,178

Plant and equipm ent 9(b),(d),(e),(f) 21,197 19,622 21,197 19,622

Intangibles 9(c),(d),(e) 275 367 275 367

Inventories 9(g) 12,108 8,139 12.108 8,139

Other 9(h) 5,730 5,883 5,730 5,883

Total non-financial assets 77,668 73,189 77.668 73,189

Total assets 173,883 92,861 173,073 93,604

LIA B IL IT IE S Debt Loans 10(a) 24,013 30,828 24,013 30,828

Leases 10(b) 866 1,215 866 1,215

Total debt 24,879 32,043 24,879 32,043

Provisions and Payables Employees 11(a) 13,675 11,478 13,675 11,478

Suppliers 11(b) 7.347 7,406 7,342 7,402

Grants 11(c) 35 2,093 35 2,093

Other 11(d) 74,334 67 74,334 __ 67

Total provisions and payables 95,391 21,044 95,386 21,040

Total liabilities 120,270 53,087 120,265 53,083

EQUITY Capital 12 14,799 4,800 14,799 4,800

Reserves 12 10,056 10,056 10,056 10,056

Accumulated surpluses 12 28.758 24,918 27,953 25,665

Total equity 53,613 39,774 52,808 40,521

Total liabilities and equity 173,883 92,861 173,073 93,604

Current liabilities 41,898 16,625 41,893 16,621

Non-current liabilities 78,372 36,462 78,372 36,462

Current assets 28.971 29,436 26,807 28,754

Non-current assets 144,912 63,425 146,266 64,850

The above statement should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

St at ement of Cash Flows fo r the year ended 30 June 2000 Consolidated Corporation 2000 1999 2000 1999

Notes $’000 $'000 $’000 $'000

OPERATING ACTIVITIES Cash received Appropriations 1(f) 110,986 83,969 110,986 83,969

Sales of goods and services 25.132 26,402 24,772 26,042

Interest 847 800 818 788

Grants 297 2,869 297 2,869

Other 70,000 _____ - 70.000 _____ y

Total cash received 207,262 114,040 206,873 113,668

Cash used Employees (49,038) (45,052) (49,038) (45,052)

Suppliers (72,174) (51,705) (72,167) (51,691)

Interest and other financing costs (4,501) (4,584) (4,501) (4,584)

Total cash used (125,713) (101,341)(125,7O6)(101,327)

Net cash from operating activities 13 81,549 12,699 81,167 12,341

INVESTING ACTIVITIES Cash received Proceeds from sales of property, plant and equipm ent 1 27 1 27

Total cash received 1 27 1 27

Cash used Purchase of property, plant and equipm ent 9(d) (5,033) (5,202) (5,033) (5,202)

Purchase of investments (79,601) (2,000) (79,601) (2,000)

Total cash used (84,634) (7,202) (84,634) (7,202)

Net cash from investing activities (84,633) (7,175) (84,633) (7,175)

FINANCING ACTIVITIES Cash received Proceeds from equity injection 9,999 4,800 9,999 4,800

Total cash received 9,999 4,800 9,999 4,800

Cash used Capital use paid l(u) (6,389) - (6.389) -

Repaym ents of debt 10(a) (2,700) (900) (2,700) (900)

Paym ent to sinking fund 10(a) (3,200) (4,800) (3,200) (4,800)

Finance lease payments 10(b) (349) (310) (349) (310)

Total cash used (12,638) (6,010) (12,638) (6,010)

Net cash from financing activities (2,639) (1,210) (2.639) (1,210)

Net increase in cash held (5,723) 4,314 (6,105) 3,956

Cash at the beginning of the reporting period 10,379 6,065 9,697 5,741

Cash at the end of the reporting period 8(a) 4.656 10,379 3,592 9,697

The above statement should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Schedul e of Commitments as at 30 June 2000 Consolidated Corporation 2000 1999 2000 1999

Notes $’000 $'000 $’000 $'000

BY TYPE

CAPITAL COMMITMENTS Plant and equipm ent 7,871 422 7,871 422

Total capital com m itm ents 7,871 422 7,871 422

OTHER COMMITMENTS Transmission facilities (i) 144,331 61,771 144,331 61,771

Operating leases (ii) 5,388 1,597 5,368 1,576

Other commitments (iii) 20.139 17,743 20,139 17,743

Total other comm itm ents 169,858 81,111 169.838 81,090

Total com m itm ents payable 177,729 81,533 177,709 81,512

COMMITMENTS RECEIVABLE Transmission facilities (i) 137.643 51,117 137.643 51,117

Leases 5,165 4,206 5,165 4,206

Advertising and sponsorship 4,581 3,711 4,581 3,711

Services to related corporations 195 181 195 181

Production services 659 208 659 208

Total com m itm ents receivable 148.243 59,423 148,243 59,423

Net com m itm ents 29,486 22,110 29,466 22,089

BY MATURITY

All net com m itm ents One year or less 26,223 16,003 26,215 15,983

From one to two years 5,546 5,197 5,534 5,196

From two to five years (78 1 ) 1,910 (78 1 ) 1,910

Over five years (1,502) (1,000) (1.502) (1,000)

Net comm itm ents 29,486 22,110 29,466 22,089

Operating lease com m itm ents One year or less 3,506 852 3.498 832

From one to five years 1,882 745 1,870 744

Operating lease comm itm ents 5,388 1,597 5.368 1,576

NB: All 1999-00 commitments are G ST inclusive where relevant. T h e comparatives have not been adjusted to reflect the GST.

(i) Transmission facilities commitments payable includes future expenditure for transmission services .

(ii) Operating leases comprise: - a lease for office accommodation; - leases of computer equipm ent; and - leases of motor vehicles.

(iii) As at 30 June 2000, other commitments comprises amounts payable in respect of program, production and operational costs.

The above statement should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Schedul e of Contingencies as at 30 June 2000

CONTINGENT LOSSES Claims for damages/costs

Note

(iv)

Consolidated Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

$’000 $'000 $’000 $'000

Total contingent losses 66 - 66

CONTINGENT GAINS Claims for damages/costs - - - -

Total contingent gains - - - -

Net contingencies - 66 - 66

(iv) As at 30 June 2000, no contingent liabilities were identified (1999 $66,000).

The above statement should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

1.

Notes to and forming part of the financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2000

Note Description

1. Summary of significant accounting policies

2. Reporting by segments and outcomes

3. Economic dependency

4. Operating surplus

Operating revenues 5(a) Revenues from Government 5(b) Sales of goods and services 5(c) Interest revenue 5(d) Reversals of previous asset write-downs

5(e) O ther operating revenue

6. Operating expenses 6(a) Employee expenses 6(b) Remuneration of officers 6(c) Remuneration of directors and related party disclosures 6(d) Suppliers expenses

6(e) Depreciation and amortisation 6 (f) Write-down of assets 6(g) N et losses from sale of assets

7. Interest expense

8. Financial assets

8(a) Cash 8(b) Receivables 8(c) Investments

9. Non-financial assets 9(a) Land and buildings 9(b) Plant and equipm ent 9(c) Intangibles 9(d) Analysis of property, plant, equipm ent and intangibles 9(e) Summary of balances of assets at valuation 9 (f) Summary of balances of assets held under finance leases 9(g) Inventories 9(h) O ther non-financial assets

10. Debt

10(a) Loans 10(b) Finance lease liabilities

11. Provisions and payables

11(a) Liabilities to employees 11(b) Suppliers 11(c) Grants liabilities 11(d) O ther liabilities

12. Equity

13. Cash flow reconciliation

14. Financial instruments 14(a) Terms, conditions and accounting policies 14(b) Interest rate risk 14(c) Foreign currency risk 14(d) Credit risk 14(e) N et fair values of financial assets and liabilities

92

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

1. Summary of significant accounting policies

(a) Basis of accounting

T h e financial statem ents are required by clause

1(b) of Schedule 1 to the Commonwealth Authorities

and Companies Act 1991 and are a general purpose

financial report.

T h e statem ents have been prepared in

accordance with the Requirements fo r the

Preparation of Financial Statements of

Commonwealth Agencies and Authorities m ade by the

M inister of Finance and Administration in August

1999 (Schedule 2 to the Commonwealth

Authorities and Companies (CAC) Orders). T he

financial statem ents have been prepared in

accordance with Australian Accounting Standards,

other authoritative pronouncements of the

Accounting Standards Board (Accounting

Guidance Releases) and the Consensus Views of

the Urgent Issues Group. T h e financial

statem ents have also been prepared having regard

to Statem ents of Accounting Concepts and the

Explanatory Notes to Schedule 2 issued by the

D epartm ent of Finance and Administration.

T h e financial statem ents have been prepared

on an accrual basis, and are in accordance with

historical cost convention, except for assets

which, as noted, are at valuation (see note 9).

(b) Changes in accounting policy Accounting policies are selected and applied in a

m anner which ensures that the resulting financial

information satisfies the concepts of relevance

and reliability, thereby ensuring that the

substance of the underlying transactions or other

events is reported. Significant accounting policies

adopted in the preparation and presentation of

the financial report are identified in this note.

Changes in accounting policy have been

identified in this note under their appropriate

headings.

(c) Principles of consolidation T h e consolidated accounts of the Corporation

include (a) the assets and liabilities of the

Corporation and the entity it controlled at the

end of the financial year, and (b) the results of

the Corporation and the entity it controlled

during the year. T h e effect of all transactions

betw een entities in the economic entity and

inter-entity balances are eliminated in full.

(d) Equity accounting of associated companies T h e principles of equity accounting have been

applied in respect of associated companies.

Associated companies are those companies over

which the economic entity exercises significant

influence but not control.

SBS’s investm ent in the associated entity,

PAN T V Ltd, is accounted for in accordance with

AASB 1016 “Accounting for investm ents in

associates”. Using the equity method, SBS has

recognised the share of profit (loss) of its

associate as revenue (expense) in its consolidated

operating statem ent and its share of movements

in reserves in consolidated reserves. Equity

information is disclosed in notes 8(c) and 12.

(e) Reporting by outcomes A comparison of Budget and Actual figures by

outcome specified in the Appropriation Acts

relevant to the Corporation is presented in

N ote 2.

(f) Appropriations From 1 July 1999, the Commonwealth Budget

has been prepared under an accruals framework.

Under this framework, Parliament appropriates

moneys to the Corporation as revenue

appropriations, as loan appropriations and as

equity injections.

Revenue appropriations Revenues from government are revenues of the

core operating activities of the Corporation.

Appropriations from government for outputs are

recognised as revenue to the extent that they

have been received into the Corporation’s Bank

Account.

Non-revenue appropriations Appropriations to the Corporation for capital

items are recognised directly in equity, to the

extent that the appropriation has been received

into the Corporation’s Bank account.

(g) Resources received free of charge Resources received free of charge are recognised

as revenues in the operating statem ent where

their fair value can be reliably measured (refer

note 5a). Use of the resources is recognised as an

expense, or, where there is a long term benefit,

an asset is recognised.

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

(h) Other revenue

Core operations

All revenues from the sales of goods and

services relate to the core operating activities of

the Corporation and the economic entity.

All other operating revenue arises from non­

core operating activities except transmission

services which is included in miscellaneous

revenue.

Revenue from the sale of goods and services

is recognised when the economic entity has

passed control of the goods to the buyer.

Revenue from the rendering of a service is

recognised by reference to the stage of

completion of the contract or other agreement.

Interest revenue is recognised on a

proportional basis taking into account the interest

rates applicable to the financial assets.

(i) Grants and other provisions and payables Grants received from other government agencies,

which affect more than one financial period are

matched with the related costs and recognised in

the period to which they relate.

Prepayments received, which affect more than

one financial period are m atched with the related

costs and recognised in the period to which they

relate.

In 1999-2000, the Corporation received

revenue from the TV Fund to provide analogue

extensions to regional Australia over the next 12

years. Refer to notes 8(c) and 11(d).

(j) Employee entitlements (i) Provision for long service leave

T h e provision for long service leave is

measured at the present value of estim ated

future cash flows to be made in respect of

all employees at 30 June 2000. In

determining the present value of the

liability, attrition rates have been taken

into account. T h e liability to pay long

service leave entitlem ents has been

recognised in respect of all employees after

three years’ eligible service, and those with

three to four years’ service discounted by

half. T h e amount expected to be payable

within twelve months is shown as a current

liability, and the balance as a non-current

liability.

(ii) Provision for recreation leave

Provision is made for the value of

entitlem ents accrued as at balance date

and includes the annual leave bonus

component payable in accordance with the

SBS Award. T h e amount expected to be

payable within twelve months is shown as

a current liability, and the balance as a non­

current liability.

(iii) Provision for redundancies

Provision is made for redundancies for

employees or employee numbers

identified at balance date, which can be

reliably measured. T h e provision does not

include long service leave or annual leave

paid on termination. T hese are included in

the respective provisions.

(iv) Sick leave

No provision is made for sick leave in the

financial statem ents as sick leave taken by

employees is expected to be less than

future entitlem ents. T his assessment is

made for all employees on a group basis.

(v) Provision for superannuation on accrued

recreation and long service leave

Provision is made for recognition of

employer (CSS and PSS) superannuation

contributions payable in respect of accrued

leave liabilities. In 1999-2000, the

provision was calculated using a percentage

of employer CSS and PSS contributions

and accrued leave taken during the

employees period of service and applied to

accrued leave liabilities. Refer also to

note l(k).

(k) Superannuation (i) Employees of the Corporation contribute

directly to either (a) the Commonwealth

Superannuation Scheme (CSS), or (b) the

Public Sector Superannuation Scheme

(PSS), by way of fortnightly salary

deductions.

(ii) Employees of the Corporation are

employed under Section 54 of the Special

Broadcasting Service Act 1991, and the

Corporation is required to contribute the

employer component of the

Superannuation Schemes. Current

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

employer contribution rates are 25.1% of

salary (CSS) and 13.2% of salary (PSS).

Refer also to note l(j).

(iii) T h e Corporation also contributes

superannuation in respect of contract staff

engaged under Section 44 of the Special

Broadcasting Service Act 1991, in accordance

with the superannuation guarantee

legislation. T h e contributions are included

in the cost of contract (see note 6d).

(l) Leases A distinction is made betw een finance leases,

which effectively transfer from the lessor to the

lessee substantially all the risks and benefits

incidental to ownership of leased assets, and

operating leases, under which the lessor

effectively retains all such risks and benefits.

W here a non-current asset is acquired by

m eans of a finance lease, the asset is capitalised

at the present value of the minimum lease

paym ents at the inception of the lease, and a

liability for lease payments recognised at the

same amount. Lease payments are allocated

betw een the principal component and the

interest expense.

Finance lease assets are amortised on a

straight line basis over their estim ated useful

lives to the Corporation.

Lease payments for operating leases, where

substantially all the risks and benefits remain

with the lessor, are charged as expense in the

periods in which they are incurred.

(m) Cash flows For the purpose of the Statem ent of Cash Flows,

cash includes cash on hand and deposits held at

call with banks.

(n) Financial instruments Accounting policies in relation to financial

instrum ents are disclosed in note 14.

(o) Acquisition of assets Assets acquired are recorded at the cost on

acquisition, being the purchase consideration

determ ined as at the date of acquisition.

(p) Property, plant and equipment Asset recognition threshold

Item s are classified as non-current assets when:

(i) the cost of acquisition is in excess of $2000;

(ii) they are non-consumable in nature; and

(iii) the estim ated useful life is in excess of 12

months.

Revaluations

T h e Corporation implements progressive

revaluations of all property, plant and equipm ent

over successive three year periods in accordance

with the “deprival” method of valuation as

required by Schedule 2.

T h e requirem ents of Schedule 2 are being

im plem ented as follows:

- freehold land was initially revalued as at 30

June 1998;

- buildings on freehold land were initially

revalued as at 30 June 1998;

- leasehold improvements have been

revalued as at 1 July 1999;

- plant and equipm ent, w hether at cost or

under finance lease, were initially

revalued at 30 June 1998; and

- intangible assets were initially revalued as

at 30 June 1998.

Property, plant and equipm ent, other than land, is

recognised at its depreciated replacem ent cost.

Depreciation Property, plant and equipm ent, other than

freehold land, is depreciated over its estim ated

useful life to the Corporation using the straight

line m ethod of depreciation.

