SBS Upfront: Biggest ever local content offering; investment in digital for audiences and advertisers
SBS has revealed its biggest ever local commissioned content slate at its 2023 Upfronts presentation, with the extensive program offering to be bolstered by further investment in the network’s BVOD service, SBS OnDemand.
SBS hopes to leverage this diverse and distinctive offering, and the 13 million Australians that it reaches each month, to further commercialise its business model, with the hybrid public broadcaster having attributed 33% of its revenue to advertising and related activities in its 2021-22 annual report. The report puts the network’s commercial revenue at $157.1 million, with advertising and sponsorship activities accounting for $133.9 million.
“The Australia you see when you walk out your door each morning is what you see in everything we do at SBS. Contemporary Australia shines through our storytelling, and through our storytellers. Our content offer is an open invitation to all Australians to feel a sense of belonging and over the year ahead, we’ll deliver more original local content across our network than ever before,” said James Taylor, managing director of SBS.
“SBS is the media network for the Australia of today – and tomorrow – continuing to innovate our services for a rapidly evolving population. No other network connects with Australians like we do, and we’re proud to be reaching more people than ever before with a unique content offering, the best digital user experience as rated by audiences, and a compelling commercial proposition that positions brands in a trusted and safe environment.”
SBS focused on a push to boost strengths in consumer experience and the experience for media buyers as key differentiators, also reiterating that its distinctive approach to content giving way to competitive ROI, which the network claims is the ‘best in market’. The network also took the opportunity to highlight its digital transformation journey over the last five years, building out SBS On Demand with a unique offering comprising more than 15,000 hours of content.
2023 Content Slate
Safe Home
The network has promised more SBS original prime-time dramas than ever before. From the producer behind Offspring, there is thriller Safe Home, starring Aisha Dee; While the Men Are Away is a queer revisionist historical drama about women finding their power during WWII; and Erotic Stories is an anthology of contemporary tales about desire.
Rogue Heroes
The local lineup will be bolstered by renowned global series, including the Australian premiere of Rogue Heroes, from the creators of Peaky Blinders; the sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale; and historical thriller The Doll Factory, an adaption of the novel of the same name.
Joining SBS’s prime time original and acquired dramas are three new short form dramas from Digital Originals, the joint initiative between Screen Australia, SBS, and NITV, supporting screen creatives currently under-represented in the sector. Premiering on SBS On Demand in 2023, Night Bloomers is an anthology of horror stories from the Korean diaspora; Appetite tells the story of a food delivery rider who dies on the streets of Sydney, as an unlikely trio of fellow riders are entangled in a mystery to uncover the truth; and finally, Latecomers, premiering this December, sees wo strangers with cerebral palsy explore their relationships with sex and each other after watching their carers hook up at a bar.
Alone Australia
SBS has also invested heavily in the documentary format, welcoming the Australian version of successful US format Alone. Alone Australia will see 10 Australians dropped in the Tasmanian wilderness, where they’ll be challenged by the forces of nature, hunger and loneliness, as they compete for $250,000.
Alone Australia will be joined by a number of documentary series including Asking For It, a new documentary series exploring consent in Australia, fronted by host of 2021 series Look What You Made Me Do, investigative journalist, Jess Hill. The series will be joined by Who the Bloody Hell Are We?, a satirical look at Australia’s hidden multicultural history, hosted by John Safran, Cal Wilson and Adam Liaw; as well as Julia Zemiro’s Great Australian Walks; three-part observational series, The Matchmakers; and world-first social experiment, The Big School Swap, set to see students from Australia’s biggest Islamic school embark on a school swaps with students from mainstream high schools.
Returning documentary series will include Who Do You Think You Are, Every Family Has a Secret and Australia Uncovered.
In 2023, SBS will celebrates 40 years of broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2023, Ukraine’s win will be hosted by Liverpool, England. The network’s reality programming will also include Celebrity Letters & Numbers and Mastermind with Marc Fennell. SBS VICELAND continues to bring comedy and entertainment alongside factual and news programming with new seasons of Richard Ayoade’s Question Team alongside new seasons of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Hypothetical and Patriot Brains.
In sports, the network will offer up all 64 games of the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 live and free, as well as more than 800 hours of cycling content including the Tour De France, Tour De France Femmes, Giro d’Italia, the Vuelta a España, Paris-Roubaix Femmes, the Women’s and Men’s Australian National Road Series as well as the Women’s and Men’s European Cycling Spring Classics.
“SBS invests in award-winning content that speaks to who we are as a nation and can have real, meaningful impact,” said SBS director of television and online content, Kathryn Fink. “We’re also proud to be driving change and supporting a future for our industry where everyone belongs. We want the stories we see on screen – not just on SBS – to truly represent Australia, and we invest in more than a dozen initiatives that break down barriers and support career pathways and progression for the storytellers that will lift our entire sector to new heights.”
NITV will also celebrate it’s 10th anniversary in December with an original content lineup that is set to kickoff with a special broadcast event live from Uluru on 12 December.
On NITV in 2023, Rob Collins uncovers ancient Indigenous innovations on Country in The First Inventors; Indigenous current affairs program, Living Black celebrates its 20th year on air; Going Places with Ernie Dingo returns; and In Our Law will see documentary cameras granted intimate and candid access to the Indigenous officers and cadets attempting to break the cycle of Indigenous incarceration.
