Online refresh for SBS On Demand

SBS has relaunched SBS On Demand with a responsive website hosting more than 600 free films.

SBS On Demand is available on 22 platforms – more than any other Australian broadcaster – and now adds over 350 feature documentaries and factual programs.

Michael Ebeid, SBS Managing Director, said: “Launched in 2011 as an online catch up service, SBS On Demand has grown to be a go-to content destination, now with more than 4000 hours of premium content available to all Australians. It is a true representation of the quality drama, documentary and film on offer from SBS that goes to the heart of our special Charter, and provides Australians with an enviable range of distinctive content available anytime, on any device, absolutely free, in a way only SBS can.”

Marshall Heald, Director of TV and Online at SBS said: “SBS On Demand is a unique offering in the competitive subscription streaming market. As audience consumption habits continue to change, SBS On Demand is central to SBS’s commitment to exploring and celebrating diversity through inspired entertainment using cutting edge technology.”

The SBS On Demand website is fully responsive and will scale down to any device that it is accessed from, allowing for an interface that is easy to navigate, and also showcases the fabulous content on offer.

Over the coming months, SBS On Demand’s content offering will include season three of groundbreaking series Rectify, express from the US and exclusively premiered on the streaming service, ahead of the television broadcast. Other drama content includes Bosch and Masters of Sex, which will have an exclusive preview screening of their first episodes on SBS On Demand, as well as catch-up titles such as The Principal, 12 Monkeys and Glue.

The new documentary slate features a huge array of documentaries from award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney in the Alex Gibney Collection including Sinatra: All or Nothing at All; Mr Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown; Freakonomics, Gonzo and Finding Fela!

SBS On Demand is also pleased to bring Australian audiences seasons one and two of Skint, an insightful docu-series that explores the intimate stories of people living with the effects of long term unemployment in one of Britain’s most deprived areas.

Other documentary and factual content available for catch up includes Struggle Street, with all three episodes that aired on SBS One in May available again on SBS On Demand exclusively, along with seasons one and two of Go Back To Where You Came From ahead of its season three return to SBS in July.

The extensive SBS On Demand movie library spans all genres, from martial arts epics and high-octane action thrillers, to heart-warming French romantic comedies and some of the greatest examples of recent international cinema. SBS On Demand also features some of the best new voices in queer cinema and indulgent guilty pleasures such as B-Grade schlock horror.

Over the coming months, SBS On Demand will offer hand-picked movie collections featuring some of the greatest films from across the globe, ranging from The Rocket to The Hunt in the Best of the World Collection; The Way of the Dragon to IP Man in the Martial Arts Mayhem Collection; breathtaking titles such as Amelie and Rust and Bone in the French Film Collection; and quirkier, independent features such as Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture and Frances Ha in the Hipsters Collection.

Along with these curated collections, SBS On Demand has a huge array of back-catalogue films including Exit Through The Gift Shop, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Touching the Void, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Pan’s Labyrinth, Let the Right One in, and many, many more.

RECTIFY SEASON 3 – Available from 10 July, Express from the US
SEASONS 1 and 2 – Available to binge from 3 July
Season three of the hour-long drama picks up immediately where season two left off, on the very afternoon of Daniel’s plea deal. Will the deal be accepted? Will Daniel be forced to leave town? Starring acclaimed Australian actors Aden Young and Adelaide Clemens, along with an all-star cast including Abigail Spencer (Mad Men),

BOSCH SEASON 1 – Exclusive Preview of Episode 1 Available from 22 July
Based on Michael Connelly’s international bestselling novels. With millions of fans around the world, LAPD homicide Detective Harry Bosch finally comes to television. He is relentless and will stop at nothing to bring justice to victims. But behind his tireless momentum is a man who is haunted by his past and struggles to remain loyal to his personal code: “Everybody counts or nobody counts”.

MASTERS OF SEX SEASON 3 – Exclusive Preview of Episode 1 Available from 30 July
Starring Emmy® and BAFTA Award nominee Michael Sheen and acclaimed actress Lizzy Caplan, who portray the real-life pioneers of the science of human sexuality, William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Season Three jumps forward four years from where Season Two left off, as Masters and Virginia are thrust into the spotlight after their research is published in the wake of the sexual revolution.

