‘They want us to lean in and become better’: SBS aims for hearts and wallets at its 2025 Upfront
Not surprisingly, given its ‘special’ broadcasting remit, SBS presented itself as the alternative network for advertisers at its 2025 Upfront, held on Wednesday afternoon at Sydney’s Town Hall.
70% of SBS audiences don’t tune into the other free-to-air networks, while 3.3 million Aussies are watching NITV each month. Your advertising dollar goes further at SBS – and with their Beyond 3% initiative to drive more money towards First Nations people, plus the environmental net zero pledge, you can feel good about your investment as well.
Plus, they have the soccer. We asked the industry what they thought of the SBS Upfront 2025.
Adam Liaw, Claudia Karvan, Rachel Griffiths, Melissa Leong and Marc Fennell
Troy Guy, partnerships director, UM Australia
As the advertising landscape shifts towards total TV measurement in 2025, SBS has strategically positioned themselves for success. The retest of their “Premium Effect” research couldn’t be timelier, highlighting the cost-saving benefits of investing in SBS’s total TV offering. This research reveals that allocating just 10% to linear and 27% to BVOD with SBS delivers significant cost savings.
SBS champions diversity, reflecting the vibrant mix of contemporary Australia. Independent research presented shows that 70% of SBS viewers don’t watch other free-to-air channels, demonstrating their unique audience, and highlighting a missed opportunity for advertisers who exclude SBS from their media mix.
SBS boldly challenges the industry’s focus on the 18+ and 25-54 demographic, advocating for a shift towards a 40+ or 35-64 audience. Whilst this push by SBS aligns with their audience delivery, the research presented from CommBank confirmed consumer spending favours the SBS audience.
SBS is leading the way in the fragmented streaming landscape by uniting video and live audio on SBS On Demand. This innovative move not only offers viewers a seamless experience, but also positions SBS Audio to benefit from the halo effect of SBS On Demand’s established audience.
Overall, a snapshot of SBS’s 2025 programming confirms their mantra to “challenge and provoke with purpose”.
Matt Fiorenza – group marketplace director, EssenceMediacom
SBS is one of my favourites of the Upfronts season, with such purpose behind the stories they tell across all facets of Australian life. This year sees them as a confident broadcaster who know who they are with a goal to challenge and provoke the minds of Australia with purpose.
What was reinforced throughout the presentation, was that they are a digital premium content provider with diversity and sustainability in all they do.
For marketers, there is a purpose to being here to reach incremental audience not reached by the other broadcasters. 70% of SBS audiences are not watching the other networks and 3.3m Australians are reached on NITV each month. The growth of SBS On Demand is evident with the inclusion of SBS Audio, an NITV hub called NITV Muy Mgulayg (meaning ‘inner knowledge’) and Digital Original drama for the platform, in a low clutter environment with only 5mins of ads per hour.
SBS talked about People 25-54 being an outdated demo adding that given that P40+ are spending, smart marketers are shifting to the P40+ and People 35-64 demos. I would say SBS is well placed from a Total TV perspective given the large audience viewing via SBS On Demand. A great example of Total TV is Alone Australia, which in 2024, has really demonstrated that allowing audiences to consume the content how they want, is delivering audiences for Total TV, which is why it’s back for 2025.
SBS is the only network straddling the shifting AV landscape of Broadcast to AV by being a part of both VOZ as well as the newly formed Video Future Collective which they recognise as important for advertisers and represents their competitive set, which is Seven, Nine, 10 and Foxtel, shifting to Netflix, Disney Plus, Prime and YouTube.
2025 marks 50 years of SBS and while they are looking back and celebrating their time on air (both TV and radio), they are very much future focused with the upcoming 2026 Men’s FIFA World Cup and the qualifying matches set to be a highlight of the year ahead, and a dedicated FAST channel called FIFA+ to get fans and audiences excited across 2025.
All in all, a great presentation with lots of exciting things to come in 2025.
Carolyn Northcote, media director at Avenue C
The hotly anticipated SBS Upfront was its usual fantastic explosion of sights, sounds and tastes, with a year’s summary of how the business performed and what we can expect over the next 12 months all being condensed into a punchy hour period. SBS seem to shun the over-the-top flashy fanfare and instead celebrate cultural diversity, especially showcasing our indigenous communities.
To kick off the upfront of SBS’s 50th year, the tone was set with a light-hearted and entertaining indigenous comedian, Steven Oliver, who poetically asked us to open our mind and hearts to learn from all cultures, past and present. And this messaging was consistent throughout the session, with a focus on ‘looking back’ over past lessons and stories so that we can understand who we all are now and how we can best proceed for a strong(er) future.
SBS are committed to continuing their journey of sharing the stories from all corners of Australia’s shores, through beautifully shot content with all-star Aussie hosts, such as The Idea of Australia (Rachel Griffiths) which regales the good, bad and ugly of Australia’s history, Great Australian Road Trips (with Melissa Leong and Claudia Karvan) will explore all things unique and spectacular across our vast road network, Australia : An Unofficial History (Jackie Weaver) is a flash-back to films made across the 70s and caused a gear shift for our film industry. SBS’s Australian made content slate is and has always been exciting. It’s insightful, well researched, impeccably high quality and engaging. I’m sure I’m not the only attendee who adds almost the entire SBS feature reel to their ‘must watch’ list for the year ahead.
And despite wooing us with delectable delights and inspiring content reels, SBS remain as a ‘challenger brand’ in the media landscape, despite reaching 13.2M Aussies every month. Their On Demand platform was utilised to watch over 140M hours over the last 12months, delivered free, with minimal ad-clutter. And yet they feel under-appreciated it seems, even though they are perhaps the only consciously sustainable media vendors. They mockingly asked the audience if, in 2024, we should all still be chasing the old P2554 demo? Given the aging population and increasing diversity, it’s not a bad question to be asking. They also flagged that less than 3% of ad revenue is invested in indigenous media, when we need to be planning for ‘Beyond 3 per cent’ across the likes of NITV to enable more of our First People’s voices to be heard.
To convince us further, they highlighted even more programming to come over the following year, including Alone Australia S3, Mastermind, Robodebt, The Jury: Death of the Staircase, Blue Lights, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Rogue Hero’s S2 and The Handmaid’s Tale S6 (which is finally free from the Hollywood strikes of 2024). On top of pre-produced drama and documentaries, SBS will have the Tour de France Femme and the Tour de France (2024 audience was up 40% vs 2023) and the drumroll will start for their coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, think qualifying matches, a FIFA FAST channel and football panel properties.
Like I said, it was a heavy-hitting hour!
SBS don’t want us media folk to follow the status quo, they want us to lean in and become better. It’s not a message that will resonate with everyone, and may not be possible for all/many advertisers, but when has it ever been wrong to ask?
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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