Depreciation/amortisation rates (useful lives)

and m ethods were reviewed during the 1999-00

financial year.

Depreciation and amortisation rates

applying to each class of depreciable asset are

based on the following useful lives:

Class of non financial asset Buildings

Leasehold

improvements

Plant & equipm ent

Intangibles

1999-2000 1998-1999 40 years 40 years

Lease term Lease term 3 to 20 years 5 to 20 years

5 years 5 years

T h e aggregate amount of depreciation allocated

for each class of asset during the reporting period

is disclosed in note 6(e).

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Recoverable amount test T he carrying amount of property, plant and

equipm ent is reviewed annually to ensure it is

not in excess of the recoverable am ount from

these assets. T h e recoverable amount is

assessed on the basis of expected net cash flows

which will be received from the assets

em ploym ent and subsequent disposal. T he

expected net cash flows from future

appropriations by the Parliament, have been

discounted to their present value in determining

the recoverable amount.

T h e application of the recoverable

amount test to the non-current assets of the

Corporation is a change in accounting policy

required by the Finance M inister’s Orders in

1999-2000. T h e new policy is being applied

from the beginning of 1999-2000.

No write-down to the recoverable amount

has been made in 1999-2000 as a result of this

change in policy.

(q) Amortisation (i) Current assets

Purchased program stocks and

commissioned programs are valued at cost

and amortised at 90% after first screening

and 10% after second screening, or fully

amortised upon expiration of rights.

Certain program purchases are not

categorised as program stocks or

commissioned programs, and are

expensed at the time of purchase. Costs

of internally produced programs are

expensed as incurred.

Amortisation of program stocks and

commissioned programs is shown in note

6(d).

(ii) N on-current assets

Leasehold improvements are amortised

on a straight line basis over the shorter of

either the unexpired period of the lease or

the estim ated useful life of the

improvements.

Intangible assets are amortised on a

straight line basis over their estimated

useful lives.

(r) Merchandising stocks

Merchandising stocks are valued at lower of cost

or net realisable value. Costs have been assigned

to inventory quantities on hand at balance date

using the first in first out basis.

(s) Taxation T he Corporation and its subsidiary, Multilingual

Subscriber Television Ltd (M ST Ltd), are not

subject to income tax. A ruling was sought in

1998 from the Australian Tax Office, which

confirmed the tax exem pt status of M ST Ltd.

T h e Corporation and its subsidiary,

Multilingual Subscriber Television Ltd (MST

Ltd), are subject to fringe benefits tax.

(t) Goods and Services Tax Revenues, expenses and assets are recognised

net of the amount of goods and services tax

(GST), except:

(i) where the amount of G ST incurred is not

recoverable from the taxation authority, it

is recognised as part of the cost of

acquisition of an asset or as part of an

item of expense; or

(ii) for receivables and payables which are

recognised inclusive of GST.

T h e net amount of G ST recoverable from, or

payable to, the taxation authority is included as

part of receivables or payables.

(u) Capital Use Charge T he Capital Use Charge (CUC) is a charge

levied on Commonwealth General Government

Sector agencies and authorities. T he Capital

Use Charge payment is based on the

Departmental net assets of the Corporation as at

30 June. T h e rate of the Charge is currently

12%. T he rate is calculated at the return on a

risk free investm ent (the long term bond rate,

presently 6%) plus a margin for risk of 6%.

(v) Foreign currency Transactions denominated in a foreign currency

are converted at the effective exchange rate on

the date of the transaction. Exchange gains and

losses are reported in the operating statement.

9 6

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

(w) Receivables C redit terms for receivables for goods and

services are net 45 days for advertising debtors

and 30 days for other debtors.

A provision is raised for doubtful debts based

on a review of all outstanding amounts at year

end. Bad debts are written off during the period

in which they are identified.

(x) Bank loans Bank loans are recognised at their principal

amounts.

Interest is expensed as it accrues.

(v) Commonwealth loans (borrowings from future appropriations) A loan of $4,500,000 from the Commonwealth

was recognised in 1996-97.

T h e balance of the Commonwealth loan of

$2,700,000 was repaid in full in 1999-2000.

(z) Trade creditors Creditors and accruals are recognised at their

nominal amounts, being the amounts at which

the liabilities will be settled. Liabilities are

recognised to the extent that the goods or

services have been received (and irrespective of

having been invoiced). Settlem ent is usually

made n et 30 days.

(aa) Comparative figures Comparative figures are, where applicable,

restated to reflect the current year presentation

of the financial statements.

(ab) Rounding Amounts are rounded to the nearest $1,000

unless specifically stated to be otherwise.

2. Reporting by segments and outcomes

Reporting by segments

T h e economic entity operates Radio and Television services within the broadcasting industry. Geographically

the economic entity operates entirely within Australia.

T h e Corporation is structured to m eet one outcome:

Outcome 1: Provide multicultural and multilingual services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and in doing so reflects Australia’s multicultural society.

Reporting by Outcomes 1999-2000

Outcome

Budget Actual

$000 $000

Total net adm inistered expenses - -

Add: N e t cost of entity outputs 111,886 105,298

Outcom e before abnormal/extraordinary items - -

Abnormal/extraordinary items - -

N e t Cost to Budget O utcom e1 111,886 105,298

Total assets deployed as at 30/06/00 97,130 173,073

N e t assets deployed as at 30/06/00 52,858 52,808

Any intra-government costs included in the figure “N et Cost to Budget Outcom e” are eliminated in

calculating the actual budget outcome for the Governm ent overall.

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Reporting by Outcomes by funding source for 1999-2000

O u t c o m e O u t p u t s

$ 0 0 0

T o ta l

A p p r o p r i a t i o n s

$ 0 0 0

T o ta l

E x p e n s e s

$ 0 0 0

Expenses against Revenue from

Government (Appropriations)

(B)

Expense

against

Revenue

sources

(C)

Total

Expenses

against

Outputs (D) - (B)

Special

Appropriations

Annual

Appropriation

Total

Actual 1 0 7 ,5 8 6 1 0 7 ,5 8 6 3 0 ,1 8 7 1 3 7,773 1 0 7 ,5 8 6 137,773

Budget - 1 1 1,886 1 1 1 ,8 8 6 2 5 ,7 6 4 1 3 7 ,6 5 0 1 1 1 ,8 8 6 137,650

Appropriation Act 2 - equity

Actual

Budget

Total Appropriations

Actual

Budget

3. Economic dependency T h e Corporation is dependent on Parliamentary appropriations to be viable as a going concern.

4. Operating surplus T h e Corporation’s operating surplus before payment of the capital use charge is 88 .5 5 4 .0 0 0 . T he

operating result is 8 2 ,2 8 8 ,0 0 0 after adjusting for the capital use charge provided for or paid.

Consolidated Corporation

2000

Notes $'000

1999 $'000

2000 $’000

1999 $'000

5. O p e ra tin g revenues 5(a) Revenues from Government

Annual Appropriation Act No. 1 - basic appropriation 106,344 79,148 106.344 79,148

Annual Appropriation Act No. 2 - equity injection 7.899 7,899

Annual Appropriation Act No. 3 - appropriation - additional estimates 5.542 3,705 5,542 3,705

Annual Appropriation Act No. 4 - equity injection - additional estimates 1.200 - 1.200 -

Parliamentary appropriations received 120.985 82,853 120.985 82,853

Less equity injections (9,999) - (9.999) -

Less appropriation prepaym ent received (3.400) - (3.400) -

Plus repayment of borrowings from appropriation l(y) - 900 - 900

Plus repayment of interest from appropriation l(y) - 216 216

Total Parliamentary appropriations 107,586 83,969 107,586 83,969

Resources received free of charge (v) - 8,808 - 8,808

Total Revenues from Government 107,586 92,777 107,586 92,777

9 8

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

(v) T h e National Transmission Agency (NTA) provided the services, and operated the facilities necessary to

transmit the Corporation’s programs to the public under the direction of the Minister for Communications,

Information, Technology and the Arts until 30 April 1999. From 1 May 1999 these transmission services

have been provided to SBS on a commercial basis.

Consolidated Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

Notes $’000 $'000 $’000 $'000

5(b) Sales of goods and services

Advertising and sponsorship 22,813 19,239 22,813 19,239

Production services 3,193 3,175 3,193 3,175

Sale of programs and merchandise 604 824 604 824

Services to related corporations (vi) 533 485 173 125

Total sales of goods and services 27.143 23,723 26,783 23,363

(vi) Revenue from related corporations

O ther contract services - associated company 533 485 173 125

Total revenue from related corporations 533 485 l 73 125

5(c) Interest

Deposits 1.892 1,345 1,863 1,333

O ther - non government securities 328 16 328 16

Total interest 2,220 1,361 2,191 1,349

5(d) Reversals of previous asset write-downs

Financial assets Receivables Goods and services - adjustm ent to provision for doubtful debts 84 - 84 -

Investm ent 71 " - -

Total reversals of previous asset write-downs 155 ____________- 84 ~

5(e) Other operating revenue

Grants l(i) 2,355 778 2,355 778

Rental Receipts 640 585 640 585

Miscellaneous revenue 1.524 3,747 422 3,747

Total other operating revenue 4,519 5,110 3,417 5,110

9 9

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Consolidated Corporation

Note

6 O perating expenses 6(a) Employee expenses

2000 $'000

1999 $'000

2000 $’000

1999 $'000

Basic remuneration for sendees provided Salaries and related expenses Employee leave entitlem ents provisions Superannuation expenses l(k)

37,173 6,798 6.700

34,868 5,708 5,633

37,173 6,798 6,700

34,868 5,708 5,633

Total basic remuneration for sendees provided 50,671 46,209 50.671 46,209

Separation and redundancy payments 564 165 564 165

Total employee expenses 51,235 46,374 51,235 46,374

6(b) Remuneration of officers “Officers" are persons engaged by the economic entity who are concerned in, and take part in, the

m anagem ent of the Corporation or economic entity, other than a director. T h e definition does not include

a designated office or position occupied by more than one person during the reporting period.

Remuneration of officers (detailed below) relates to members of the Executive. T he remuneration of

those officers who have occupied the position of Managing Director or a director of the economic entity

during 1999-00 are not included to the extent that they were rem unerated as directors of the Corporation or

economic entity. Details in relation to those directors are included in note 6(c).

Officers Total remuneration in respect of officers:

Consolidated Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

$498,119 $439,259 $498,119 $439,259

T h e above amounts include remuneration in respect of each officer or designated position which is

$100,000 or more during the reporting period. T hese amounts are included in Employee expenses in note

6(a).

T h e num ber of officers whose total remuneration was betw een :

$120,001 - $130,000 $130,001 - $140,000 $150,001 -$160,000 $160,001 -$170,000 $170,001 -$180,000

$ 210,001 - $ 220,000

Officers of the Officers of the

economic entity Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

Number Number Number Number

1 1 1 1

- 1 - 1

1 - 1 -

1 1

1 - 1 -

6(c) Remuneration of directors and related party disclosures

Directors

Remuneration of directors includes the remuneration of officers who are also directors of the Corporation or

the economic entity. T heir remuneration as directors of the Corporation is included below.

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Consolidated Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

Total remuneration in respect of directors: 8 8 3 8 ,5 4 5 $747,431 8 5 0 7 ,4 6 3 $469,567

Superannuation included in the above remuneration: 8 1 1 7 ,6 4 9 $84,312 896 ,1 7 1 $32,957

T h e directors of the Corporation’s subsidiary Multilingual Subscriber Television Lim ited (M ST Ltd -

see note 8c) are appointed from directors and officers of the Corporation. T h e remuneration paid by the

Corporation to those directors is 8 6 9 1 ,3 8 8 (1999 $652,316).

T h ey received no additional remuneration for their duties in relation to the controlled entity.

T h e num ber of directors whose total remuneration was betw een :

Nil - $ 10,000

$ 10,001 - $ 20,000 $ 20,001 - $30,000 $30,001 - $40,000 $40,001 - $50,000

$110,001 - $120,000 $140,001 -$150,000 $160,001 -$170,000 $180,001 -$190,000 $320,001 -$330,000

Directors of the Directors of the

economic e n tity Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

Number Number Number Number

5 5

6 5 6 5

2 - 2 -

1 - 1 -

- 1 - 1

- 1 - -

1 - - -

- 1 - -

1 - - -

1 1 1 1

T h e following persons held positions as directors of the Corporation during 1999-00:

Sir Nicholas Shehadie (Chairman - resigned 17/12/99) Peter Carroll

Carla Zam patti (Chairman - appointed 18/12/99) Amareswar Galla

Neville Roach (Deputy Chairman) Edward Gregory

Nigel Milan (Managing Director) M artine Pop

Nyra Bensimon Trang Thomas

T h e following persons held positions as directors of the Corporation’s controlled entity, M ST Ltd,

during 1999-00:

Sir Nicholas Shehadie (Chairman - resigned 17/12/99) M aureen Crowe

Carla Zam patti (Chairman - appointed as Director on 27/3/00) Tuong Quang Luu

Nigel Milan (Acting Chairman 18/12/99 to 7/4/00)

1

Transactions with other related parties g

Transactions with other related parties are disclosed in the relevant notes. Linless otherwise stated, I

transactions betw een related parties are on normal commercial terms and conditions, which are no more s

favourable than those available to other parties. |

!

101

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Consolidated Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

Notes $’000 $'000 $’000 $'000

6(d) Suppliers expenses

Operating lease rentals 1,207 963 1,207 963

Supply of goods and services Administrative expenses 21.957 17,865 21.951 17,853

Amortisation of program stocks l(q) 6,92.3 6,179 6,923 6,179

Amortisation of commissioned programs l(q) 3.866 3,220 3,866 3,220

O ther program purchases 8,385 5,344 8,385 5,344

Broadcasting facilities 5,154 5,920 5,154 5,920

Translators & transmitters 1(g),5(a), (v) 13.341 10,575 13,341 10,575

Contract staff l(k) 6,278 6,249 6,278 6,249

Materials and minor items 2,479 2,567 2,479 2,567

Production services 1,716 1,425 1,716 1,425

Audit fees (vii) 69 69 65 65

Total supply of goods and services 70,168 59,413 70.158 59,397

Total suppliers expenses 71,375 60,376 71.365 60,360

(vii) Audit fees

Fees for services paid or payable to the Auditor-General for auditing

the economic entity’s financial statem ents for the reporting period were

8 6 9 .0 0 0 (1999 $69,000). No other services were provided during the

reporting period.

Fees for auditing the financial statem ents 69 69 65 65

Total audit fees 69 69 65 65

6(e) Depreciation/amortisation of non-current assets (viii)

Depreciation/amortisation of property, plant, equipm ent and intangibles 3,952 4,538 3,952 4,538

Amortisation of leased assets 136 136 136 136

Total depreciation/amortisation of non-current assets 4,0 8 8 4,674 4 ,0 8 8 4,674

(viii) T h e aggregate amounts of depreciation and amortisation allocated during the reporting period, as expense

for each class of depreciable asset, are as follows:

Buildings on Freehold Land 902 868 902 868

Leasehold Improvements 80 152 SO 152

Plant and E quipm ent 2,933 3,424 2,933 3,424

Intangibles 173 230 173 230

Total allocated 4,0 8 8 4,674 4.0 8 8 4,674

102

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Consolidated Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

6 (f) W rite-down of assets

Financial assets Receivables Goods and services -

Notes $’000 $'000 $’000 $'000

adjustm ent to provision for doubtful debts - 66 - 66

Goods and services - bad debts written off 12 17 12 17

Investm ent Non-financial assets

- 202 - -

Plant and equipm ent - write-off Leasehold improvements -Kp) 66 3 66 3

revaluation decrement 9(xii) 186 - 186 -

Total write-down of assets

6(g) Net losses from sale of assets

Plant and equipm ent

264 288 264 86

Proceeds on disposal 1 27 1 27

Less carrying amount of disposed assets (30) (107) (30) (107)

Loss on disposal

7. Interest expense

29 80 29 80

Bank loan 10(a) 4.284 4,274 4.284 4,274

Com monwealth loan l(y), 5(a) 144 216 144 216

Finance charges on lease liabilities 10(b) 73 94 73 94

Total interest expense

8. Financial assets

8(a) Cash

4,501 4,584 4,501 4,584

Cash at bank and on hand

Balance of cash as at 30 June shown in the

4,656 10,379 3.592 9,697

Statem ent of Cash Flows

8(b) Receivables

13 4,656 10,379 3,592 9,697

Goods and services - controlled entity 8(c) 3.667 3,667

Goods and services - associated company 1,100 33 - 33

O ther goods and services (ix) 5,286 5,158 5,286 5,158

Total goods and services receivables 6,386 5,191 8,953 8,858

Interest 99 59 99 59

Capital use charge receivable 123 - 123 -

Subtotal 6,608 5,250 9,175 8,917

Less provision for doubtful debts (131) (215) (131) (215)

Total receivables 6,477 5,035 9,044 8,702

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Consolidated 2000 1999

Notes $'000 $'000

Corporation 2000 1999

$’000 $'000

(ix) T h e majority of goods and services

receivable relate to advertising agencies.