NITV will also welcome the return of Yokayi Footy and Over the Back Dot, offering Indigenous perspectives of the AFL and NRL, including analysis, guest interviews and bold conversation.
SBS director of Indigenous content, Tanya Denning-Orman, said: What a line-up of First Nations programming we have coming up in 2023! We’re celebrating culture, connecting to Country, and championing the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities from across the continent, right across the SBS network. Whatever platform you use to come to SBS, you’ll find more stories from the world’s greatest storytellers that will inspire and instil pride in all Australians. It includes our biggest ever offering of new content from NITV, as we celebrate 10 years of being available to every Australian as part of SBS – join us for a party at Uluru in December as we mark this major milestone.”
SBS Food will continue to offer premium food programming, with two new seasons of The Cook Up with Adam Liaw, Adam and Poh’s Great Australian Bites, Paradise Kitchen Balu, Khanh Ong’s Wild Food and Luke Nguyen’s Indian Insights.
Six months from the launch of its dedicated multilingual news channel, SBS WorldWatch, SBS has also expanded its international news offering with new programs added to its line-up of global news bulletins in 37 languages across the network, while SBS’s own SBS News in Arabic and SBS News in Mandarin continue to deliver multilingual news for Australians on prime-time TV on SBS WorldWatch and on SBS On Demand.
Director of news and current affairs, Mandi Wicks, said: “With the launch of SBS WorldWatch, the SBS network has undergone broader rescheduling of our multilingual TV news across the network, now offering 66 news bulletins from 49 different broadcasters in 36 languages other than English, and 20 in English.
“SBS WorldWatch gives free-to-air and SBS On Demand audiences more coverage and choice than ever before. It’s great to see audiences’ positive response, which is reflected in the channel’s steady growth.”
Executive producer of SBS WorldWatch, Paul Williams, said: “Six months on from our launch of SBS WorldWatch we’re pleased with how viewers are engaging with the new content, and we will continue to build and adapt our offering to best meet our growing audiences’ needs.”
SBS On Demand
SBS has heavily invested in its BVOD service, SBS On Demand in recent years, rolling out a number of new technologies that have been aimed at improving experience for audiences and advertisers.
“SBS had a clear digital strategy from the outset for SBS On Demand and continues to over-index in the commercial BVOD market. It is a destination in its own right, and we have held our share of on-demand viewing with 26% of total on demand BVOD minutes,” said Adam Sadler, director of media sales, SBS.
“This is an incredible result, driven by consistent and distinctive programming that defines SBS On Demand.”
Lee Callagher, national operations and commercial product manager, spoke about how the broadcaster’s investments in technology were ensuring SBS was delivering the strongest UX experience, but also had the right suite of partnerships to drive results for advertisers.
“We are immensely proud of the position which SBS OnDemand has carved out in Australian streaming space,” said Callagher. “We remain the highest rated streaming platform in the Apple Store – not just against BVOD platforms but also SVOD – and that comes from how we put our audience first through our unique, personal and targeted ad experience.
“SBS is unique in the BVOD space in offering a decluttered, tailored and targeted ad experience, which understands and caters to the needs of audiences.”
In 2022, SBS OnDemand passed 11 million registered users but Callagher argued that it wasn’t simply the size of a broadcaster’s data lake which mattered but also the number of monthly active users.
To support the growth of On Demand, SBS has rolled out a number of key partnerships with the implementation of Adobe Experience Platform as SBS’s customer data platform (CDP), a new partnership with Boltive and the launch of the ‘Solus Spot’, which aims to give a brand the exclusive access within an ad break and a shoppable advertising format. The partnerships are aimed at giving the platform’s 1.7 million monthly active users an uncluttered, seamless ad experience
“We are very proud of the partnerships we have built out for SBS OnDemand,” said Callagher. “Our partnership with Boltive blocks obtrusive display ads and leaves more room for your message.
“Our users also receive a frictionless ad experience thanks to our implementation of SBS’s Server-Side Ad Insertion (Google DAI), which has increased customer satisfaction by a massive 80 per cent.
“We are innovating with ad product through Solus and Shoppable advertising products to drive a premium user experience. SBS enriches their platform by supporting the 5.5 million Australians that speak a language other than English to view their content and their ad breaks in their language of their choice. All of this is aimed at giving the best experience to both the consumer and the advertiser.”
The public service broadcaster has also secured a multi-year partnership with Viaplay Group for SBS On Demand, making available drama series, films and documentaries, and will also have exclusive rights to the library of Viaplay Originals and third-party Nordic programming.
Upcoming series set to premiere on SBS On Demand in Australia as part of the offering include the gritty Scandinavian crime shows Fenris, Cell 8, Where Were You and Huss; the Danish Canneseries-nominated biopic The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen; acclaimed Norwegian comedy-drama Pørni; Swedish dramas Two Sisters, Harmonica and the award-winning Thunder in My Heart; and Norwegian dark comedies Ida Takes Charge and Below.
Kathryn Fink, director of television at SBS, said: “This agreement will deliver a new suite of shows that will continue to build SBS’s reputation as a leader in Special Broadcasting Service international drama and feed a growing appetite among Australian audiences for global storytelling.”
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Adam Sadler
James Taylor
Kathryn Fink
Lee Callagher
Mandi Wicks
Paul Williams
SBS
SBS Upfront 2023
Tanya Denning-Orman
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