Presenter Maeve O'Meara and chef Guillaume Brahimi in the SBS series French Food Safari. The deal will allow SBS to air shows from across Scripps' portfolio, which includes Chopped, Unwrapped 2.0 and Camp Cutthroat. SBS is keen to look at creating shows specifically for the new channel, but for now will mix content from Scripps, other overseas shows and its own successful food programs, including Luke Nguyen's food and culture series Destination Flavour with Adam Liaw and Food Safari. It was important that the new channel did not cost the network anything and that it could sustain itself and add modestly to profit, Mr Ebeid said. Different from the others

The content SBS would be running on the new channel would be very different from cooking shows on commercial networks Seven, Nine and Ten and the response from advertisers had been encouraging, he said. "The media agencies that we've engaged with have been incredibly excited and responded very well to the proposition we've put forward to them, particularly given the demographic this channel will attract." SBS chief content officer Helen Kellie said food was a big commercial performer for SBS and the new food-devoted channel would allow it to reach a younger and female audience. "It's one of our strongest and consistent ad revenue generators," Ms Kellie said. "We deliver strong revenues in terms of programming sales in this space as well. Overall, in terms of return on investment, food is a really important commercial performer for us. "We do believe there is a gap in the market. We see it as a very big-scale opportunity in Australia."

Mr Ebeid said it was important to have a revenue stream that could grow into the future, rather than sap the network's limited funds. "We all know that other revenues are declining and it means that we can look after ourselves a bit as government funding goes up and down," he said. "It's also an opportunity for us to leverage, commercially, the channel to be able to keep our commercial revenues whole going forward, to be able to continue to invest in Australian content, in documentaries and other things that we're good at doing." Big budget cuts In 2014, as Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced $54 million in budget cuts to SBS over the next five years.

Mr Ebeid said he was in conversations with the government to try to outline the impact of the budget cuts, in the hope of finding another way. "We're working with the government to try to revisit our funding before making any announcements on reducing any services. We're hoping that we don't have to do that," he said. "Obviously the new government means we're starting with some new players. I've got a new minister, so the government timetable is certainly not for me to announce. "What I can tell you is we're going to exhaust all the avenues, and there are several processes we're working through, so it could take a couple of months." SBS would be working with the government between now and Christmas, he said.