Receivables include receivables

N ot overdue 6.257 3,064 8,824 6,731

Overdue by: - less than 30 days 74 1,893 74 1,893

- 30 to 60 days 45 67 45 67

- 60 to 90 days 39 41 39 41

- more than 90 days 193 185 193 185

Total receivables (gross) 6.608 5,250 9,175 J,9 1 7

8(c) Investments

Non-government securities (X) 82.769 2,016 82,769 2,016

Shares in controlled entity (Xi) - - - -

Shares in associated company (xii) 2,313 2,242 _______ y ______ :

Total investments 85.082 4.258 82.769 2,016

(x) In 1999-2000, the Corporation received revenue from the TV Fund to provide analogue extensions to

regional Australia over the next 12 years. T hese funds have been invested in non-government securities.

(xi) Investm ent in controlled entity

T h e Corporation subscribed for 5 shares ($1 each) in Multilingual Subscriber Television Ltd (M ST Ltd) in

1994-95. M ST Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of SBS Corporation. It was incorporated for the purpose of

the Corporation’s involvement in Pay TV. T here were no dividends received by the Corporation from MST

Ltd as at 30 June 2000.

Name of entity

Country of incorporation

Interest of

Corporation 2000 1999

Contributions to consolidated surplus 2000 1999

$’000 $'000

Parent Entity SBS Corporation Australia 8,554 6,519

Directly controlled by SBS Corporation M ST Ltd Australia 100% 100% 1.552 154

10.106 6,673

1 04

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

(xii) Investm ent in associated company and equity information

Name of entity Principal A ctivity Ownership Interest 2000

Ownership Interest 1999

Balance \ Balance

Date Date

PAN TV Ltd Production and delivery of media services 40% 40% 30 June 2000 30 June 1999

T h e Corporation’s controlled entity (M ST Ltd) subscribed for 220,000 shares in PAN TV L td in 1994-95,

the subscription price deem ed to be paid in consideration for a range of services provided by the economic

entity to PAN TV Ltd. T h e purchase consideration for the shares acquired was valued at $3,667,333 ,

having regard to the price paid by the other investing partners in PAN T V L td in acquiring their shares.

T h e equity accounted value of this investm ent as at 30 June 2000 was $2,313,150 (1999 $2,242,218)

having regard to the performance of PAN TV L td in 2000.

T h e range of services valued at $3,667,333, have been fully provided by the Corporation to PAN TV

L td on behalf of M ST Ltd. T his amount is shown as a receivable by the Corporation from its controlled

entity, M ST Ltd, and eliminated on consolidation.

PAN TV Ltd currently provides a World Movies Channel to Foxtel, O ptus Vision, and Austar under

distribution agreements.

2 0 0 0 1999

Cost

$ ’000 $'000

Carrying amount of investment in associated company (at cost) 3,667 3,667

D ividends receivable from associated company ----------- - --------- -

3,667 3,667

Equity Carrying amount of investment in associated company (at cost) 3,667 3,667

Less share of retained losses (1-354) (1,425)

Equity-accounted amount of investment 2,313 2,242

Share of associate’s operating profit (loss) before income tax 1,097 463

Share of income tax expense attributable to operating profit 74 (665)

Share of operating profit (loss) after income tax 1,171 (202)

Dividends receivable from associated company (1.100) -

Accumulated results attributable to associate 1 July 1999 (1,425) (1,223)

30 June 2000 (1,354) (1,425)

Movement in the equity accounted investment in associated company Investm ent in associated company 1 July 1999 2,242 3,667

A djustm ent due to adoption of AASB 1016 - (1,223)

N ew investm ents during the year - -

Share of operating profit after income tax 1,171 (202)

Dividend revenue from associated company (1,100) -

Disposals during the year ______________-

Investm ent in associated company 30 June 2000 2.313 2,242

Share of commitments Share of operating lease commitments 20 21

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

1 06

Consolidated Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

Notes $’000 $'000 $’000 $'000

9. N on-financial a s s e ts 9(a) Land and building 1(P)

Freehold land - at independent valuation (xiii) 8,675 8,675 8,675 8,675

Buildings - at independent valuation (xiii) 30,825 30,825 30,825 30,825

Buildings - at cost 497 148 497 148

Less accumulated depreciation (1,770) (868) (1,770) (868)

29,552 30,105 29,552 30,105

Leasehold improvements -at independent valuation (xiii) 212 2,969 212 2,969

Less accumulated amortisation (81) (2,571) (81) (2,571)

131 398 131 398

Total lan d a n d buildings 38,358 39,178 38,358 39,178

9(b) Plant and equipment l(p)

Plant and equipm ent - at independent valuation(xiii) 34,253 34,253 34,253 34,253

Plant and equipm ent - at cost 7,003 4,259 7,003 4,259

Less accumulated depreciation (21,405) (20,371) (21,405) (20,371)

19,851 18,141 19,851 18,141

Plant and equipm ent under finance lease - at independent valuation 1(1), 10(b),

(xiii) 1,809 1,809 1.809 1,809

Less accumulated amortisation (463) (327) (463) (327)

1.346 1,482 1,346 1,482

Total p lan t a n d eq u ip m en t 21,197 19,623 21.197 19,623

9(c) Intangibles l(p)

Com puter software (purchased) -at independent valuation (xiii) 1.136 1,137 1.136 1,137

Com puter software at cost 203 142 203 142

Less accumulated amortisation (1,064) (912) (1,064) (912)

275 367 275 367

Total intangibles 275 367 275 367

Total property, p lan t, eq u ip m en t a n d intangibles 59,830 59,168 59,830 59,168

(xiii) All property, plant and equipm ent (except for leasehold improvements) were revalued in accordance

with the deprival method of valuation at 30 June 1998 (see note lp). Leasehold improvements were

revalued in accordance with the deprival method of valuation as at 1 July 1999.

T h e revaluations for land and building were completed by independent valuers, based on market

value for existing usage: Anthony St Leon, AAPI, AICMV - Artarmon, NSW (land and building).

Edward J Kinch AVLE (Val) - Craigieburn, Victoria (land).

T h e revaluation for plant and equipm ent was made by an independent valuer Simon B O ’Leary,

AAPI, MSAA, based on the depreciated replacem ent cost of the equipm ent.

T h e revaluation for leasehold improvements was made by an independent valuer Mario Lancellotti,

AAPI, based on the depreciated replacem ent cost of the improvements.

In 1999-2000 a revaluation decrem ent of $185,952 for leasehold improvements was expensed.

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

9(d) Analysis of property, plant, equipment and intangibles (Consolidated e ntity only)

M ovem ent sum m ary 1999-00 for all assets irrespective of v aluation basis

Land Buildings Total land & buildings Plant & Equipment

Computer software/ licenses

Total

$’000 $’000 $’000 $’000 $'000 $’000

Gross value as at 1 July 1999 8,675 33,943 42,618 40,320 1,279 84.217

Additions

Acquisition of replacement assets - 86 86 - 11 97

Acquisition of new assets - 262 262 4,603 70 4,935

Revaluations: write-ups / (write-downs) - (2,757) (2,757) - (2,757)

Disposals - - - (382) - (382)

Write-offs - - - (1,476) (21) (1,497)

Gross value as at 30 June 2000 8,675 31,534 40,209 43,065 1,339 84,613

Accumulated depreciation / am ortisation as at 1 July 1999 - 3,440 3.440 20.698 912 25,050

Depreciation / amortisation for assets held 1 July 1999

- 982 982 2,933 173 4,088

Revaluations: write-ups / (write-downs) - (2,571) (2,571) - - (2,571)

Disposals - - - (353) - (353)

Write-offs - - - (1,410) (21) (1,431)

Accumulated depreciation / am ortisation as at 30 June 2000 - 1,851 1.851 21,868 1,064 24,783

Net book value as at 30 June 2000 8,675 29,683 38,358 21,197 275 59,830

N e t book value as at 1 July 1999 8,675 30,503 39,178 19,623 367 59,168

In 1999-2000 a revaluation decrem ent of $185,952 for leasehold improvements was expensed. Refer also to

notes 9(a) and l(p).

T h e majority of assets written off have been identified as obsolete, dismantled or scrapped following the

fixed assets stocktake in 2000.

107

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

4.

I

9(e) Summary of balances of assets at valuation as at 30 June 2000 (Consolidated entity only)

Land Buildings Total land Plant & Computer Total

& buildings Equipment software/

As at 30 June 2000

$’000 $’000 $’000 $'000

licenses $'000 $'000

Gross value 8,675 31,037 39,712 36,061 1,136 76,909

Accumulated depreciation / amortisation (1,851) (1,851) (21,868) (1,064) (24,783)

Net book value 8,675 29.186 37,861 14,193 72 52,126

As at 30 June 1999

Gross value 8,675 30,825 39,500 36,061 1,136 76,697

Accumulated depreciation / amortisation (868) (868) (20,698) (912) (22,478)

Net book value 8,675 29,957 38,632 15,363 224 54,220

9(f) Summary of balances of assets held under finance lease as at 30 June 2000 (Consolidated entity only)

As at 30 June 2000

Gross value - - - 1,809 - 1,809

Accumulated depreciation / amortisation (463) (463)

Net book value 1.346 1,346

As at 30 June 1999

Gross value - - - 1,809 - 1,809

Accumulated depreciation / amortisation (327) (327)

Net book value 1.482 1.482

Notes 1(1), 10(b) and 9(b) also refer to the finance lease agreements entered into by the Corporation.

108

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Consolidated Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

Notes $'000 $'000 $’000 $'000

9(g) Inventories

Inv entories not held for sale l(q)

Purchased program stocks - at cost 13,369 13,407 13,369 13,407

Less accumulated amortisation (9,941) (10,065) (9,941) (10,065)

3,428 3,342 3,428 ' 3,342

Commissioned programs (completed) - at cost 16,225 10,414 16,225 10,414

Less accumulated amortisation (11,471) (7,605) (11,471) (7,605)

4,754 ' 2,809 4,754 2,809

Commissioned programs - in progress 3.921 1,899 3,921 1,899

Total inv entories not held for sale 12,103 8,050 12,103 8,050

Inv entories held for sale Merchandising stock l(r!S 5 89 5 89

Total inventories held for sale 5 89 5 89

Total inventories 12,108 8,139 12,108 8,139

9(h) Other non-financial assets

Prepayments 5,730 5,883 5,730 5,883

Total other non-financial assets 5,730 5,883 5.730 5,883

10. D ebt 10(a) Loans

Bank loans l(x)

Bank loan (secured) (xiv) 39,000 39,000 39,000 39,000

Less sinking fund (bank loan offset) (xiv) (14.987) (10,872) (14,987) (10,872)

24,013 28,128 24,013 28,128

Commonwealth loans Borrowings from future Parliamentary appropriations l(y) - 2,700 - 2,700

Total loans 24,013 30,828 24,013 30,828

(xiv) T h e loan for the construction and enhancem ent of the premises at Artarnron is with ABN AMRO, and

has been fully utilised. T he loan is fully guaranteed by the Commonwealth of Australia. T h e Corporation

has no other used or unused facility.

A sinking fund has been established to set aside moneys for the repaym ent of the loan. Deposits to the

sinking fund are treated as equity injections as they are offset against the capital component of the

building loan. Sinking fund deposits made in 2000 were $3.2 million (1999 $4.8 million).

1 09

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

Consolidated Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

Notes

At the reporting date, loans payable are as follows: $’000 $'000 $’000 $'000

within one year: - 900 - 900

within one to two years: - 900 - 900

within two to five years: 24.013 29,028 24,013 29,028

Total loans

10(b) Finance lease liabilities (xv)

Lease liabilities recognised in the statem ent of assets and liabilities

24,013 30,828 24,013 30,828

Current 366 345 366 345

Non-current 500 870 500 870

Total lease liabilities

Finance leases liabilities at the reporting date and related finance charges are payable as follows:

866 1,215 866 1,215

N o later than one year 422 422 422 422

L ater than one year and not later than two years 422 422 422 422

Later than two years and not later than five years 108 530 108 530

M inimum lease payments 952 1,374 952 1,374

Less future finance charges (86) (159) (86) (159)

Total lease liabilities 866 1,215 866 1,215

(xv) T h e Corporation has entered into two separate finance lease agreements for the purpose of acquiring

equipm ent for signal splitting to other states, and for digital editing and recording equipm ent

(see notes 11 and 9f)·

11. Provisions and payables 11(a) Liabilities to employees (xvi)

Salaries and wages 1,242 886 1.242 886

Superannuation 344 128 344 128

Annual leave 5,425 5,590 5,425 5,590

Long service leave 5.422 4,874 5,422 4,874

Superannuation on leave 1,242 1,242 "

Aggregate employee entitlem ent liability 13,675 11,478 13,675 11,478

(xvi) No redundancies were identified for employees on or before 30 June.

Redundancy payments made during the year are included in Employee expenses - see note 6(a).

11(b) Suppliers

Trade creditors 7,347 7,406 7,342 7,402

Total suppliers liabilities 7.347 7,406 7,342 7,402

1 1 0

Consolidated Corporation

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

2000 1999 2000 1999

11(c) Grants liabilities

Note $’000 $'000 $’000 $'000

Non-profit institutions 35 2,093 35 2,093

Total grants lia b ilitie s

11(d) Other liabilities

35 2,093 35 2,093

Deferred Revenue 109 109

Prepayments received (xvii) 74,225 67 74,225 67

Total o th e r lia b ilitie s 74,334 67 74,334 67

(xvii) In 1999-2000, the Corporation received revenue from the TV Fund to provide analogue extensions to

regional Australia over the next 12 years. Refer also to notes 8(c) and 1(1).

12. Equity

(Consolidated entity only).

Item Cap ital Accurr

res lulated ults

As

revali res

set jation prve

To

rese tal rves

TO EQl TAL JITY

2000 $000

1999 $000

2000 $000

1999 $000

2000 $000

1999 $000

2000 $000

1999 $ 0 0 0

2000 $000

1999 $000

Balance as at 1 July 4,800 - 24.918 18,245 10.056 10,056 10.056 10,056 39.774 28,301

O p e r a ti n g r e s u lt

N e t r e v a lu a tio n

in c r e a s e s /d e c r e a s e s

I n je c ti o n o f C a p ita l

C a p ita l U s e C h a rg e

10.106 6,673

4,800

Balance as at 30 June 14,799 4,800 28,758 24,918 10,056 10,056 10,056 10,056 53.613 39,774

All property, plant and equipm ent owned by the Corporation (except for leasehold improvements) were revalued at 30 June 1998 - see notes l(p) and 9(d). Leasehold improvem ents were revalued as at 1 July 2000 - see note

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

13. Cash Flow Reconciliation

Consolidated Corporation

2000 1999 2000 1999

Note $'000 $ '0 0 0 $ ’000 $ '0 0 0

Reconciliation of operating surplus to net cash flows provided by operating activities.

