Tony Iffland departs SBS after three years as director of television
Iffland
Tony Iffland has announced he is leaving SBS after three years as director of television, with the broadcaster set to put the remit for TV with chief digital officer Marshall Heald.
Respected programmer Iffland joined SBS in January 2012 from BBC Worldwide as director of TV and online, and is credited with helping to modernise the broadcaster with a series of programming innovations including events like Tropfest and Sydney Mardi Gras.
He was also responsible for an overhaul on SBS 2 designed to make it more appealing to a youth audience, and was one of the first broadcasters to make box sets of series available online as a show aired to enable ‘binge watching’.
Shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic
After the disaster that is sbs.com.au, this seems like a very strange appointment. Deckchairs indeed…
Big loss for SBS. Have always been thoroughly impressed on the occasions I have seen him present. It’s just a shame that, despite the excellent quality of programming on SBS, that it simply doesn’t pull the ratings. I guess that’s the price you pay for not appealing to the lowest common denominator.
@Ethnic Minority…… agreed!
The general public would rather watch the Bachelor…. much to poor Tony Iffland’s chagrin!
One of the true gentlemen of the industry. SBS is nuts to have let him go.
LOL – Ebeid must be thinking digital is the problem to cost-cutting.
No sir, you are stuck in a low rating zone and the way out is getting better programs that will pull bigger audiences. The solution is definitely NOT appointing your technologist guy to manage your content purchasing and production (or whatever is left of it). Not with an advertising/on demand tv specialist anyway.
Merge ABC with SBS as recommended many times by experts, as nobody watches SBS in real numbers. It really is just a small on-line channel that costs a fortune to run. Multi channel radio channels with audience figures often 0. Fine if you are a private commercial broadcaster, but when the poor saps called taxpayers have to fund this it is time to close or merge. Only a matter of time and it will happen. (a few shows the exception but that does run a real tv channel)
Thanks Jennifer. I was wondering when you were going to leap in and bang your tired old gong again.
Its time for renewal I guess, but what a wasted opportunity for SBS. They should have appointed someone external, rather than promoting the IT guy. SBS is up against the wall – it needs creative content people with vision – not more of the same nest-featherers. Didn’t we figure out that content was king back in the 90s? You know, when they invented the internet-hotmail-thingy??
Watching this one carefully. Heald has runs on the board with projects like the Block and Cronulla. Be very interested to see if he can get that kind of win on TV. SBS On Demand is better than most too.
Wishing good luck to Tony, as said above a true gentleman. SBS btw is not the Titanic, that ship sank quickly. More like the Costa Concordia, lying on its side half under water, no one much knowing what to do.
SBS is cutting back on serious stories in its “Dateline” to be replaced by softer reports. The services provided SBS are indispensable in a democracy – its critics are probably not interested in understanding the impact of international events on Australia. Or, worse still, want others to be deprived of them.
International web streaming however, brings some hope in circumnavigating any SBS or ABC current affairs blackout. Advertisers beware!
Hey Ad-land,
Why not start a campaign to broaden the ratings pool firstly by allowing people without a phone line…. Seems like it’s currently a narrow (minded) sample.
Responsibility vests with you guys.
And by phone line, I mean LAND LINE…
Seems to be some parallels with land line owners and the type of people who watch Winners and Losers.
The unanswered question is, did Iffland leave to pursue “new opportunities” (the phrase used by both himself and Michael Ebeid), or did he leave because Ebeid wanted to put Television even more under the thumb of Marketing than it is already?
Recent Marketing-driven TV disasters such as the relegation of “Salamander” to late night, and Ebeid’s immediate announcement of a new role reporting to the former head of Marketing, suggest the latter possibility.