Whinge warning! Right from the outset, here is fair warning that this is a complaint story. Having been forced to stay at home during the COVID-19 lockdown I have watched a lot more TV than is normal for me and this comes out of that. Thus, having exhausted Netflix, Stan, ABC iview, Foxtel, and even Amazon Prime I turned to SBS OnDemand. A streaming service with ads had never previously been on my radar but tough times call for radical solutions. SBS has always offered great content on free-to-air TV but the fact that it has ads is a turn off for me. So, SBS: what does it stand for?
Special Broadcasting Service
The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) historically was an ad free channel on the free-to-air spectrum, like the ABC (formerly known as Channel 2). Formed in 1979 as an ethnic broadcaster, the original SBS remit was to bring speciality ethnic TV programs to a multicultural Australian audience. The SBS network continues to do this via TV and radio platforms within its umbrella of channels and stations. In 1991, SBS began showing ads after only lukewarm economic support from the Australian government in regard to its survival. There had been talk of it merging with the ABC at one point. The advertising industry had always been keen to reach that section of the community who did not patronise the commercial networks. Initially, ads were only shown between programs but in 2006 Shaun Brown, their managing director, took the decision to generate greater revenue by allowing ads to be placed within programs. Advertising, like the drugs heroin and ice, once established in the bloodstream tend to take over any resistance to their presence. Ad revenue generates around 20% of the total funding for SBS.
SBS: Spoils Brilliant Shows
For many viewers, the SBS experience has been diluted and, finally, destroyed by the incessant ads shown through programs on the network. The dichotomy between the quality programming and the inane ads rubs them up the wrong kind of way. SBS On Demand is now available via the Foxtel pay TV portal as one of its stable of offerings, which also includes ABC iview and Netflix. SBS: What does it stand for? Spoils Brilliant Shows through inappropriate ad placements is one definition I would put forth. Streaming services with fixed ads are a pain in the arse. Talk about the spell being broken, it barely provides a chance for any dramatic magic to get going with this set up. It would not be so frustrating if SBS did not have such a brilliant line up of top-quality movies and dramas. The fact that they choose to advertise, on high rotation, new generation American sitcoms throughout exceptional world movies is a travesty.
SBS: So Bloody Sad
Viewers are briefly transported to other worlds, like the slums of Lebanon via the film Capernaum, only to be jerked back abruptly by some moronic 20 something loudly interacting in mock alarm with an equally dumb looking flatmate in a promo ad for an inane sitcom. Whoever is responsible for the mix of ads into programming should be shot. These ads occur some 40 to 50 time during the showing of a movie. SBS: What does it stand for? So Bloody Sad that they ruin so many good films and series. Unfortunately, SBS has more intelligent offerings via On Demand than any other streaming service available but contaminates them all with ads and promos. There is a reason why directors and producers do not intersperse scenes of their movies with ads at the cinema. Because it bloody wrecks them, that’s why.