Net operating surplus 10.106 6,673 8,554 6,519

Depreciation and amortisation of property, plant and equipm ent 4.088 4,674 4,088 4,674

Decrease / (increase) in payables to suppliers for purchase of assets „ (498) . (498)

(Decrease) / increase in receivables for capital use charge 123 _ 123

Write-down of assets 252 3 252 3

(Gain) / loss on disposal of property, plant and equipm ent 29 80 29 80

(Decrease) / increase in provision for doubtful debts (84) 66 (84) 66

M ovem ent in interest on investm ent (1.152) (16) (1.152) (16)

(Gain) / loss on investm ent (71) 202 - -

Changes in assets and liabilities: Decrease / (increase) in receivables (1.358) 3,059 (258) 2,111

Decrease / (increase) in inventories (3,969) 16 (3,969) 16

Decrease / (increase) in prepayments paid 153 (4,202) 153 (4,203)

(Decrease) / increase in liabilities to employees 2.197 1,322 2,197 1,322

(Decrease) / increase in payables to suppliers (59) (34) (60) 913

(Decrease) / increase in grants liabilities (2,058) 2,091 (2.058) 2.091

(Decrease) / increase in prepayments received 74.267 (219) 74,267 (219)

(Decrease) / increase in bank loans (915) (518) (915) (518)

Net cash provided by operating activities 81,549 12,699 81.167 12,341

14. F in a n cia l In s tru m e n ts Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

14(a) Terms, conditions and accounting policies

Financial Instrum ent

Financial assets

Gash

Notes A ccounting Policies and Methods (including recognition criteria and measurement basis)

8(a)

Financial assets arc recognised when control over future economic benefits is established and the amount of the benefit can be reliably measured.

Cash at bank and on hand is recognised at its nominal value. Interest is credited to revenue as it accrues.

Nature o f underlying instrum ent (including significant terms & conditions affecting the amount, tim ing and certainty o f cash flows)

Funds, mainly from monthly drawdowns of appropriation placed in bank accounts with the Corporation’s banker.

Receivables for goods & services

8(b) T h e receivables are recognised at the nominal amounts less any provision for doubtful debts. A provision is raised for doubtful debts based on a review of all outstanding amounts at year end. Bad debts are written off during the period in which they are identified.

Credit terms for receivables for goods and services are net 45 days for advertising debtors and 14 days for other debtors.

Sinking fund (bank loan offset)

10(a) T h e sinking fund represents funds invested with ABN AMRO. It was established to set aside moneys for the repayment of the bank loan of $39m for the construction of the building at Artarmon.

To date, 8 contributions have been made totaling $ 12.6m (excluding interest). T h e funds invested with ABN AMRO have an average effective interest rate of 7.12% p.a. Interest compounds semi-annually.

Non-government security

8(c) SBS has a series of investments with Banks for funds not immediately required for operational expenditure. T h e investments are by purchase of negotiable certificates of deposit for varying periods between 1 month and

12 months. T h e weighted average effective interest rate of these investments is 6.22%.

ANNUAL REPORT 1999-2000 - fm om iak

ANNUAL REPORT 1999-2000 -financials

14. F in a n cia l In s tru m e n ts Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

14(a) Terms, conditions and accounting policies continued

Financial liabilities

Bank Loans

Financial liabilities are recognised when a present obligation to another party is entered into and the amount of the liability can be reliably measured.

10(a) Bank loans are recognised at their principal amounts. Interest is expensed as it accrues.

Commonwealth Loans

10(a) Amounts received from Parliamentary appropriations which are in effect a debt to the Commonwealth, and to be repaid by a reduction in future appropriations, are recognised as a loan from the Commonwealth and not as revenue in the period that the amounts are received.

SBS established a loan facility with ABN AMRO in 1992 for the purpose of funding its specialised broadcasting premises at Artarmon. T h e facility expires on 31 March 2002. Interest is payable quarterly on a fixed rate of 10.95% pa on the $39 million outstanding loan. T h e loan facility is subject to

a direct Commonwealth Governm ent guarantee which covers scheduled principal (on 31 March 2002), interest payments, facility usage fee & break costs.

In 1997 the Corporation received $4.5m from the Commonwealth to pay for a redundancy program. T h e loan was repaid in full in 1999-2000.

Finance Lease Liabilities

Trade Creditors

10(b) Liabilities are recognised at the present value of the minimum lease payments at the beginning of the lease. T h e discount rates used arc estimates of the interest rates implicit in the leases.

At reporting date, the Corporation had entered into two separate finance lease agreements. T h e terms of the leases are 5 years and 5.5 years. T h e interest rate implicit in the leases averaged 7.0%.

11(b) Creditors and accruals are recognised at their nominal amounts, being the amounts at which the liabilities will be settled. Liabilities are recognised to the extent that the goods or services have been received (irrespective of having been invoiced).

Settlem ent is usually made net 30 days.

T h e economic entity has no unrecognised financial assets or liabilities as at 30 June 2000. Interest rate details of recognised financial assets and liabilities are disclosed below. Investm ent

in the economic entity’s associated company is excluded, in accordance with the Australian Accounting Standard (AAS 33) on Presentation and Disclosure of Financial Instruments. Equity

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

N on-Interest

Bearing

2000 1999 $’000 $'000

5,035

5,035

N on-Interest

Bearing

2000 1999 $’000 $'000

Total

2000 $’000

1999 $'000

Weighted Average

E ffective Rate

2000 1999

% %

4,656 10,379 5.3% 4.0%

- 5,035 11/a n/a

14,987 10,872 7.1% 7.0%

82,769 2,016 6.2% 4.8%

102,412 28,302

173,883 92,861

7,347 7,406

Total

2000 $’000

1999 $'000

Weighted Average

E ffective Rate

2000 1999

% %

- 39,000 39,000 10.9% 10.9%

- - 2,700 0.0% 8.0%

- 866 1,215 7.0% 7.0%

7,406 7,347 7,406 n/a n/a

J t7 ,2 1 3 50,321

120,270 53,087

Special Broadcasting Service Corporation and Controlled Entity

14(c) Foreign currency risk

T h e economic entity entered into 2 forward exchange contracts to hedge a proportion of foreign currency

purchases in 2000. T here is no outstanding forward exchange contract as at 30 June 2000.

14(d) Credit risk

T h e economic entity’s maximum exposures to credit risk at reporting date in relation to each class of

recognised financial assets is the carrying amount of those assets, as reported in the Statem ent of Assets and

Liabilities.

T h e economic entity has no significant exposures to any concentration of credit risk.

14(e) Net fa ir values of financial assets and liabilities

T h e net fair values of cash, receivables for goods and services and trade creditors approximate their carrying

amounts. T h e n et fair values of non government securities, bank loan and finance lease liabilities are based

on discounted cash flows using current interest rates for liabilities with similar risk profiles.

T h e higher net fair value of the bank loan, as compared with its carrying amount, reflects the difference

in the fixed loan interest rate with current floating interest rates.

Notes Carrying Amount Net Fair Value

2000 $’000

1999 $ '0 0 0

2000 $’000

1999 $ '0 0 0

F inancial assets Non government securities 8(c) 82,769 2,016 82,791 2,014

Financial lia b ilitie s

Bank loans 10(a) 24.013 28,128 26,613 34,186

Finance lease liabilities 10(b) 866 1,215 862 1,201

Total lia b ilitie s 24,879 29,343 27,475 35,387

I

1 16

T h e accompanying notes form part of these financial statem ents

Appendices

Appendix 1

SBS Act - Compliance with Section 73

particulars of any broadcast by SBS during the

year because of a direction by the Minister

under subsection 12(1). None.

particulars of any broadcast by SBS during the

year because of a direction by the Minister

otherwise than under this Act. None.

particulars of any written statem ent of

Commonwealth Government policy given to

the Board by the Minister during the year and

the action (if any) taken by the Board in

respect of the statement. None.

particulars of any gift, devise or bequest

accepted by SBS during the year. None.

particulars of how the programming activities

during the year have related to SBS’s Charter

obligations. See Our Programs which includes

Television, Radio and New Media; SB S Television

- Languages Broadcast 1999-2000 (Appendix 4);

Top SB S Television Programs by Category

1999-2000 (Appendix 5); SBS Independent

Commissioned and Transmitted programs

(Appendix 7); S B S Radio schedule (Appendix 9);

S B S Radio - Languages Broadcast 1999-2000 (Appendix 10);

particulars of the total revenue earned during

the year from advertising and sponsorship, of

the identity of each advertiser or sponsor and

of the program (if any) with which advertiser

or sponsor is associated. See Financial

Statements. For SB S Television Sponsors

1999- 2000 (Appendix 11); SB S Television

Advertisers 1999-2000 (Appendix 12); S B S Radio

Marketing Clients 1999-2000 (Appendix 13).

g particulars of any direction by the Minister

during the year under section 11 or 12. None.

h particulars of any advice received by the Board

during the year from the Com munity Advisory

Com m ittee (CAC) and the action taken by the

Board in response to that advice. See Building

Relationships with Our Community and for

members of the CAC see Appendix 14.

particulars of any other measures taken by the

Board during the year to ensure that the Board

is aware of, and response to, comm unity needs

and opinions on matters relevant to SBS’s

Charter. See Building Relationships with Our

Community. ’

j an assessment of the extent to which the operations of SBS and its subsidiaries during

the year have achieved the objectives of SBS

and its subsidiaries under the Corporate Plan

and fulfilled the functions of SBS. Such details

are included throughout the body o f the Report.

It particulars of any activities carried out during

the year by SBS under subsection 52 (2). See

Our Position in the Marketplace and Financial

Statements.

I particulars of the activities during the year of

any authorised business with which SBS is

associated under section 52. See Our Position in

the Marketplace and Financial Statements.

Financial and Staffing Resources Summary

Appendix 2

(A ll Programs) $ (‘000) and actual s ta ff years

Actual Budget Actual

(1998-99) (1999-00) (1999-00)

Budgetary (cash) basis

Components of Appropriations 83,969 120,985 120,985

Revenue 34.528 22,502 25,887

plus cash on hand at beginning of year 5,741 9,697 9,697

less cash on hand at end of year (9,697) (10,622) (3,592)

Total funds available 114,541 142,562 152,977

Total outlays by output groups

Television 89,342 114,050 122,382

Radio 25,199 28.512 30,595

114,541 142,562 152,977

S ta ff years by output groups

Television 442 462 471

Radio 296 296 296

738 758 767

Appendix 3

Television Services

A re a S e rv ed C hannel A rea S e rv ed C h a n n e l A re a S e rv ed C h an n el

Australian Capital Territory Richmond/Tweed 41 Boyne Island 54

Canberra 28 Stanwell Park 30 Brisbane 28

Fraser 53 Sydney 28 Cairns 30

Tuggeranong 54 Tamworth 52 Cairns East 35

Weston Creek/Woden 58 Taree t 56 Cairns North 53

Tumbarumba t 57 Camooweal t 63

New South Wales Tumut t 54 Charleville t 7

Albury North 53 Tweed Heads 62 Cloncurry t 60

Armidale 30 Ulladulla 30 Cooktown f 61

Bathurst 46 Upper Namoi 28 Croydon t 6

Berridale f 36 Vacy 28 Cunnamulla t 62

Bouddi 64 Wagga Wagga t 53 Currumbin 48

Bourke f 57 Wollongong 32 Darling Downs 29

Bowral/Mittagong 30 Wyong 39 Eromanga f 63

Braid wood 54 Young t 58 Esk 52

Broken Hill t 44 Georgetown t 63

Broken Hill South t 66 Northern Territory Gladstone East 29

Central Tablelands 30 Alice Springs f 28 Gladstone West 52

Coffs Harbour 69 Bathurst Island t 63 Gold Coast 61

Cooma 58 Darwin 28 Gordonvale 58

Cowra 45 Darwin North 61 Gympie 42

Dubbo t 54 Groote Eylandt t 43 Gympie Town 50

Dungog 42 Ikuntji t 54 Hervey Bay 52

East Grove t 43 Jabiru t 61 Hughenden t 69

Gosford 58 Katherine f 58 Hungerford t 60

Goulburn 58 Maningrida t 60 Julia Creek t 59

Grafton/Kempsey 28 McArthur River Mine t 63 Longreach t 54

Griffith t 28 Milikapati t 63 Mabuiag Island t 63

Gulgong t 37 Milingimbi t 63 Mareeba 45

Illawarra 53 Nhulunbuy t 55 Mission Beach 62

Khancoban f 57 Oenpelli f 60 Moranbah t 67

Kings Cross 58 Pularumpi t 66 Morven f 60

Kotara 55 Tennant Creek t 58 Mount Isa t 29

Lightning Ridge t 60 Tindal t 56 Nambour 55

Lithgow 29 Yulara t 58 Normanton t 52

Lithgow East 52 Noosa/Tewantin 29

Lord Howe Island Nth t 6 Queensland Quilpie t 63

Lord Howe Island Sth t 7 Augathella t 6 Redlvnch 57

Manly/Mosman 39 Ayr 57 Richmond t 65

Merewether 32 Babinda 45 Rockhampton 28

Mudgee f 58 Bamaga 52 Rockhampton East 52

Murwillumbah 57 Barcaldine t 60 Roma t 60

Newcastle 45 Bell 53 Seisia f 62

Nowra North 29 Bedourie t 69 St George t 61

Oberon t 54 Birdsville t 69 Smithfield Heights 53

Portland/W'allerawang 54 Boonah 54 Stuart 56

t Transmitter licensed by the Australian Broadcasting Authority under the self-help re-transmissions scheme. 119

A re a S e rv ed C h a n n e l A re a S e rv ed C h an n el A re a S e rv ed C h an n el

Sunshine Coast 34 NE Tasmania 29 Cervantes t 40

Thargomindah f 60 New Norfolk 53 Collie t 57

Tier! t 56 Orford 52 Denham t 67

Toowoomba 53 Penguin 34 Derby t 59

Townsville 28 Smithton f 38 Esperance t 28

Townsville North 52 Stanley t 69 Gascoyne Junction f 63

Tully 58 Taroona 43 Green Head t 42

Warwick f 67 Tullah f 52 Hyden t 38

Wide Bay 30 Ulverstone 53 Kalgoorlie t 28

Yeppoon 53 Wayatinah t 52 Kambalda f 52

Wynyard 30 Kondinin t 63

South Australia Kununoppin t 58

Adelaide 28 Victoria Lagrange t 60

Adelaide Foothills 43 Albury North 53 Lake Grace t 36

Angaston/Barossa t 69 Bairnsdale 54 Lake King t 60

Carrickalinga t 52 Ballarat 30 Lancelin t 65

Ceduna/Smoky Bay t 12 Bendigo 29 Laverton t 60

Goober Pedy t 60 Bruthen 50 Leonora f 69

Elizabeth South 60 Churchill 52 Maryville t 53

Golden Grove f 53 Ferntree Gully 68 Menzies t 60

Gumeracha t 53 Foster 60 Molloy Island t 62

Mt Gambier t 29 Gisborne t 68 Munkinbudin t 37

Normanville t 54 Kiewa 54 Narrogin t 54

Peterhead t 53 Lakes Entrance 29 Newdegate t 56

Renmark t 30 Latrobe Valley 34 Newman t 69

Spencer Gulf North 34 Marysville 58 Nyabing t 67

Swan Reach t 63 Melbourne 28 Perth 28

Truro Grove t 69 Mildura t 29 Pingrub f 61

Victor Harbor 52 Mitta mitta t 65 Port Hedland f 42

Woomera t 28 Old Tallangatta t 59 Roleystone 54

Yankalilla t 53 Port Campbell t 66 Toodyay 34

Red Cliffs f 66 Westonia t 56

Tasmania Safety Beach 58 Wickham t 69

Acton Road f 52 Selby 69 Wiluna t 60

Barrington Valley 37 South Yarra 58 Yalgoo t 60

Burnie 55 Swan Hill t 28

Circular Head f 60 Upper Murray 30 Territories

Cygnet 42 Upwey 51 Norfolk Island t 9

Dover 53 Warburton 58

Dover South 41

East Devonport 54 Western Australia

Geeveston 54 Albany t 54

Hill wood 37 Bridgetown t 54

Hobart 28 Broome t 29

Hobart N/E Suburbs 54 Bunburv t 33

Launceston 53 Jabiru f 61

1 2 0

t Transmitter licensed by the Australian Broadcasting Authority under the self-help re-transmissions scheme.

