Please wait...
Please wait...

SBS chief to step down

The CEO/MD of Australian multicultural broadcaster SBS has resigned just after the network scored high ratings for the Fifa World Cup.

Michael Ebeid

Michael Ebeid, who will depart on October 1 after seven-and-a-half years in the post, told staff today he had a new job lined up, which will be announced in the next couple of weeks.

The pubcaster’s board said it would undertake a thorough search for his successor as well as facilitating a smooth transition within SBS’s executive leadership team.

The government said Ebeid hads been a strong leader since he took the job in June 2011, demonstrating a clear vision for SBS and its role it plays in supporting social cohesion and fostering a greater understanding of difference.

Under his leadership, SBS has undertaken a deep commitment to Indigenous Australians and their stories through the launch of free-to-air (FTA) network National Indigenous Television (NITV), one of his abiding legacies.

Ebeid said: “My decision to step down has been one of the most difficult decisions I’ve made. Serving as the SBS managing director has been a real honour and privilege and I depart feeling confident that this is the right time for a new MD to take the organisation forward.

“SBS is the strongest it has been in over 40 years. We are more relevant than ever and we are ready for the future. Considering the struggle of societies globally to integrate diverse communities harmoniously, SBS today performs a critical role in the Australian community. We are the media organisation audiences can come to, on their preferred platform or device, for distinctive programmes and different perspectives that create a better shared understanding within our diverse, multicultural society.”

During Ebeid’s tenure, SBS has achieved seven years of continuous growth in reach, with an average of 13 million Australians engaging with the network’s channels every month.

SBS launched SBS Food after signing an output deal with Scripps Network Interactive in 2015 and the following year partnered with New York-based Vice Media for the youth-skewing SBS Viceland, replacing SBS2.

In addition, Ebeid secured long-term rights agreements for the Fifa World Cup through to 2022, a 10-year deal for the Tour de France and negotiated Australian representation in the Eurovision Song Contest.

He will depart while SBS and fellow pubcaster the ABC are the subject of separate government inquiries into their efficiency and whether they enjoy competitive advantages by being publicly owned.

The commercial FTA networks have urged the government to impose greater regulatory oversight on SBS and the ABC. Their lobby group, Free TV Australia, has accused SBS of increasingly airing commercial content in primetime, claiming most of it is outside SBS’s charter.

Among the shows it cited are dramas The Night Manager and The Good Fight, plus UK docs and factual entertainment shows such as The Silk Road, Michael Mosley: Queen Victoria’s Slum, Great Continental Railway Journeys, Clean Eating: The Dirty Truth and Titanic: The New Evidence.

Ebeid has consistently asserted that the broadcaster operates within the relevant legislative framework to deliver on its charter.

RELATED ARTICLES

Please wait...