Local councils bare-knuckle over possible SBS move
“Willoughby Council has had it good since 1992 and let’s not forget SBS was put there because it needed to be located near the other networks such as Channel 9 and ABC and they’ve now moved."
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
In the red corner is Willoughby Council, in the blue it’s Canterbury-Bankstown….
Willoughby Council is hoping to prevent a potential move by SBS to a new location after the Federal Government agreed to a feasibility study to examine the merits of relocating SBS.
The push has been on to shift the broadcaster from Artarmon to a more multicultural location, drive jobs and infrastrcture and modernise SBS facilities.
But not everybody is convinced.
Willoughby Mayor Tanya Taylor told North Shore Times “We love having SBS in Willoughby and to lose it would be quite devastating in terms of the impact on the local economy.
“SBS currently supports 900 staff at its headquarters and has been in Willoughby for over 25 years and is well serviced by ancillary services including media, IT, production, and communications which provide employment locally.
Census data released last week revealing 49.5 per cent of residents in the local government area were born overseas.
But Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour hit back saying, “Willoughby Council has had it good since 1992 and let’s not forget SBS was put there because it needed to be located near the other networks such as Channel 9 and ABC and they’ve now moved out of the area.
“There’s no reason for it to be in Willoughby and if the Willoughby Council thinks they’re diverse and multicultural but they should come over to Campsie to see what multicultural Australia really looks like.”
Ouch.
Even Parramatta Council Mayor Donna Davis weighed in.
“We’ve got unprecedented public and private investment in Parramatta – this is where the business and government sector is choosing to locate to so SBS would want to be at the heart of where its happening,” she said.
SBS declined to comment on the broadcaster’s position but a spokesperson said, “More information about the timing of the feasibility study will be provided to relevant stakeholders in due course. Stakeholders and communities will be closely consulted to understand the potential impacts of any move.”
Ding ding…
13 Responses
SBS has done a fantastic job, just look at the diversity that has finally found its way onto all the other networks. Even The Block this season has a diverse and representative cast. It is excellent work by all involved, but now SBS is left without a clear purpose. And, when you see British travel shows in SBS prime time, well, that’s not a great use of tax-payers’ money, is it. So, here’s an idea: why not flip the budget with NITV? Give First Nations story-tellers more power and keep the old SBS radio and docos etc. bubbling along as a training ground. And yeah, maybe move the HQ to Alice or Darwin? And they could change the tag lines from: “The World is an Amazing Place” and “5 Billion Stories and Counting” to “50,000 Years of Stories To Catch Up On”
Some bold but noble ideas!
I like the spirit of your suggestion but NITV has an even smaller audience reach than SBS so not sure if the value would be seen by government. Particularly when you compare Indigenous population to migrant population. By all means NITV could use more money, though! As someone who used to work at NITV, I can tell you that their small budget really hampers their ability to stretch into scripted content like drama (although they have done some).
The SBS news services in various languages are still very important to the community, as well as radio etc as you have pointed out. I suppose that is the tricky part about being a specialised service. You’re always going to be there to fill a niche and that’s why it’s government funded – the commercial stations don’t want to touch the stuff because it’s not seen as profit-making.
I bet SBS has far more viewers in Artarmon than Bankstown.
S. B. What?
I say move SBS HQ to Melbourne.
Why does every TV network have to originate with their HQ in Sydney?
… there’s a big, mostly empty, building in Collinswood, Adelaide … I’m sure they could do a deal with the ABC to buy it and set up there !!
Collinswood does have the floor space but not the studio space, it would require much renovating to build more studios. Also the film and TV industry in SA is sadly quite small compared to Sydney/Melbourne or even Brisbane, so if HQ did move, there would have to be a huge relocation of staff too as I just don’t think SA currently has enough of a workforce in the industry to replace the Sydney staff.
It should move to an inner city location like Redfern.
I think part of the point is that although suburbs like Redfern are called inner-city, they are actually geographically-speaking no longer the centre of Sydney as a city. Because of urban sprawl, Parramatta is much more centrally located.
I worked there 20 years ago, and enjoyed commuting by train during peak hours, and driving there was really easy after hours. But Parramatta really would be amazing for SBS, and vice versa, SBS would be amazing for Parramatta. If you were choosing again from scratch before SBS existed, you’d pick Parramatta. Great for 24/7 amenities like eating when working late — one of Artarmon’s weaknesses — there’s the largest set of white and settled and immigrant multicultural communities based right there and next door, and it’s about to become the fastest choice in Sydney to commute to. If a news crew needs to get anywhere fast, it’s a snap.
Parramatta is considered to be Sydney’s second CBD and it is centralised. So Parramatta I think is the obvious choice if SBS has to relocate.
SBS is very much associated with the Artarmon community. I can understand the other Sydney councils wanting SBS because of the benefits it would bring. In terms of state suburbs, statistically Artarmon is already relatively one of the most diverse places in Australia. If you’re travelling through Sydney, whether it by car or public transport, you think that’s the train going past the suburb with SBS, or that’s where SBS is. It doesn’t make sense to relocate SBS with an already well established presence. Part of me thinks it might be political to move SBS from a more Liberal/LNP area to a Labor area.