SBS Television - Languages Broadcast

Appendix 4

Language Number

of hours

% Of total program time

% of L0TE program time

Language Number

of hours

% of total program time

% of LOTE program time

African languages Malayalam 2 .1 2 0 .0 3 % 0 .0 6 %

(not stated elsewhere) 4 .1 4 0 .0 6 % 0 .1 1 % Maltese 3 7 .7 9 0 .5 8 % 1 .0 2 %

Albanian 3 .6 4 0 .0 6 % 0 .1 0 % Mandarin 2 2 2 .2 0 3 .4 0 % 5 . 9 7 % T

Arabic 1 1 9 .5 3 1 .8 3 % 3 .2 1 % Mongolian 6 .1 2 0 .0 9 % 0 .1 6 %

Bahasa Indonesia 1 5 3 .0 5 2 .3 4 % 4 .1 1 % Moore 2 .9 2 0 .0 4 % 0 .0 8 %

Bambara 3 .3 9 0 .0 5 % 0 .0 9 % No dialogue 1 6 .5 4 0 .2 5 % 0 . 4 4 Ϊ Γ

Basque 1 .0 7 0 .0 2 % 0 .0 3 % Norwegian 1 2 .1 3 0 .1 9 % 0 .3 3 %

Bengali 2 .4 4 0 .0 4 % 0 .0 7 % PNG Languages 1 .0 0 0 .0 2 % 0 .0 3 %

Bosnian 7 .8 5 0 .1 2 % 0 .2 1 % Polish 7 9 .8 7 1 .2 2 % 2 .1 5 % "

Bulgarian 1 .6 6 0 .0 3 % 0 .0 4 % Portuguese 2 6 .1 8 0 .4 0 % 0 .7 0 %

Cantonese 1 6 1 .0 3 2 .4 7 % 4 .3 3 % Romani 6 .2 0 0 .0 9 % 0 .1 7 %

Catalan 3 .5 1 0 .0 5 % 0 .0 9 % Romanian 6 .2 5 0 .1 0 % 0 . 1 7 % "

Crioulo 1 .3 3 0 .0 2 % 0 .0 4 % Russian 2 3 8 .0 9 " 3 .6 5 % 6 .4 0 %

Croatian 1 1 .4 6 0 .1 8 % 0 .3 1 % Serbian 1 2 .9 7 0 5 2 0 % 0 .3 5 %

Czech 2 1 .0 7 0 .3 2 % 0 .5 7 % Shona 1 .2 3 0 .0 2 % 0 . 0 3 % "

All English 2 8 0 6 .5 4 4 2 .9 8 % Sicilian 2 .1 7 0 .0 3 % 0 .0 6 %

Danish 19.3 1 0 .3 0 % 0 .5 2 % Silent 2 .6 0 0 .0 4 % 0 .0 7 %

Dutch 3 9 .6 1 0 .6 1 % 1 .0 6 % Slovak 2 .2 2 0 . 0 3 % " 0 .0 6 %

Estonian 3 .8 3 0 .0 6 % 0 .1 0 % Slovene 4 .0 3 0 .0 6 % 0 .1 1 %

Farsi 8 .7 5 0 .1 3 % 0 .2 3 % Spanish 3 8 5 .6 3 5 .9 1 % 1 0 .3 6 %

Finnish 3 .5 9 0 .0 6 % 0 .1 0 % Swedish 3 7 .0 7 0 .5 7 % 1 .0 0 %

Flemish 3 .1 4 0 .0 5 % 0 .0 8 % Swiss German 3 .4 4 0 .0 5 % 0 .0 9 %

French 4 7 0 .2 7 7 .2 0 % 1 2 .6 3 % Tagalog 2 6 .6 4 0 .4 1 % 0 .7 2 %

French-Canadian 2 .0 0 0 .0 3 % 0 .0 5 % Taiwanese 6 .5 0 0 .1 0 % 0 .1 7 %

Frisian 1 .6 2 0 .0 2 % 0 .0 4 % Thai 7 .6 9 0 .1 2 % 0 .2 1 %

Gaelic 4 .8 5 0 .0 7 % 0 .1 3 % Tibetan 1 .9 5 0 .0 3 % 0 .0 5 %

Georgian 5 .1 9 0 .0 8 % 0 .1 4 % Tok Pisin 2 .4 1 0 .0 4 % 0 .0 6 %

German 3 2 7 .1 2 5 .0 1 % 8 .7 9 % Tunisian (Arabic) 1 .6 3 0 .0 2 % 0 .0 4 %

Greek 3 7 2 .3 0 5 .7 0 % 1 0 .0 0 % Turkish 1 2 .5 4 0 .0 9 % 0 .3 4 %

Hebrew 1 2 .5 0 0 .1 9 % 0 .3 4 % Ukrainian 2 4 .6 8 0 .3 8 % 0 .6 6 %

Hindi 2 2 .4 7 0 .3 4 % 0 .6 0 % Various 8 .8 0 0 .1 3 % 0 .2 4 %

Hungarian 5 7 .7 4 0 .8 8 % 1 .5 5 % Vietnamese 1 3 .0 8 0 .2 0 % 0 .3 5 %

Icelandic 8 .0 4 0 .1 2 % 0 .2 2 % Warlpiri 1 .3 9 0 .0 2 % 0 .0 4 %

Inuktitut 1 .4 9 0 .0 2 % 0 .0 4 % Wolof 1 .3 4 0 .0 2 % 0 .0 4 %

Italian 4 2 0 .9 0 6 .4 5 % 1 1 .3 1 % Yiddish 3 .5 0 0 .0 5 % 0 .0 9 %

Japanese 1 8 4 .7 1 2 .8 3 % 4 .9 6 % Grand totals 6 5 1 5 .7 3 9 9 .7 9 % 9 9 .6 4 %

Kabyle 1.43 0 .0 2 % 0 .0 4 % Languages with

Kazakh 2 .4 5 0 .0 4 % 0 .0 7 % individual durations

Khmer 2 .3 3 0 .0 4 % 0 .0 6 % of less than one hour 1 3 .3 9 0 .2 1 %

0 .3 6 %

Korean 1 2 .2 7 0 .1 9 % 0 .3 3 % Total 6529.12 100.00%

Lithuanian 1 .1 8 0 .0 2 % 0 .0 3 % Total LOTE* 3722.59 57.02%

Macedonian 4 .0 8 0 .0 6 % 0 .1 1 * LOTE (Languages Other Than English)

121

Top BBS Television Programs by Category

Appendix 5

Number of hours % of total time

Category Imported Local Imported Local

Adult Animation 5.72 1.72 0.09% 0.03%

Cooking 31.93 5.63 0.49% 0.09%

Comedy 45.35 9.70 0.69% 0.15%

Current Affairs 0.00 159.37 0.00% 2.44%

Dance 2.28 0.00 0.03% 0.00%

Documentaries 336.93 91.15 5.16% 1.40%

Documentary series 353.02 68.73 5.41% 1.05%

Drama series 131.58 27.78 2.02% 0.43%

Eat Carpet 43.12 0.43 0.66% 0.01%

Education 0.00 136.62 0.00% 2.09%

Features 1430.37 2.93 21.91% 0.04%

Fillers 21.53 4.17 0.33% 0.06%

Funny Shorts 3.73 0.00 0.06% 0.00%

Magazine 0.00 137.23 0.00% 2.10%

Music 4.45 6.03 0.07% 0.09%

News 2345.58 275.37 35.92% 4.22%

Opera 77.77 0.00 1.19% 0.00%

Performance 0.77 0.00 0.01% 0.00%

Single drama 8.45 3.73 0.13% 0.06%

Specials 28.43 16.25 0.44% 0.25%

Sport 0.00 711.25 0.00% 10.89%

Total 4871.02 1658.10 74.60% 25.40%

Appendix 6

BBS Television Programs Classification

Month

Jul 1999

G

60

PG

34

M

25

MA

14

MAV

2

R(NSTV)

2

Number of Programs

137

Total Time Hours:Min

110:16

Aug 1999 66 47 30 9 5 2 159 114:38

Sep 1999 84 34 31 11 2 2 164 122:03

Oct 1999 127 62 29 18 3 1 240 132:43

Nov 1999 98 35 30 7 2 4 176 131:15

Dec 1999 56 25 35 4 1 4 125 87:28

1

Jan 2000 74 22 13 8 2 0 119 77:52

t Feb 2000 62 27 33 7 1 1 131 103:45

!

Mar 2000 97 25 38 6 4 0 170 121:22

1 Apr 2000 91 25 29 7 0 1 153 104:27

$ May 2000 97 20 35 5 2 2 161 106:50

! Jun 2000 74 20 31 6 3 1 135 104:46

Total 986 376 359 102 27 20 1870 1317:25

1 2 2 52.73% 20.11% 19.20% 5.45% 1.44% 1.07%

Appendix 7

SBS Independent - Commissioned Programs 1999-2000 SBSI commissioned a total of 79 hours of programs during the year. These included 34.5 hours of documentary and 44.5

hours of drama and animation. Funding was drawn from two sources - SBS’s general Production Fund and the Federal

Government’s’s Special Production Fund.

General Production Fund

Documentary - Half Hour Schtick Happens

Documentary - One Hour Shamans of the Amazon

Picking Up the Pieces

Painting Country

Robert Fortune, The Tea Thief

Guns Under Their Bums

Vijaya s Story

King of the Market

Business Behind Bars 1

From the acclaimed documentary Original Schtick

Filmmaker Dean Jefferys’ return to the Amazon

East Timorese woman living in Australia returns to her homeland

Indigenous artists from Balgo Hills region travel across country.

T he stolen secrets of tea cultivation

The ANC smuggles weapons into South Africa in tourist trucks

History and politics in Sri Lanka

Chore Bazar, the thieves market in Mumbai, India

First of two documentaries about privatisation of prisons

SBSI/FFC Accord Documentaries - One Hour Paying fo r the Past

Fond Memories of Cuba

Holy Rollers

Sm all Steps, Giant Steps

From Korea With Love

Yvonne

Malpas

Poles Apart

M r Strehlows Films

Birthrites

Documentary - Series Space Stones I

• Yuletide

• Sydney

• Operation Feathergrinder

• Two Roads to Helidon

• Gampa

• Boulia

• More Than a Women

• Gepps Cross 5094:

A Night at the Drive-in

• Remembering Country

Reconciliation and justice for Holocaust survivors

Forty years after the revolution

Tracing the footsteps of Jesus from Bethlehem to Calvary.

Families dealing with autism

A couple seek to adopt a South Korean child

Showcasing Yvonne Kenny

The NPY Aboriginal women’s council in SA and N T

The purchase of Jackson’s Polock’s ‘Blue Poles’

T he controversy of Ted Strehlow’s collection of artifacts, photographs and films

Indigenous birthing practices in Canada and Australia

The boulevard of Christmas lights in Ivanhoe, Melbourne

T he CBD of Sydney

A secret society in WA’s wheat belt

Queensland’s Helidon, the ‘New Jerusalem’

A family story from SA’s far west coast

An isolated Queensland community and the Min Min lights

A town and a transvestite city councillor

Gepps Cross’ drive-in tells a town’s story

The story of Harold Furber one of the ‘stolen generation”

Space Stories II

• Adaminaby,

Our D?'owned Town

Six 26-minute episodes from emerging film makers in all States. Those so far selected:

The NSW town flooded for the hydroelectricity scheme

i

I s

123

I

Appendix 7 c o n tin u e d

• Village of Vitality T he community that ‘owns’ the P rah ran swimming pool

• Speed City Sydney as seen by three bicycle couriers

Developement In itia tive s - 52 minute documentaries

Pitch ln Punt Honne Pm Home and The Gay Gene - SBSI and Channel 4

The Big Pitch Dealing with Dinosaurs and Dealing with the Devil - SBSI and ZDF

Special Production Fund

Documentary - Half Hour

Saltwater Bluesman

Documentary - Series

Hybrid Life

• Shopping Town

• Dear Bert

- A Television Love Story

• Beautiful Journey

• Khan 2

• The Last Pechenuik

• Islands

• Brother Sey it

• Cosenza Vecchia

Celebrating indigenous harmonica player Uncle Kiddo Taylor

Centenary of Federation projects - eight half- hour documentaries.

Young people and the shopping centre meeting place

A humourous homage to Bert Newton

T he producer’s parents and their trans-national relationship

A Bangladeshi photographer and his son’s relationship

A film maker searches for her Russian aunt

A film maker’s search for identity at a Samoan wedding

Upholding Islamic traditions in Australia

A film maker haunted by his grandfather’s fascist past

Drama - Short Films ( ‘ Unfinished Business’ season)

Dust

My Mother My Son

Road

Drama / Comedy Series

D IY T V II

Hybrid Life Dramas

Undertows

Multicultural Mentorship

In Development

Cooking With Frank

Death By Horoscope

They Call Me Mum

Church Street

Gomorrah Today

Feature Films (Pre-sales offered)

A meeting on a desolate cotton field

A ‘stolen’ child whose values have been shaped by her upbringing

A collaboration with indigenous young people in Redfern

Four 26-minute programs: In the Swim, Let's Vote, Bloodsports, Video Dare

Centenary of Federation projects - Four 26- minute dramas: Saturn's Return, Wee

Jimmy, Delivery Day, Sparky D Comes to Town

Three 26-minute contemporary stories from Queensland

Four three-minute dramas: The Dress Circle, O f Middle Eastern Appearance, Give it

to Me White Boy, Orange Season

Six 26-minute scripted variety series

Six 26-minute comedy series

Four 26-minute monologues on the ‘stolen generation’

Thirteen 26-minute drama series about a small old-style shopping strip.

Six 26-minute comedy series

1 24

Live and Die

Silent Partner

Indigenous Features Initiative

Off the Edge

The Meaning of Life

Black comedy about a household of disparate friends

A couple of desperate men agree to train a greyhound

(Under development)

Low budget feature film initiative with Screen West

Two middle-aged couples and their feelings (in conjunction with Film Victoria)

Appendix 7 c o n tin u e d

A Mother's Disgrace A film about Robert Dessaix

Anim ation

The M ad Century A 26-minute satirical animated history of the 20th century

Anim ation (Pre-sales offered)

Leunig 50 one-minute animations based on Michael Leunig’s cartoons

When Quads Won't Leave Thirteen 26-minute series set in a house whose inhabitants are disabled

Home Movies Twelve six-minute personal statements from Australian animators

SBS Independent - Transmitted Programs 1999-2000 SBS transmitted 35.5 hours of documentary and nine hours of drama during the year. T hese were programs commissioned under

two funding sources - SBS’s General Production Fund and the Federal Government’s Special Production Fund.

General Production Fund

Documentary - One Hour

Walking Through a Minefield

Paradise Bent - The Third Sex

Whiteys Like Us

The Fauves: 15 Minutes to Rock

The Producers

Surfing the Healing Wave

Original Schtick

Grandfathers and Revolutions

Chnssie

Uncle Chatzel

Documentary Accords

Island Style

Growing Old Disgracefully

Emily's Eye

River o f Dreams

Dream Believers

Least Said Soonest Mended

A Cry From the Heart

Land o f the Little Kings

The Habits of New Norcia

Documentary Series

Growing Wild

Moana

Once Were Monks

Controversial plans to mine uranium in Kakadu National park

Samoan boys raised as girls

A reconciliation study circle in Manly

Two years in the life of the Australian rock band

Two elderly men try to scheme their way out of poverty

Indigenous surfing festival

An American artist-cum entrepreneur’s attempt to win fame

Hungarian film maker uncovers his grandfather’s history

A woman dying of AIDS

Lithuania’s history through the life of the film maker’s uncle

The Sydney lives of young people from the Pacific islands

An estranged father and his son

Emily is blind in one eye and totally deaf

Conflict between tourism, mining and conservation in the Kimberleys

Network marketing and pyramid selling

The ‘shame and secrecy’ of adoption

Personal story of the ‘stolen generation’

Individual stories about the ‘stolen generation’

History of New Norcia Aboriginal Mission

Half Hour

Wildflower growers and sellers in WA

The politics and perils of the mosh pit

Five half-hour episodes about a group of monks in Melbourne

Documentary Series â–

Risky Business

One Hour

First of four one-hour episodes about small business in multicultural Australia

125

Appendix 7 c o n tin u e d

Special Production Fund

Documentary - One Hour

Sadness

Stolen Generations

Documentary Series

A personal story from photographer, William Yang

History and stories of the ‘stolen generation’

Irish Empire Five one-hour episodes about the Irish diaspora

Winds of Change Three one-hour episodes shot by film makers working in Southeast Asia

Drama - Short Films (Indigenous)

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning A shy teenager is taken hostage

Wind

Harry's War

My Mother, My Son

Dust

Confessions of a Headhunter

Drama Series (short film s)

A tracker must choose: loyalty or his ancestral soul

Story of mateship between two soldiers, one black, one white

Unusual story of ‘stolen children’

A meeting on a desolate cotton field.

