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Gallery: Farewell to SBS 2

When it launched in 2009, SBS 2 arrived without any extra govt funding. Here's to the shows it brought us.

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On Tuesday SBS 2 will discontinue when SBS VICELAND begins at 4pm, ending a 7 year run for the multichannel.

The channel launched ambitiously on June 1st 2009 without any extra government funding.

At the time general manager Shaun Brown said, “We are launching SBS2 ahead of Government funding assurance because we believe without new services like this the public will remain indifferent to digital take up. But only Government support will ensure we can continue with this new service.”

In recent years SBS has seen funding cuts and plans to address revenue with more primetime ads were blocked. It has had to be resourceful, adding SBS Food Networks and now SBS VICELAND -both dominated by US and Canadian programming.

SBS 2 opened in 2009 with Adam Elliot’s Oscar winning short Harvie Krumpett plus drama series 112 Emergency (Germany), Humanimal (France), Shadya (Israel), As It Happened (France), Lost Worlds (Germany) and later The Ashes and Tour de France.

In 2010 it revamped its schedule with themed nights: Entertainment, Science, History, Politics, Arts, Culture and Personal Interest before a further channel refresh aimed at younger viewers in 2013.

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Over the years first run Australian titles have included: Danger 5, Mardi Gras, Tropfest TV, Unplanned America, Stand Up @ Bella Union, The Eurovision Quiz Contest, Wizards of Oz, Top Knot Detective and Hipsters.

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International shows have included The Protectors, UnReal, Adam Looking for Eve, The Walking Dead, The Returned, Drunk History, Orphan Black, Cordon, Lost Girl, Real Humans, The Mindy Project, Suspect Moustache, Glue, In The Flesh, Bullet in the Face, Don’t Tell My Mother, Russell Howard’s Good News, Billy on the Street, Threesome, 12 Monkeys and Community.

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SBS VICELAND will retain The Feed, SBS PopAsia, South Park, Brooklyn Nine Nine, A League, If You Are the One, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee plus foreign language news bulletins.

14 Responses

  1. I’ve just browsed the first week’s program and feel very uninspired by what is on offer, most shows I won’t even try after reading the descriptions on the Viceland website. It looks like the televisual equivalent of listening to endless rap music. Only 1 of the Viceland shows appeals to me but I have yet to watch it to know for sure. Apart from that it’s only some of the content they’re keeping (Sam Bee, and the replayed to death VS Arashi). This feels very sad.

  2. After ABC, SBS2 is my most watched/recorded channel, by a large margin. It’s a shame we’re losing it and gaining offcasts from the States. I’ve seen enough of Vice to know that I can stop checking the SBS2 EPG for anything interesting after Tuesday. The handful of shows you’ve listed as retained are the least interesting ones in their current lineup. I hope SBS (the main channel) goes back to innovative programming. What happens to shows like Adam Ruins Everything? Russell Howard? 12 Monkeys? Black Mirror? Walking Dead?

  3. Shame to see such a great channel go. It brought me shows like Hipsters, Russell Howard, and Orphan Black. Those that continue, I’ll be forced to find from an alternative source. I don’t see any Viceland product I want to watch in it’s current schedule.

  4. I still cannot accept that this isn’t some lame April Fools Day joke.
    I’ve long accepted that my tv tastes don’t match the general population, but SBS2 was my favourite channel because of many of the shows listed in this article.

  5. Bringing UnREAL, Community, Orphan Black, The Mindy Project and Parks & Recreation to regular scheduled programming brought me to watch SBS2, the loss of all of this content will result in a loss of viewers for SBS2. With changes in FTA TV at the moment I am just making the assumption that any quality overseas programs are migrating to online streaming or pay-tv.

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