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Has SBS forgotten Australia Day?

With our national day falling on a Monday, SBS would rather stick to South Park, Top Gear and Drawn Together than local fare.

Maybe it’s being deliberately multicultural, but there is next to nothing on SBS on Australia Day to mark our national day.

Falling on a Monday, the national broadcaster isn’t prepared to part with its prized Monday night line-up.

Next Monday its prime time line up is dominated by Top Gear, South Park and repeats of Drawn Together and Skins.

Only World News Australia and a repeat of Pizza wave the home-grown flag.

It’s not really much of a party.

Meanwhile the ABC has a speech from the Governor General and a special on composer Phillip Glass plus a repeat of Choir of Hard Knocks.

The day before, Sunday 25th, Nine will screen the announcement of the Australian of the Year in a one hour special at 5pm. On the 26th it has cricket, while Seven has tennis and TEN screens the movie Serenity in prime time.

But SBS’ main Aussie shows are an afternoon repeat of a profile of Malcolm Fraser and a repeat of a 2008 Oz Concert.

In previous years it has featured specials or local movies to mark the occasion.

28 Responses

  1. Considering SBS recently showed the documentary series the First Australians, it’s understandable that they are not honouring what some Australians see as Invasion Day.

    Um, Philip Glass is American.

  2. @JohnP: I certianly agree that our culture is not 100% original, but the euro/brittish culture that historically founded our country is the culture that has been adopted officially, and it’s what i would identify myself with.
    It’s the same with all countries and cultures, they’ve all inherited theirs from another country/ former country

  3. National day… More like, Yay, another public holiday! If you want to celebrate your bogan pride, go out, have a BBQ, get away from the TV.

    The rest of us can enjoy our (UK) Top Gear and South Park.

  4. @Paul “You have to ask how beneficial is multi-culturalism when it becomes almost an offense to celebrate the culture of the host nation”

    Beer, BBQs, suncream and thongs (or an equivalent term for the same thing) are not unique to Australia and never have been. English, Scottish and Irish cultures were just as “foreign” as any other cultures that came to our shores.

    No need to view a programming decision that way. It’s about ratings not racism and all the channels are in the same boat. Look for something else to support your views.

  5. You have to ask how beneficial is multi-culturalism when it becomes almost an offense to celebrate the culture of the host nation.

    First it happened with the attempt to take away aboriginal culture, but we’ve since learnt how bad an error that was. Now it’s happening with 1901 federated Australian culture.

  6. Ten won’t be showing the Australia Day concert because that would have taken part as part of the Australian Of The Year festivities.

    Now that Nine has it, it should be as great as the year that they had the ARIAs, we all remember how good that was? lol

    It would have been nice for SBS to do some repeats of their Australian comedies on Monday night like Wilfred, Bogan Pride, Life Support, Newstopia, etc.

    Although I will like watching a “new” episode of South Park. They showed Obama in a South Park ad but haven’t played the episode where he becomes President yet (I have heard about the episode which devotes the whole storyline to that, but didn’t want to download it)? When will we see that episode?

  7. It’s easy to say “I love Top Gear / South Park” (because I do too) but this is a change from SBS programming which has traditionally featured Aussie docos and movies on Australia Day, and SBS knows it.

    In a year when it is under review alongside the ABC there are some who would ask how well it is fulfilling its charter as a national broadcaster reflecting our culture.

    To compare prime time Aus made content in previous years (excl News) :

    2009: Pizza rpt
    2008: Ten Canoes, Crocodile Dreaming, SOS short “Checkpoint” about an Aus-Lebanese family.
    2007: Fair Dinkum Manjit, Hula Girls,
    2006: RAN, Austen Tayshus Aust Day 2006,
    2005: Missing Long Term, The Movie Show, Original Mermaid

    Even some cable channels are marking the day with dedicated Aus programming.

  8. You have to understand that it would be pretty racist for SBS to air something celebrating Australia day, it’s culturally insensitive to cultures other than australian to remind them of the country they are living in.

  9. I’m not complaining, i love Aus but that’s no reason to mess with usual viewing. And i would much prefer to watch some new south park and top gear than an Aussie marathon of a show I’ve seen.

  10. In the last fortnight Pizza has already shown the episodes based on the Cronulla riots, so you couldn’t get much more ‘Ozi-Ozi-Ozi’ than that!

  11. Aren’t most people who want to celebrate the day either out or having a party or BBQ rather than being in front of a TV set? Are not the people at home watching TV those that do not care much in any case? Nothing wrong here from what I can see.

  12. The other commercial networks are not much better for Australian content for Australia Day. Apart from the sport commitments, what else is there? Why can’t they schedule a few other movies/specials on the day or the few days before it? What happened to the Australia Day concert that Ten had been screening for the last few years, after the announcement of Australian of the Year?

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