Time for transparency around SBS audience numbers
In this opinion piece Mumbrella editorial director Hal Crawford picks apart SBS’s recently published annual report, finding key audience metrics missing.
Somewhat blurry: SBS's 2025 Annual Report has some big gaps
SBS, Australia’s multicultural broadcaster, received $350m of public funding in the last financial year. With that money, it created and distributed a vast amount of content to diverse groups.
Yet it is evasive in its annual report on key questions such as how many people watch SBS On Demand in a given period, and whether or not its overall reach of the Australian population is shrinking in the same way as the ABC.
This lack of transparency is unacceptable and must be corrected.
The contrast here is with the ABC, which has also recently published its annual report. Through the numbers in that report we understand something very important: it’s in trouble. The ABC’s reach as a whole has been falling steeply over the past four years, from around 70% to just over 60% of the Australian population last financial year.
Wasn’t Alone Australia pulling more than 1 Million viewers an episode – that’s more that some ‘popular’ shows on the commercial channels.
SBS audiences are measured through VOZ just like all of the other FTA broadcasters… The data isn’t exactly hidden unlike subscription services…..
Like all commercial TV networks, SBS has been struggling to retain audiences, but any cross-media analysis shows that they’re reaching fewer Australians than they were 5 years ago. The World Cup should give them a good boost, but the rest of the content slate looks a little thin…