I am a big SBS fan but I have been slowly becoming more disillusioned with the station as they increasingly follow the well trodden path of our other boring commercial stations. So I wrote them an email. Did I get a response?
Submitted
31/01/2007
By
beeny
Views
1198
Comments
2
Updated
13/02/2007
Here is the content of my email...
To:
Date:
16-Jan-2007 15:41
Subject:
Disappointed that SBS is selling out
I dont normally do this sort of thing but I feel compelled to let you know that you have let this viewer down. I used to be proud that 95% of my TV watching was with
SBS. I found the content to be engaging, different and refreshingly free from commercial interuption. When we are exposed to ads at every corner it was pleasing to have zero ads from a respected news and entertainment source. I recently read somewhere that by including advertising during programs
SBS would be able to raise an additional $10m in revenues. This seems a paltry sum with which to justify destroying the viewing experience and compromising integrity. There is no way that
SBS can now remain free from the commercial ideology that programs that rate well ( i.e. pleasing to the masses) will also attract bigger advertising dollars.
SBS has embarked on that slippery slope into the commercial drudgery that is mass TV. Well done. We have begun to lose that one real voice of independent thought in our limited media offering in this country. I am sure if you really needed to raise $10m you could have asked your loyal viewers to chip in. I WOULD have. But not any more.
Kind regards
Ben Millar
Wht do you think... am I going too far? I know SBS is still more engaging than the other channels but its just sad to see it slip. Take their news. It used to be the most rewarded in Australia for quality journalism. Now there are stories flying around that Stan Grant does not talk to his co-host and that viewer complaints about dumbing down of news content are being filtered from reaching management because there are too many of them. 
When media is so dominated by such a limited number of people in this country its so important that we have at least one independent source of information, programming, etc.
b.
ps. no response as yet.