How heroes, villains and myths are constructed

Fetching Shorts

D IY T V

On The Edge

Bondi Banquet

Anim ation

Five short films: Jesus Saves Us, Pilbara Pearl, Sick Dog, A Dozen Eggs, Masseur

Sell-ebnty Sell-ection, Cooking With Frank

Christina's Birthday, Perfect Pale Blue, Where Two Rivers Meet

Seven half-hour episodes set in Bondi

Swimming Outside the Flags Three half-hour animations

Appendix 8

Radio Services

Area served Band Frequency (l

Aust. Capital Territory Canberra FM 105.5 MHZ 50

New South Wales Sydney AM 1107 kHz 5

Sydney FM 97.7 MHZ 20

Newcastle AM 1413 kHz 5

Wollongong AM 1485 kHz 0.15

Young (self-help) FM 98.7 MHZ 0.05

N orthern Territory Darwin FM 100.9 MHZ 10

Queensland Brisbane FM 93.3 MHZ 45

South Australia Adelaide FM 106.3 MHZ 20

Adelaide Foothills FM 95.1 MHZ 1

Tasmania Hobart FM 105.7 MHZ 35

V ictoria Melbourne AM 1224 kHz 5

Melbourne FM 93.1 MHZ 10

Western Australia Perth FM 96.9 MHZ 50

Appendix 9

SBS Radio National Network - Broadcast Schedule

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

6am World View World View World View World View World View Alchemy Alchemy

7am Greek Arabic Greek Greek Greek Finnish Maltese

8am Italian Italian German Croatian Serbian Italian Italian

9am German Slovenian Vietnamese Vietnamese German Vietnamese Hindi

10am Cantonese Filipino Dutch Filipino Mandarin Dutch Urdu

11am Russian French Filipino Portuguese French Portuguese Hebrew

12pm Dutch Maltese Aboriginal Maori Armenian Hungarian Yiddish

1pm Polish Spanish Polish Spanish Polish Turkish Polish

2pm Hungarian Indonesian Burmese Korean Hebrew Persian-Farsi Tamil

3pm Tongan Lithuanian Turkish Estonian Indonesian Russian Sinhalese

4pm Macedonian Ukrainian Latvian Macedonian Dari Swedish French

5pm World View World View World View World View World View Danish Finnish

6pm Loatian Greek Italian Italian Italian Greek Greek

7pm Vietnamese Vietnamese Russian Arabic Vietnamese Arabic Vietnamese

8pm Romanian Cantonese Mandarin German Cantonese Cantonese Mandarin

9pm Portuguese Croatian Serbian Khmer Aboriginal Thai Czech

10pm Spanish Japanese Irish Scottish Spanish Welsh Slovak

11pm Alchemy Alchemy Alchemy Alchemy African hour Alchemy Alchemy

12am oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs

Appendix 9 c o n tin u e d

S BS Radio Sydney a m (i i o?a m) - B r o a d c a s t S c h e d u le

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

6am World View World View World View World View World View Alchemy Alchemy

7am Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic

Sam Italian Italian Italian Italian Italian Italian Italian

9am German German German Czech German Belarusian Hindi

10am Dutch Filipino Dutch Filipino Filipino Dutch Urdu

11am Russian Russian Filipino Portuguese Portuguese Portuguese Tamil

12pm Maltese Maltese Maltese Maltese Armenian Maltese Sinhalese

1pm Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish

2pm Bosnian Indonesian Burmese Gujarati Indonesian Persian-Farsi Ukrainian

3pm Hindi Turkish Turkish Turkish Turkish Turkish Turkish

4pm Bengali Ukrainian Latvian Ukrainian Dari Russian Russian

5pm World View World View World View World View World View Danish Kannada

6pm Italian Italian Italian Italian Italian Italian Italian

7pm Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic

8pm Romanian Armenian Armenian German Assyrian Thai German

9pm Portuguese Thai Portuguese Punjabi Dutch Filipino Czech

10pm Spanish Japanese Spanish Indonesian Spanish Kurdish Slovak

llpm Alchemy Alchemy Alchemy Alchemy African hour Alchemy Alchemy

12am oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs

SBS Radio Sydney f m (9 7 .7 F M ) - Broadcast Schedule

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

6am Alchemy World View World View World View World View Alchemy Alchemy

7am Greek Greek Greek Greek Greek Greek Greek

8am Serbian Slovenian Croatian Croatian Serbian Croatian Slovenian

9am Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese

10am Cantonese Mandarin Cantonese Cantonese Mandarin Mandarin Cantonese

llam Norwegian French Khmer French French Khmer Hebrew

12pm Aboriginal Albanian Aboriginal Maori Laotian Hungarian Yiddish

lpm Polish Polish Polish Polish Polish Polish Polish

2pm Hungarian Hungarian Hebrew Korean Hebrew Tongan Cook Is.Maori

3pm Croatian Serbian Yiddish Serbian Yiddish Fijian Korean

4pm Tongan Macedonian Macedonian Macedonian Macedonian Swedish French

5pm Turkish Lithuanian Russian Estonian Maltese Latvian Finnish

6pm Greek Greek Greek Greek Greek Greek Greek

7pm Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese

8pm Cantonese Cantonese Mandarin Mandarin Cantonese Cantonese Mandarin

9pm Khmer Croatian Serbian Khmer Aboriginal French Samoan

10pm Laotian Korean Irish Scottish Korean Welsh Macedonian

llpm Alchemy Alchemy Alchemy Alchemy African hour Alchemy Alchemy

12am oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs oAiight progs

Appendix 9 co n tin u ed

S B S Radio M e lbourne am (1224AM) - B r o a d c a s t S c h e d u l e

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

6am World View World View World View World View World View Alchemy Alchemy

7am Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Maltese

8am Italian Italian Italian Italian Italian Italian Italian

9am German German German German German German Hindi

10am Dutch Filipino Dutch Filipino Filipino Dutch Urdu

11am Russian Russian Filipino Portuguese Portuguese Portuguese Tamil

12pm Maltese Maltese Maltese Maltese Armenian Maltese Sinhalese

1pm Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish

2pm Bosnian Indonesian Burmese Romanian Indonesian Persian-Farsi Ukrainian

3pm Hindi Turkish Turkish Turkish Turkish Turkish Turkish

4pm Bengali Ukrainian Latvian Ukrainian Dari Russian Russian

5pm World View World View World View World View World View Danish Albanian

6pm Italian Italian Italian Italian Italian Italian Italian

7pm Maltese Turkish Maltese Arabic Maltese Arabic Arabic

8pm Romanian German Armenian German Assyrian Thai German

9pm Portuguese Thai Portuguese Punjabi Dutch Filipino Czech

10pm Spanish Japanese Spanish Indonesian Spanish Kurdish Slovak

llpm Alchemy Alchemy Alchemy Alchemy African hour Alchemy Alchemy

12am oAiight progs o/hight progs o/hight progs o/hight progs o/hight progs o/hight progs oAiight progs

SBS Radio Melbourne f m (93.1FM) - Broadcast Schedule

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

6am Alchemy World View World View World View World View Alchemy Alchemy

7am Greek Greek Greek Greek Greek Greek Greek

Sam Serbian Slovenian Croatian Croatian Serbian Croatian Slovenian

9am Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese

10am Cantonese Mandarin Cantonese Cantonese Mandarin Mandarin Cantonese

llam Norwegian French Khmer French French Khmer Hebrew

12pm Aboriginal Albanian Aboriginal Maori Laotian Hungarian Yiddish

1pm Polish Polish Polish Polish Polish Polish Polish

2pm Hungarian Hungarian Hebrew Korean Hebrew Tongan Cook Is.Maori

3pm Croatian Serbian Yiddish Serbian Yiddish Fijian Korean

4pm Macedonian Macedonian Macedonian Macedonian Macedonian Swedish French

5pm Turkish Lithuanian Russian Estonian Bulgarian Latvian Finnish

6pm Greek Greek Greek Greek Greek Greek Greek

7pm Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese

8pm Cantonese Cantonese Mandarin Mandarin Cantonese Cantonese Mandarin

9pm Khmer Croatian Serbian Khmer Aboriginal French Samoan

10pm Laotian Polish Irish Scottish Hungarian Welsh Macedonian

llpm Alchemy Alchemy Alchemy Alchemy African hour Alchemy Alchemy

12am oAiight progs o/hight progs oAtight progs o/hight progs o/hight progs o/hight progs o/hight progs

Appendix 10

SBS Radio - Languages Broadcast

National National

Network Melbourne Sydney Network Melbourne Sydney

Language Hours/week Hours/week Language Hours/week Hours/week

Hours/week Hours/week

Aboriginal 2 3 3 Kannada 0 0 1

African 1 1 1 Khmer 1 4 4

Albanian 0 2 1 Korean 1 2 4

Arabic 3 9 14 Kurdish 0 1 1

Armenian 1 2 3 Laotian 1 2 2

Assyrian 0 1 1 Latvian 1 2 2

Relorusan 0 0 1 Lithuanian 1 1 1

Bengali 0 1 1 Macedonian 2 6 5

Bosnian 0 1 1 Maltese 2 9 6

Bulgarian 0 1 0 Mandarin 3 6 6

Burmese 1 1 1 Maori 1 1 1

Cantonese 4 8 8 Norwegian 0 1 1

Cook Is Maori 0 1 1 Polish 4 8 7

Croatian 2 5 5 Portuguese 3 5 5

Czech 1 1 2 Punjabi 0 1 1

Danish 1 1 1 Romanian 1 2 1

Dari 1 1 1 Russian 3 5 5

Dutch 3 4 4 Samoan 0 1 1

Estonian 1 1 1 Serbian 2 5 5

Farsi 1 1 1 Sinhalese 1 1 1

Fijian 0 1 1 Slovak 1 1 1

Filipino 3 5 5 Slovenian 1 2 2

Finnish 2 1 1 Spanish 4 10 10

French 3 5 5 Swedish 1 1 1

Gaelic-Irish 1 1 1 Tamil 1 1 1

Gaelic-Scottish 1 1 1 Thai 1 2 2

German 4 9 6 Tongan 1 1 2

Greek 7 14 14 Turkish 2 8 7

Gujerati 0 0 1 Ukrainian 1 3 3

Hebrew 2 3 3 Urdu 1 1 1

Hindi 1 2 2 Vietnamese 7 14 14

Hungarian 2 4 3 Welsh 1 1 1

Indonesian 2 3 3 Y i d d i s h 1 3 3

Italian 7 14 14

Japanese 1 1 1 M u l t i c u l t u r a l 18 18 18

TOTAL 126 238 238

I1

Appendix 11

SBS Television Sponsors 1999-2000

Program Sponsors

Matinee Movie Primus

Movie Show Subaru, HSBC, Rothschild

Masterpiece Andersen Consulting

Cinema Classics Ateco Automotive

Travel Documentaries Subaru, Boots, HSBC, Toyota

Cult Movie Lexus, Qantas, Toyota

Pizza Pizza Haven, Toyota, Department of Defence

Global Village Toyota

Comedy Pizza Haven

South Park Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music,

Dairy Farmers, Columbia Tristar

Cooking Pillsbury Latina Pasta

Wine Lovers Guide to Australia Lexus

ICAM Dairy Farmers

About Us Dairy Farmers, Ateco Automotive

Movies St George, Telstra

Going Home City Rail

Arts on Saturday Lexus, Toyota

Documentaries Procter & Gamble, C&W Optus, Energy Australia, Universal Music,

St George, Lexus, Dairy Farmers, Boots, Qantas, Great Southern Energy,

Commonwealth Government, Ford, Toyota,C.R. Kennedy

Music Specials/Opera Universal Music, Lexus, Commonwealth Government, Ford

FA Cup Qantas, Carlton & United Breweries, Telstra, Toyota,

Commonwealth Bank, Medibank

API Awards Qantas, Toyota

Worldwatch Qantas, Toyota

Premier League Dunlop Tyres

Speed Week Independent Tyres

Sport Specials - Superbowl Chrysler

Run of Station Star Alliance

Toyota World Sports Toyota

Appendix 12

SBS Television Advertisers 1998-99

20th Century Fox Ericsson National Australia Bank

ABN Amro e-venture marketing Nestle

American Express Fairfax New Vision Films

Amnesty International Fisher & Paykel News Interactive

Andersen Consulting Ford News Limited

Ansett Fudge Nike

ANZ Bank Global Web Nortel

Ateco Automotive Great Southern Energy Norwich Union

Australian Hospital Benefits NRMA

Communications Association NSW Government

Exchange Hertz NY2K

Australian Dairy Holden Ozisoft

Corporation Honda Palliative Care Australia Australian Grand Prix Parfums Christian Dior Australian NationalMaritime Museum IBM Peakhour.com.auAxa Images, Concepts & Events Perpetual TrusteesBank West IMG PeugeotBolle Independent Tyres Pharmacia and UpjohnBonlac Industry Super Fund PhilipsBoots Intel PillsburyBrown Brothers International Pizza HavenBT Financial Group Entertainment Pizza HutBuena Vista Corporation PrimusC&W Optus Johnson & Johnson Procter & GambleC.R.Kennedy Kellogg Professional FreightCanon KFC ServicesCarlton Soccer Club Kraft Foods QantasCarlton & United L.J.Hooker Queensland GovernmentBreweries Leggos Queensland NewspapersCentenary of Federation Levi Strauss QuickenChrysler Lexus Quik TrackColes Supermarkets Liberal Party Rivkin EntertainmentColonial First State Looksmart Roadshow EntertainmentColossal Records M-Advertising Rositano FurnitureColumbia Tristar MasterCard Ross MollisonCommonwealth Bank MBF Rothschild AustraliaCommonwealth Medibank RoverGovernment Mercantile Mutual S.A. Tourism CommissionCommunity Aid Abroad Milk Marketing Sanford SecuritiesConrad International Millers Confectionary Schering PloughCrown Millmaine Entertainment Seek CommunicationsDairy Farmers Mitsubishi Motors Sharmill FilmsDavid Jones MLC Life SiemensDendy Cinemas Moccona Singapore AirlinesDiners Club monster.com.au Smith FamilyDunlop Tyres Motorcycle Grand Prix Smiths SnackfoodsEco Recycle Motorola SOCOGEDS Multi Tiles Sony ComputerEMI Mushroom Records EntertainmentEnergy Australia MYOB Sony MusicEpson mySAP.com St. George Bank St. Vincent de Paul

Society Star Alliance Starco Developments

Streets Subaru Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Suncorp Metway Sydney City Mission TAB Queensland Telstra Text Media The Age T he Australian Newspaper T he Medallion Club

Toyota Unilever Unisys United Airlines

United International Pictures Universal Music Valvoline Victorian Arts Centre Victorian Government

Village Roadshow Vodafone Volkswagen

Volvo Warner Music Warner Vision Australia Western Union

Westpac Whirlpool WISPA Woolmark World Vision

Worldwide Productions yourprosperity.com.au

Zurich

1 32

Radio Marketing Clients 1999-2000

Appendix 13

A Maximum Security Shutters

ACCC

Accelerated Learning Worldwide

AIS Media

AIDS/HIV Multicultural Health Service

AlphaCall Telecommunications

AMES - Adult Multicultural Education Services

Ammirati Puris Lintas Sydney

ANH Australia Trading Co.

