SBS staff cuts looming
An email from Managing Director Shaun Brown to staff has urged them to brace for disappointment in the coming May budget.
- Published by David Knox
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SBS managing director, Shaun Brown sent an email to staff this week warning the broadcaster will have to cut jobs and services due to a revenue shortfall of up to $9 million this financial year and an even worse downturn expected next year.
Brown said a review of finances had led to a downgrading of commercial revenue estimates.
“All areas have been affected – television and radio airtime sales, language production, online sales and content sales,” the email said.
“Taken together, revenue is expected to be between $8 million and $9 million below the level we budgeted for at the beginning of the year.”
Mr Brown warned the global financial crisis would also “reduce the amount of revenue we have budgeted for in the 2009-10 financial year.”
“This impact may well be greater than we have experienced this year. Protecting services and jobs will be difficult.”
The federal budget next month will contain a new three-year funding deal for SBS, which has asked for an extra $70 million a year, a massive 37 per cent increase on its annual $191 million budget. Brown warned staff to brace for disappointment.
He has urged staff to help by taking annual leave to reduce the liability on the balance sheet, a strategy recently used by TEN over the Easter break.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
3 Responses
I still don’t see anything wrong with SBS’s hybrid model of funding. Just like pension funds investing in the stock market for the last decade, we never ask questions during the booms, yet we all cry loudly during the crashes.
Sounds like the move to becoming more commercial and shunning the public pocket has backfired. By coming more commercial they cannot expect more public funding. I think a change at the top will have to happen soon as the climate is different and the commercial model will not work with the broadcaster. I dont remember SBS having to axe staff before, besides SBS has already axed a buch of cool things in the last couple of years. They might be purchasing shows like Madmen but their homegrown content isnt what it was.
how could the global financial crisis seriously affect SBS finances?
There may be fewer people wanting to advertise…but we constantly hear that SBS has had no problem getting advertisers…and shows should not be as expensive, as the producers overseas become more desperate…
sounds like shaun brown is another boss who uses the GFC as an excuse to do cuts they would ahve done anyway…