SBS’ director of media sales Adam Sadler has resigned, and will step down after six and a half years leading SBS Media.
Jane Palfreyman, SBS’ chief marketing and commercial officer, will assume temporary leadership of SBS Media over the coming months, while SBS goes through a process to recruit a new director of media sales.
Palfreyman said that, in recent years, the SBS Media team has “made sure it always punched above its weight.”
“A lot of that has been due to Sads and the SBS Media leadership team’s focus on crafting a successful strategy which put SBS On Demand at the heart of our commercial offering,” she said.
“I want to thank Sads for his significant contribution to the business going back 15 years. He leaves SBS Media in very strong space with a world-class team delivering excellent outcomes for our clients.”
Over this period, Keiran Beasley, national sales manager – of TV & Digital; Lee Callagher, national manager – operations and digital product; and Kate Young, national manager of CulturalConnect, will be elevated in their roles.
Jane Palfreyman, SBS Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer (centre), with some members of the SBS Media Sales leadership team (L-R): Lee Callagher, National Manager – Operations and Digital Product; Kevin Harris, Head of Operations and Trading; Kate Young, National Manager – CulturalConnect; Keiran Beasley, National Sales Manager – TV and Digital.
During Sadler’s tenure, he spearheaded SBS On Demand’s opt-out for advertising in certain categories and SBS’ Beyond 3% Initiative, which grew media spend in the First Nations media sector.
Sadler said that SBS Media has “truly been a force in the market in recent years.”
“We have shown how SBS is a force for good at the intersection of public and commercial media. We have led the market in the shift to digital video, but we have also led on other key areas such as responsible advertising and investment in First Nations Media,” he said.
“The senior team is in a really strong position and now is the right time for me to move on to new challenges.”
SBS becomes the second major broadcaster to lose its sales lead in recent months. In June, Seven’s veteran sales lead Kurt Burnett was one of a number of top execs impacted by a series of redundancies at the network.
Alone Australia remains one of SBS’ top achievements this year. In May, following season two’s BVOD success and overall growth on SBS On Demand, Sadler told Mediaweek that the event nature of the series brings in millions of people to SBS’ platforms and allows viewers to sample different content.
“Around 20% of season 2 Alone viewers have gone on back to watch season 1,” he said.
“For a platform like SBS On Demand, with its deep library, this is tremendously important as Alone is driving our active watchers and bringing people into the platform.”
In 2023, Alone Australia drew more than 1 million viewers for each episode, with almost half of its audience coming from digital.
SBS recently promoted Keiran Beasley to the role of national TV and digital sales manager to replace Andrew Mudgway, who resigned from the broadcaster in December following SBS’ decision to relocate the role back to Sydney from Melbourne.
See also: Alone S2 drives SBS On Demand growth and ‘tremendous ROI’ for advertisers