Anti Cancer Council of Victoria

Armadillo Post

ATSIC

Australian Electoral Commission

Australian Taxation Office

Australian-Turkish Pensioners’ Association

Bank of Cyprus

Bank of Valletta

Best FX

Biddle, Ogle, Anderson and Co

Break Even Southern

Break Even Western

Byvan (Vic) Pty Ltd

Campaign Palace

Carers Association of Australia

Central Equity

Central Sydney Area Health Service

Centre for Culture Ethnicity and Health

Centrelink

Chahal Educational Consul

Chinese Community Problem Gambling

Chris and Carol O’Rourke City West Water Limited

Clemenger Melbourne Pty Ltd

CM T Tiles

C3 Marketing

Council of Adult Education

Curtis Jones and Brown Advertising

CSL Limited

Cultural Perspectives

Deep Blue Travel

Dept of Education, Training and Youth

Dept of Fair Trading

Dept of Health and Aged

Dept of Health and Family

Dept of Human Services

Dept of Workplace Relations

Digiplus

Digital Image Pty Ltd

Djerriwarrh Health Services

E P A

Ecumenical Migration Centre

Energy and Water Ombudsman

EMD Multicultural Marketing

Environmental Protection

Essential Media Communications

Ethnic Communications Ewald Eugene Kejda

Fairfield Cinemas

Fairfield Council

Fairfield Community Health Centre

Federal Government

Financial and Consumer Rights Council

Flint Webster

Fox Video Pty Ltd GCI Group Geoff Waters

George Yurtseven

Golden Turkish Directory

Gyuto House

Regaine Hair Restorer

Haliplex Communication Systems

Harness Racing Victoria

Health Insurance Commission

Hepatitis C Council of Victoria

Hertz Walpole

Howie and Taylor Publicity

HSBC Bank

Hulya Karayalcin

I & G Media

Immigration Museum

India Trade Centre

Interlink Media

International Tours and Promotions

John Bevins Pty Ltd

Kelly Communication

Kidsafe

Leba Ethnic Media

Leeds Media And Communications

Leo Burnett Connaghan and May

LOTE Marketing

M & C Saatchi

Micronite

Mid-Med Bank

Migrant Service Publications

Monash University

Morcare Services Pty Ltd

Morris Johnstone Wallpole

Museum of Victoria

National Centre for Australian Studies

nethow.com

Nizam’s Indian Food

NRMA

NSW Dept of Health

NSW Dept of Sport and Recreation

NSW Government Advertising Agency NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service

NSW Multicultural Health

NSW Ombudsman

NSW Office of State Revenue

NSW Waste Boards

Office of State Revenue

Optimedia Australis Pty Ltd

Orbis Express Oriental Merchant

ORTA PapScreen Victoria

Peach Advertising Phillip Island Nature Park

Phoenix Pharma

Port Phillip Prison

Production Place

Pure Creative

Pyramid Automation Pty Ltd

Qantas

Quit Victoria

Rachael Cogan

Rachael Wirrpunda

Referendum Taskforce

Rex Films

Richmond Multicultural Children’s Centre

Roads and Traffic Authority

Samuelson Talbot

Sally Shepherd

Sky Air Services Smithkline Beecham Southern Star Reception

SRG Absolute Marketing

Standard and Poors

Sultan Promotions

Superior Learning Methods

Tacobell TAFE NSW Multicultural Unit Tarkan Allan Property

Specialists T& L Advertising

TM P Worldwide

Telstra

Total Media Transurban City Link

Victorian National Parks Association

Vina Floorcoverings

Visual Purple Wesley Central Mission

Whybin TBWA and Partners Wightman Advertising

Women’s Health West

Zenith Media Zoran Avtarovski

Appendix 14

SBS Community Advisory Committee

Mr V ictor Hamit B.Ec. LLB (Victoria). Chairman from February 1999. Born in Australia of Albanian background, Mr Hamit works as a partner in a legal firm and has been a member of Albanian community groups for more than 15 years.

Dr Samer Akkach (South Australia). Born in Syria, Dr Akkach holds a PhD in Architecture (Syd). He is the founding director of the Centre for Asian and Middle

Eastern Architecture at the University of Adelaide.

Ms Ayse Alpandinar (Victoria) Born in Turkey, Ms Alpandinar has a Bachelor of Arts, Diploma in Education, and Diploma in TESOL. She is actively involved in

the arts and cultural organisations of the Turkish community.

M r Santo Casella (Queensland). Born in Italy, Mr Casella has an Arts Degree from Queensland University. He is a visual artist who helped establish the Brisbane Ethnic Music and Arts Centre (BEMAC) in 1986 while he was Multicultural Arts Officer with the ECC of Queensland. He is currently B EM AC’s vice-president.

Ms Leonie Dickson (Tasmania) Ms Dickson was born on Flinders Island, Tasmania. She has worked in the Aboriginal community in various positions since the 1970s. As the Commissioner for ATSIC Tasmania, Ms Dickson’s role is to consult with,

represent the views of, and act as advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Her portfolios include women’s issues, arts culture, broadcasting. [ATSIC nominee]

Ms Beatrice Jouy-Botte (Queensland). Born in France, Ms Jouy-Botte holds a degree in German and a Bachelor of

Education. She teaches German and is a district coordinator of language teachers, member of the Modern Language Teacher’s Association and secretary of

French-Australian Association in Queensland.

Mr Ly Le (SA) Born in Vietnam. Mr Le has a Graduate Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the University of South Australia and a Master of Education from

Deakin University, Victoria. He is an educator, counsellor and advocate for multicultural Australia.

Ms Genoveva Medwell DAM (Northern Territory). Born in the Philippines, Ms Medwell has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Management). She has worked in the Premier and Cabinet departments of Victoria as Assistant Secretary of the Ethnic Affairs Unit and as Head of the

N T Ethnic Affairs Unit.

Mr Russell Raymond DAM (Western Australia). Born in Sri Lanka, Mr Raymond is a senior journalist in Perth who is actively

involved with the North Perth Migrant Resource Centre, the Sri Lanka Ceylon Association, and the Ethnic Communities Council of WA. [FECCA nominee - national]

Ms Lucia Da Rocha Tavares- Johns (New South Wales). Born in Brazil, Ms Tavares-Johns has a degree in languages, works as a translator and interpreter and is President of the Brazilian Community Council of Australia.

Dr Eric Tsui (NSW) came to Australia as an overseas student and is now a principal consultant responsible for all aspects of industry-academic cooperation such as course design, collaborative research and conference sponsorships. He has PhD and MBA qualifications and holds honorary positions at Sydney University and the University of Technology, Sydney.

M r Michael Zorbas (Australian Capital Territory). Born in Australia of diverse heritage, Mr Zorbas works as an adviser in the property industry. He has considerable interest in, and experience of, issues affecting youth and is a member of the Federal Government’s National Youth Roundtable.

During the year Ms Sabina Chang, Ms Catherine Chung and Mr Greg Sedunary completed their terms as members of the Committee.

Awards - Television and Radio 1999-2000

Appendix 15

Film and Television

B anff Television Festival 2000 Tudawali Film and Video Awards 2000

Won the Global Outstanding Achievement Award For Indigenous Series Program ICAM SBS Television Original Concept in a Short Film Adrian Wills

Angel

Australian Film In stitu te Awards 1999 Original Concept in a Longer

Best Documentary Hephzibar Format Drama Rima Tamou

Best Editor Joint winners: Saturday Night,

Hephzibah and Sunday Morning

Original Schtick Direction on a Longer

Best Direction Original Schtick Format Drama Rachel Perkins

Best Sound in a Non-Feature Sadness Radiance

Best Animation Cousin Language Spoken Documentary Belle Davidson and

Best performance by an Actor Pantjiti McKenzie

in a TV Drama Jeremy Simms (screened in ICAM

Aftershocks program Wingellina)

Cultural Documentary Steven McGregor

Dendy Awards - Sydney Film Festival 2000 Apekathe

Best Australian Short Film & Direction in a Documentary Michael Riley

T he Rouben Mamoulian Award Chasing Buddha Black Tracker

Best Short Film over 15 minutes Perfect Pale Blue Original Concept in T he EAC Award Dust a Documentary Louise Glover

Yoram Gross Animation Award Brother Black Sheep

Melbourne Film Festival 1999 Tudawali Lifetime

Outstanding Achievement Achievement Award Lester Bostock

in a Video Award Original Schtick and

Whiteys Like Us United Nations Association of Australia Media Best Short Film Sadness Peace Award 1999

Promotion of Children’s Rights Belinda Hawkins,

AW GIE Awards Susan Wallace,

(Australian W riters Guild Awards) 1999 Phillip Hankin,

Best Original Screenplay Script A Wreck a Tangle Hamilton Wende

Best Short Film Script Pilbara Pearl A Life Less Fortunate

Best Documentary Script Sadness Dateline

Best Telemovie Adaptation Aftershocks Louis Johnson Media Awards 1999

Quill Awards - Melbourne Press Club Best Television Camera work (news and current affairs)

High Commendation in the Television Current Affairs Report category

High Commendation for the RACY Transport Quill Award

Phil Hankin, Senior Cameraman The African Experience

Belinda Hawkins Not In My Backyard Insight

Alan Sunderland Aircraft Fumes Insight

Television Current Affairs Belinda Hawkins, Kicking the Dust: The Wick People Insight

High Commendation - Television Feature Tin Onus - Bridge

Between Cultures

Frameworks E dit Award 1999 Nominated for Best Editing in a Non-Feature Film Original Schtick Nominated for Best Editing

in a Non-Feature Film Hephzibah

Appendix 15 c o n tin u e d

V ictoria Law Foundation - Legal Reporting Awards 1999 Best Legal Reporter of the Year Belinda Hawkins Insight reports

Best Television Current Affairs Report Belinda Hawkins,

Kicking the Dust: The Wick People Insight

Celebration of A b ility Media and Student Award (Ageing & Disability Department) Short-listed for Media Award House Gang (Series Two) Short-listed for Individual

Journalist Mike Piper

Heather Rose Goes To Cannes

Short-listed for Individual Journalist

Short-listed for Individual Journalist

Short-listed for Individual Journalist

Gabby Hills Double Burden, Insight

Belinda Hawkins & Cathy Carey Someone's Child’ Insight

Brigid Phelan & Jessica Douglas-Henry Emily’ s Eyes

Open C raft Award 1999 Nomination Sadness

Australian College of Education (V ic) Media Awards 1999 Best Television or Radio Report Belinda Hawkins, Foreign Students

Insight

Engineering Excellence Awards 1999 Journalist Award for Best Engineering Media Report Robin Newell and Keith Stevenson

The Elegant Solution

International Health and Medical Film Com petition Finalist Breathing Space

Jacob’s Creek World Food Media Awards 1999 Bronze Award The Wine Lovers'

Guide to Australia

Tennis Australia Award 1999 Best Electronic Media Story (Pat Rafter feature) Robert Grasso

SBS Television Sport

Australian Cinematographers Society Silver Award, Current Affairs Camera Work Phillip Hankin, Nigeria: The Rocky

Road to Democracy Dateline

International

Aspen S hortfest 1999 Best Short Film, Animation Cousin Best Short Film, Animation Brother

Hollywood Black Film Festival 2000 Best Short Film Harry’s War

Silver Images Film Festival Chicago 2000 Best Foreign Documentary Servant of the Ancestors Zanzibar Film Festival Golden Dhow Award Servant of the

Ancestors

International Visual Arts Festival Gyor Hungary 1999 Best Documentary Cracks in the Mask

Cologne Film Festival Germany 1999 Best Film Cracks in the Mask

Columbus International Film and Video Festival USA 1999 Bronze Plaque Emily’ s Eye

Columbus International Film Festival USA 2000 Silver Plaque Paradise Bent

136

Appendix 15 c o n tin u ed

Chicago International Television Com petition USA 2000 Certificate of Merit Cooking with Frank

C ritics Circle Award 2000 Best Original Script Feeling Sexy

Banff Television Festival 2000 In competition Winds of Change

Berlin Film Festival 2000 Teddy Jury Award Chrissie

Cannes Film Festival 2000 Directors’ Fortnight screening Mailboy

Sundance Film Festival 2000 Screening at World Cinema section Chasing Buddha and

Original Schtick

Broadcast Design Association (USA) 1999 Silver Award for the Opening Titles Scott Anderson

Alchemy

Radio

United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award Sally Spalding Positive Image of Older People (Radio)

Mark Henderson Finalist, Indigenous Health (Radio)

Austcare Refugee Media Award Shpend Osmani, Sani Kajtazi and Sally Spalding Coverage of the Kosovo displaced persons

National Youth Media Awards Sonia de Masi Ethnic Youth, Crime and Policing

Australian Arabic Welfare Council Media Woman of the Year Majida Abboud-Saab For services to the media

Khmer Community of NSW Khmer New Year and Business Awardsl SBS Radio Khmer Language Program For services to business

NSW Law Society Excellence in Journalism Annabel Cotton Mandatory Sentencing

New York Festivals Finalist, Radio Programming Vita Kristovskis and Mark Henderson Interview with Konrad Kalejs

United National Association of Australian Finalist, World Environment Day Media Awards Cathy Harper Cultural and environmental issues in Australia

Korean Broadcasting Service Third Place in International Radio Competition SBS Radio Korean Language Program For programming

Appendix 16

EEO Statistical Analysis

Board/Exec/Policy

Male

7

Female

5

ESB

9

NESB1

1

NESB2

1

ATS1 DIS

Radio 174 173 84 222 26 4 3

Television 220 219 253 73 53 13 2

New Media 11 9 14 2 2 - -

Resources 33 28 37 13 7 1 1

Marketing 6 9 7 4 3 - -

Total 451 443 404 317 92 18 6

I

138

Appendix 17

Brief History of SBS

1975

1976 March

September

1977 January

June

November

November

1978 January

February

May

Experimental ethnic radio stations 2EA

(Sydney) and 3EA (Melbourne) commence.

Consultative Committee on Ethnic

Broadcasting established by the Government

to consider future of ethnic broadcasting.

ABC requested to establish permanent

ethnic broadcasting service.

National Ethnic Broadcasting Advisory

Council (NEBAC) established.

Government offer to ABC to establish ethnic

broadcasting service withdrawn.

State Ethnic Broadcasting Advisory Councils

(SEBACs) established in NSW and Victoria.

Governor-General proclaims amendments to

Broadcasting and Television Act 1942 setting

up the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).

SBS established and assumes responsibility

for 2EA and 3EA. SBS Board members

appointed for three years. Dr Grisha A.

Sklovsky is Chairman.

2EA broadcasts 126 hours weekly in 36

languages. 3EA broadcasts 103 hours weekly

in 32 languages.

Ron E Fowell appointed as SBS Executive

Director.

June SBS asks SEBACs to reschedule 2EA and

3EA.

July

September

October

December

1979

Government decides public broadcasting and

‘restricted commercial’ stations could be

assisted by SBS funding of ethnic programs.

Joint statement by Minister for Post and

Telecommunications and Minister for

Immigration and Ethnic Affairs on

establishment of an ethnic television service.

SBS releases discussion paper on structural

reorganisation of 2EA and 3EA broadcasting

groups.

2EA broadcasts in 41 languages. 3EA

broadcasts 126 hours weekly in 38 languages.

February SBS releases policy for restructuring of 2EA

and 3EA.

March Ethnic Television Review Panel (ETRP)

appointed to undertake public consultation

program and prepare report on permanent

ethnic television service.

March Start of SEBAC (Vic) new 3EA schedule.

April First SBS produced experimental ethnic

television programs are broadcast on ABC

Television. Final programs broadcast on 22

July 1979.

May 3EA broadcasts in 41 languages.

July ETRP submits first report: The Aims and

Philosophy of a Permanent Ethnic Television

Service.

Appendix 17 co n tin u ed

July August

September

November

December

1980 January

F e b r u a r y

May

July August

October

Start of SEBAC (NSW) new 2EA schedule.

2EA Newcastle translator begins on 29

August and 2EA Wollongong translator

begins the next day.

2EA broadcasts in 47 languages.

First phase of policy for restructuring

broadcast groups of 2EA and 3EA put into

operation.

ETRP submits second report: T he Structure

of the Interim Multicultural/Multilingual

Television Service. 2EA commences

broadcasting through 4EB (Brisbane).

Government announces intention to establish

independent and Multicultural Broadcasting

Corporation (IMBC) to provide multicultural

television (MTV) and multilingual radio

services. IMBC Implementation Committee

appointed to bridge the period between the

disbanding of SBS and establishment of

IMBC. Implementation Task Force set up

with a brief to establish a multi-cultural

television service.

