Hi NEVILLE,

Yesterday the Senate voted against the Bill that would have increased advertising on our SBS.

We started the campaign six months ago, when the proposals were first flagged. Since then almost 62,000 Australians, including you, joined the campaign to protect our SBS from further commercialisation.

This could not have been achieved without you and the hard work of our friends at Save Our SBS supporters & friends of SBS, and GetUp. We want to convey our heartfelt thanks for your individual contribution to the success of our campaign. This was democracy in action.

As it says in the name, our Special Broadcasting Service is something special. With many Australians, speaking a language other than English at home, it’s important we foster a sense of inclusion within our community. We couldn’t sit back and watch as this vital and unique service was put at risk.

After launching the campaign, it took only a matter of weeks before this display of public support for our SBS was decisive. This meant that when we met with senators in Canberra, we were able to demonstrate the mass support for our petition against an increase in ads on the SBS. As a result, we were able to persuade senators that SBS should be protected from destructive laws seeking to fully commercialise the SBS through doubling prime time advertising and product placement.

Proponents of the laws argued an increase in advertising was needed to claw back revenue lost through recent budget cuts. However, if the Bill had passed, our SBS would have looked no different from commercial TV and would fail to meet its Charter obligations.

Our concerns regarding the future of SBS don’t rest here. We’ll continue to advocate for the restoration of funding for our SBS and we’ll oppose any attempts to undermine its integrity. We hope you’ll continue to stand with us.

Warmest regards,

Margaret Pomeranz & Quentin Dempster

PS. We ask that you join us for the next phase of the battle to secure a sustainable future for SBS. With this in mind, if you’d like to stay in the loop, you can join Save Our SBS, the national peak body for supporters & friends of SBS (if you haven’t already done so), by visiting SaveOurSBS.org