Legislation to increase primetime advertising on SBS has been rejected by the Senate, quashing the broadcaster’s plans to address a $53m funding shortfall under the Abbott government.

It was defeated in a 31-28 vote with Labor, Greens and key independents opposing the Bill.

SBS had been seeking to increase advertising in primetime from 5 minutes to 10 minutes after Budget cuts by the government.

It had warned of programming cuts and jobs to go if it could not address the funding shortfall.

But the proposal raised the ire of commercial networks who lobbied against it, for fear it would slice into their own revenue, while political opponents held the Abbott govt to account over its pre-election promise of no cuts to public broadcasters.

SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid said 73% of SBS audiences would have preferred slightly more advertising than seeing programs and services cut.

“The failed passage of this legislation is a setback and leaves SBS with a $28.5 million hole in its budget over the next four years. Given this legislation did not pass and SBS has largely exhausted back-office efficiencies, this funding cut is unable to be absorbed without impacting programs and services,” he said.

“SBS will now need to consider its contingency plans internally, provide an impact report to the Federal Government and review our overall funding. Once this process is complete, SBS will be in a position to outline further details about the impact the failed legislation will have on the organisation.”

Free TV Chairman, Harold Mitchell said, “The failure of the SBS advertising bill in the Senate is great news for viewers and for the continued production of quality Australian content.

“It is a win for good public policy. It never made sense to turn SBS into a 4th commercial television licence, especially at a time when the television advertising pie is flat and we are facing increasing competition from global players who are unregulated and pay little or no tax in Australia.”

Steve Aujard president of lobby group Save Our SBS said, “In a national campaign public broadcasting advocates Margaret Pomeranz & Quentin Dempster gathered 62,000 signatures on a petition calling on the Federal Parliament to reject the Bill which would have doubled prime time advertising on SBS television and formalised product placement within programs. The Bill was introduced by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull ostensibly to help SBS claw back revenue lost through the Abbott Government’s dishonouring of its election commitment not to cut SBS funding.”

Margaret Pomeranz said: “I’m very happy that the visionary concept of SBS has not been further diluted with more advertising. The onus now is on the Government to reinstate SBS’ depleted funding to enable it to deliver on its Charter by producing programs that explore and celebrate our multicultural society in entertaining and significant ways, leading to greater social cohesion, a role that has been pivotal to the organisation.”

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