New 3EA (5KW) AM transmitter begins.

ETRP submits third report: Programming for

the Multicultural/Multilingual Television

Service - Objectives and Policies.

Weekly telecasts of second experimental

cycle of ethnic television programs begin on

ABC

Television and continue until 4 May.

Legislation to establish IMBC introduced

into Parliament. Senate refers IMBC

legislation to Standing Committee on

Education and the Arts

for inquiry and report by first sitting day in

August 1980.

Minister appoints more diverse IMBC

Implementation Committee of 13 members.

2EA transmitter power upgraded to 5kW.

Senate Standing Committee on Education

and the Arts recommends: IMBC legislation

not proceed at this stage; Dix Committee to

be asked to examine

a report on a second television channel; and

until the Dix Committee reports, MTV and

ethnic radio

to be provided on interim basis by SBS.

Multicultural Television begins in Sydney

and Melbourne on VHF channel 0 and UHF

channel 28.

Fraser Government announces it will not

proceed with the IMBC, abolishes IMBC

Implementation Committee, dissolves

NEBAC and SEBAC, and establishes SBS

Advisory Council chaired by

Francis Galbally QC.

New SBS Board appointed, chaired by Sir

Nicholas Shehadie.

An Inter-station Program Exchange and

Transcription Service (IPETS) established at

Radio 2EA to assist ethnic public

broadcasters.

Government announces extension of MTV

on UHF to 10 city and country centres:

1982- 83 (Canberra, Goulburn, Cooma);

1983- 84 (Newcastle, Wollongong, Adelaide,

Brisbane); and 1984-85 (Hobart, Perth,

Darwin). Minister announces increase to

$650,000 in subsidies to public broadcasters

for ethnic programming.

Ministers for Communications and for

Immigration and Ethnic Affairs release

discussion paper on extension and

development of ethnic radio and announce

establishment of Working Party to consider

the matter.

SBS Advisory Council appointed by the

Government.

Government institutes Inquiry into

purchasing policies of SBS, to be chaired by J

H Oswin.

Working Party to examine the options for

long-term development of ethnic radio

disbanded. Government undertakes to

examine submissions and take these into

account in implementing future policy in this

Minister reaffirms Government decision to

extend MTV.

Minister announces transmissions on X HF

channel 0 in Sydney and Melbourne to cease

1 January 1985.

SBS Television in Canberra begins.

Extension of SBS Television to Goulburn

and Cooma.

Minister announces Committee of Review to

examine role of SBS and recommend

1981 June

July-

August

1982 July

December

1983 February

April

August

August

October

November

December

Appendix 17 c o n tin u e d

blueprint for future development of ethnic

broadcasting. Oswin Inquiry report tabled.

June First Corporate Plan presented to Michael

Duffy, Minister for Communications.

1984 August Government announces intention to

April SBS completes submission to Committee of

Review.

amalgamate SBS with ABC on 1 January

1987.

August SBS Board establishes Advisory Committee

on Racism.

December Amalgamation legislation defeated in the

Senate. Senate Select Committee established

December Report of Committee of Review Serving

Multicultural Australia, The Role of 1987

to report on the issue.

1985

Broadcasting, presented to Government. February Minister advises SBS Board of Government’s

intention to amalgamate SBS with ABC by

January Disbandment of SBS Advisory Council. 1 July 1987.

February Start of daytime television transmissions.

Network 0/28 TV logo changed to SBS

April Prime Minister Hawke announces proposed

ABC-SBS amalgamation will not occur.

Television. June Ron Brown’s term as Executive Director

May SBS response to Committee of Review report ends.

submitted to Government. Ron Powell's

term as Executive Director ends.

November Start of term of new Executive Director,

Brian Johns.

June Minister announces extension of transmission

on VHF channel 0 in Sydney and Melbourne

until 5 January 1986.

Extension of SBS Television to Newcastle,

Wollongong, Adelaide, Brisbane and the

Gold Coast.

December Government decides to remove encryption

requirement for SBS broadcast signals via

AUSSAT, allowing people in south-eastern

zone satellite beam footprint to receive both

2EA and SBS Television through small dish

satellite systems.

July Government transfers SBS administration of 1988

subsidies to public broadcasters for ethnic

language programs to Public Broadcasting

Foundation.

February Government releases Department of

Transport and Communication’s discussion

papers Review of National Broadcasting

August 2EA broadcasts in 55 languages. 3EA

broadcasts in 50 languages.

Policy - Australian Broad-casting

Corporation. While concerned mainly with

September Appointment of new Executive Director,

Ron Brown. Establishment of Joint

Consultative Council.

ABC, it proposes SBS has its own Act of

Parliament, formalising the central aim of

providing high quality multicultural and

October Government abolishes existing Planning

Committees and establishes National

Broadcasting Development Council. The

Movie Show commences on SBS Television.

multilingual programming. It also proposes

guaranteed three-year base funding at the

1987-88 level, increased annually

in line with inflation.

November Report by the SBS Board’s Advisory

Committee on Racism submitted to SBS

April Mary Kostakidis begins as presenter of

weekday editions of World News.

1986

Board. July Government releases discussion paper

Review of National Broadcasting Policy -

January Cessation of VHF Channel 0 transmissions in

Sydney and Melbourne. SBS Television

becomes the sole UHF-only television

broadcaster in Australia.

Special Broadcasting Service. Proposed

model involves: a separate SBS Act

containing Charter responsibilities; an

organisational structure appropriate to a

March Extension of SBS Television service via

AUSSAT to Perth and Hobart.

modern broadcaster; and, a mixed funding

regime comprising annual Budget

March Government decisions on Committee of Review report announced. SBS to be

replaced by Special Broadcasting Corporation

on 1 July 1987.

appropriation, and other options - at the

discretion of the Board - to obtain revenue

from other sources, including television

downtime usage, channel sharing,

Appendix 17 co n tin u ed

sponsorship, and sale of advertising time.

August SBS launches the SBS Youth Orchestra, with

founding conductor Matthew Krel.

1989 June Minister gives approval for SBS to receive

moneys for program sponsorship in relation

to the SBS test pattern and for Rome 1990

World Cup (to be SBS’s first soccer World

Cup coverage).

July Prime Minister announces Government’s

National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia

including plans for the Government to

introduce legislation to establish SBS as

independent corporation with its own

Charter.

July SBS Television service to be extended to a

further nine major centres throughout

Australia: 1991 (Latrobe Valley); 1992

(Bendigo, Ballarat, Darling Downs); 1993

(Spencer Gulf, Darwin, north-east Tasmania);

and, 1994(Cairns, Townsville).

1990 March Government releases details of new radio

news and current affairs service to be

produced by SBS Radio and supplied in at

least 15 different community languages to

interested public radio stations throughout

Australia. Also announces establishment of

trainee program for people from non-English

speaking backgrounds.

1991 June Government agrees to allow advertising on

SBS Television and Radio under a new

Charter. Five minutes of advertising or

sponsorship per hour to be allowed, only

between programs or in natural program

breaks. Guidelines covering the form,

content and placement of advertisements to

be set by the SBS Board after public

consultations.

December SBS becomes a Corporation with the

proclamation of the Special Broadcasting

Service Act 1991.

1992 November Brian Johns resigns from SBS to become

Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Authority.

Phased transfer of staff and facilities from

Milsons Point to SBS’s new Sydney Radio

and Television headquarters at Artarmon

begins.

1993 March

March

November

December

1994 January

July

October

SBS Board announces the appointment of

the 14 members of the SBS Community

Advisory Committee (CAC). Mr Steve A

Karas OAM is the Chairman.

Malcolm Long appointed SBS Managing Director.

SBS’s Codes of Practice published.

Prime Minister Paul Keating officially opens

the new Artarmon building.

SBS Television now available in Cairns and

Townsville.

SBS Radio national network launched,

providing an SBS Radio service to Brisbane,

Adelaide, Perth and Darwin. Sydney and

Melbourne Radio Stations 2EA and 3EA,

renamed Radio Sydney and Radio

Melbourne respectively.

Second radio frequencies for Sydney and

Melbourne begin.

As part of its Creative Nation cultural policy statement, and in recognition of the

importance of developing programming to

reflect Australia’s multicultural society, the

Federal Government provides funds of $13m

over four years to SBS to commission high

quality Australian programs for SBS

Television.

1995 June SBS Radio celebrates its 20th anniversary. Common language (English) programs

launched on SBS Radio.

July Launch of Insight, a weekly SBS Television

current affairs program with a multicultural

focus.

SBS Handbook of Editorial and Programming Procedures published.

September Indigenous Unit, Kuri-Gnia, established in

Television Production.

1996 February SBS Radio’s Canberra service begins

broadcasting.

First edition of 13-part series, ICAM (Indigenous Cultural Affairs Magazine)

broadcast in February 1996.

April SBS Radio’s Hobart service begins and completes the SBS Radio national network,

linking all State and Territory capital cities. SBS documentary, Untold Desires, winsMost

Outstanding Documentary at the Logie

Awards. 141

Appendix 17 c o n tin u e d

I

I

M a y

June

J u ly

August

September

December

1997 February

March

J u n e

J u ly

August

September

1998 February

May

June

July

August

November

SBSI financed film, The Quiet Room,

selected for competition at the 49th Cannes

International Film Festival, and No Way to

Forget, one of six short dramas in the SBSI

financed film, From Sand to Celluloid,

selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard

category.

New SBS Enterprise Agreement certified,

establishing tailored terms and conditions of

employment for SBS staff.

Board releases new Corporate Plan 1996-99.

Extension of SBS Television to NSW north

coast and Albury Wodonga.

Self-operation for Broadcaster/Journalists

introduced into SBS Radio.

Networking of Radio programs between

Radio Sydney and Melbourne introduced.

SBS publishes revised Codes of Practice.

Quadrant Research commissioned to

undertake audience surveys of designated

language communities to determine use of

and attitudes to SBS Radio and Television.

Closed captioning of World News introduced.

Board determines that SBS Radio will be

able to accept commercial advertising.

Training in Radio for Young People (TRY!)

commences as a pilot project.

Malcolm Long resigns as Managing Director.

Proposal for relocation of SBS’s Melbourne

facilities to the new Federation Square

development.

Release of a detailed SBS Technology

Strategy Plan including the conversion of

broadcasting activities from analog to digital.

Nigel Milan appointed as Managing Director.

Government allocates $17.7m to SBS over

five years for digital conversion.

Governments renews funding for the SBS

Independent production fund with $19m

allocated over four years.

SBS releases the SBS Service Commitment

(Service Charter).

SBS TV’s coverage of the ’98 World Cup the

biggest and most successful ever.

South Park becomes the most popular series

ever shown on SBS TV.

Launch of SBS Radio’s two outside broadcast

1999 April

May

J u ly

September

October

November

December

2000

Sale of National Transmission Network to

N T L Australia.

Installation of time delay system to South

Australia and conversion to digital of SBS’s

two analogue satellite services.

Board approval of new SBS Corporate Plan

and revisions to SBS’s Codes of Practice and

Editorial Guideines.

Establishment of SBS Transmission Services

division to manage transmission and self-help

services.

Turkish Language Radioathon raises $1.2

million for earthquake victims.

Telecast of two-part SBS-produced series,

T he Snowy, on 50th anniversary of the

Snowy Mountains Scheme.

First SBS webcast of the AFI Awards.

Sir Nicholas Shehadie completes his term as

Chairman (1981-99) and Ms Carla Zampatti

appointed Chairman for five-year term.

February Establishment of New Media division.

SBS Television’s share of total TV free-to-air

viewing exceeds 4% in 1999.

May 10 hour Corroboree 2000 live broadcast.

Going Home, SBS Television’s biggest-ever

local production, begins.

June SBS Television wins Banff Global

Outstanding Achievement Award.

SBS Radio’s 25th anniversary celebrations.

SBS web site carries audio-on-demand for

four SBS Radio language programs.

142

Index A Front Up 30 R

Accrual budgeting 76 Future Tense 30 Radio 2,4,11-21,26,27,44-50,

Advertising 12, 63, 64, 75 54, 57, 63, 64. 71-74

Appendix 12 G Radioathon 17, 56

Alchemy 27, 29 Global Village 30 Radio services Appendix 8

Analogue extension 70 Going Home 15, 18, 19, 29, 52

Asia Pacific Broadcasting Authority 61 s

Audience 2, 11, 12, 17, 18, H Satellite services 70, 71

22-27, 56, 57 History of SBS Appendix 17 SBS Act 4, Appendix 1

Audit 4, 76-78 Hotline 30, 57 SBSIndependent 15, 36, 37, 40-44

Audit Committee 77, 78 Homereach 46 Appendix 7

Australian Broadcasting Human Resources 79-81 SBS productions 28-37

Authority 56, 60, 72

I

SBS Radio &

Awards 13,31,39,42,44,50 TV Youth Orchestra 59, 61

Appendix 15 IC AM 31, 35, 58 Self-Help 12,22,23,57,69,70

Indigenous 15, 35-37, 39, 42, 47 Service Commitment 56

B Insight 19, 34. 35, 51 Shehadie, Sir Nicholas 4, 9, 59

Banff Award 13, 14 Snowy, The 32

Board 6-9, 54 u Special programs, Radio 45, 46

Broadcast schedule, Radio Languages broadcast, Radio Special programs, TV 39-41

Appendix 9 Appendix 10 Sponsorship 12, 67, 68

Language broadcast, TV Appendix 4 Appendix 11

C Language Services, SBS 19, 66, 67 Sport, Radio 50

Capital Planning 73, 74 Language surveys 26 Sport, TV 35

Certified Agreement 4 Staffing resources Appendix 2

Charter Inside front cover M Subtitling 37. 64

Chairman 4, 6, 54, 59 Marketing 18

Codes of Practice 56 Marketing, Radio 63, Appendix 13 T

Community Advisory Committee Marketing, Television 64-66 Television 2, 4, 11-21, 22-41, 54, 57, 17, 54, 58, 59, 61, Appendix 14 Merchandising 64 63, 69-74

Computing 74 M ovie Show, The 32 Television services Appendix 3

Consultations, Community 54 MSTL 68 Training 4, 79. 80

Corporate Plan 4, 11, 76 Multiculturalism 2, 15, 48, 57 Transmission 57, 59, 69-71, 75

Corporate Services 81 Triennial funding 16, 59, 76

Corroboree 2000 14, 15, 20, 28, N TRY project 27,l 8

35, 41, 42, 47, 52 New Media 4, 19, 51-53

News & Current Affairs, Radio 46-50 w

D News & Current Affairs, TV 32-34 Web site 18, 19, 27, 42, 51-53, 74

Dateline 19, 33, 51 ntl Australia 57, 69, 70 WorldWatch 19. 32, 53, 58

Digital 4, 15, 19, 60, 62, 71-77 W orld News 19, 32,51,58

Documentaries, 0 W orld View 15, 18, 46, 48-50, o.x o8

Television 15, 37, 42-44 Occupational health and safety 79

Drama, Television 15, 38, 42-44 Operating revenue 5

Organisation chart 10

E Outside broadcasts 17, 20, 26, 54, 55

eat carpet 30

Enabling legislation Inside front P

cover Performance management

Equal Employment 76, Appendix 16 program 4,21

Performance report 11-21, 79

F P izza 15, 27, 29, 38

Feature Films 38 Production 15

Financial results 75 Programs, Radio 44-50

F ood L overs' Guide Programs, TV 28-41 Appendix 5

to Australia 31, 37, 64 Programs,

Appendix 6 F ork in Asia, A 29 TV classification

Sydney

Postal address:

Street address:

Locked Bag 028, Crows Nest, NSW 1585

14 Herbert Street, Artarmon, NSW 2064

Telephone: (02) 9430 2828

Facsimile: (02) 9430 3700

Online: www.sbs.com.au

Melbourne

Postal address:

Street address:

Telephone:

Facsimile:

PO Box 294, South Melbourne, VIC 3205

Australian Ballet Centre, Level 4

2 Kavanagh Street, Southbank, VIC 3006

(03) 9685 2828

(03) 9685 7501 (TV) (03) 9686 7496 (Radio)

ISSN 1038 - 6696

© Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2000

Designed by Miller Hare Design Group Photography byTLP Studios

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