THE PRINCIPAL – Available for catch-up in October
From the Director of Red Dog and Producer of Rake comes SBS’s original new drama, The Principal. Just when new principal Matt Bashir is making progress in notoriously violent school; Boxdale Boys High, a student is found dead on school grounds. Starring Alex Dimitriades and Aden Young of Rectify.

12 MONKEYS – Available for catch-up from 17 July
Based on Terry Gilliam’s 1995 cult hit novel. Take a trip to 2043 and meet time traveller Cole, living in post-apocalyptic future but keen to get back to 2015 to eradicate the source of a deadly plague that will nearly destroy the human race. Travelling back in time isn’t simple, and Cole learns that the hard way.

GLUE – Available for catch-up from 7 July
This new series from SKINS writer Jack Thorne has been applauded as ‘Midsommer Murders without the old people’. Set in the tiny village of Overton in the English countryside, Glue is centered on the murder of 14 year old Cal and how the lives of those around him are changed forever.

SINATRA: ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL – Available now in the Alex Gibney Collection
Directed by award-winning director Alex Gibney. A two-part documentary that is an up-close and personal examination of the life, music and career of the legendary entertainer. Told in his own words from hours of archived interviews, the documentary weaves the music and images from Sinatra’s life together with rarely seen footage of Sinatra’s famous 1971 “Retirement Concert” in Los Angeles.

MR DYNAMITE: THE RISE OF JAMES BROWN – Available now in the Alex Gibney Collection
Directed by award-winning director Alex Gibney. Pioneering the journey from rhythm and blues to funk, James Brown forever changed the face of American music. Mr. Dynamite follows the journey of Brown as he escaped his impoverished Southern roots to become the biggest name in soul music, and one of the most important music talents of the 20th Century.

GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM SEASON 3 – Available for catch-up from 28 July
This explosive documentary returns for its third season at a time as relevant as ever. Six ordinary Australians challenge their preconceptions about refugees and asylum seekers on an immersive, reverse journey to some of the most dangerous places on earth.

SKINT SEASONS 1 AND 2 – Season 1 Available now, Season 2 coming 1 July
Skint tells the provocative and revealing stories from the inside out about how people survive without work. The series follows the lives of a group of people who are either in long-term unemployment, have never worked, or who are growing up without the expectation of ever working.

STRUGGLE STREET – Available now
This fly-on-the-wall observational documentary series that prompted a national conversation about poverty returns to SBS On Demand, giving a voice to those doing it tough on the doorstep of Australia’s most affluent cities. An eye-opening glimpse at real life in under-resourced Australian communities – raw, honest and unfiltered.

THE ROCKET – Available from 6 July
A boy who is believed to bring bad luck to everyone around him leads his family and two new friends through Laos to find a new home. After a calamity-filled journey through a land scarred by the legacy of war, to prove he’s not bad luck he builds a giant rocket to enter the most exciting and dangerous competition of the year: the Rocket Festival.

THE HUNT – Available from 13 July
Mads Mikkelsen (A ROYAL AFFAIR) delivers a superb, award-winning performance in this electrifying new film from Thomas Vinterberg, the acclaimed director of THE CELEBRATION (FESTEN). A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son’s custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.

TINY FURNITURE – Available now
After graduating from film school, Aura (Lena Dunham) returns to New York to live with her photographer mother, Siri (Laurie Simmons), and her sister, Nadine (Grace Dunham), who has just finished high school. Aura is directionless and wonders where to go next in her career and her life. She takes a job in a restaurant and tries unsuccessfully to develop relationships with men, including Keith (David Call), a chef where she works, and cult Internet star Jed (Alex Karpovsky).

FRANCES HA – Available from 10 September
A story that follows a New York woman (who doesn’t really have an apartment), apprentices for a dance company (though she’s not really a dancer), and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as their possibility dwindles. Starring two of Hollywood’s hottest young actors, Greta Gerwig (Greenberg) and Adam Driver (Girls), this fast, funny and flirty tale of a group of twenty-something New Yorkers trying to find bliss in the Big Apple.