SBS Upfront 2025: Jane Palfreyman sends messages loud and clear to commercial partners

Posted on 4 November 2024

Keeping it simple: ‘We want to make sure our clients and partners are really clear on the offer.’

SBS relies on enough ad funding to warrant a flashy Upfront showcase for advertisers. This year the event took place at the Sydney Town Hall for 500 guests, later the event was replicated, on a somewhat smaller scale, in Melbourne.

The messages this year were focused and to the point. The event barely lasted 60 minutes and included a detailed review of the content to come in calendar 2025.

The messaging for advertisers was simple, and according to Alisha Buaya’s Friday feature in Mediaweek, resonated in a way the broadcaster would have been happy with.

Jane Palfreyman, SBS chief marketing and commercial officer, explained to Mediaweek: “It’s about being absolutely clear on who we are as a network, what we stand for and the value we bring from an audience perspective. We want to make sure our clients and partners are really clear on the offer.”

The partly funded-by-government broadcaster had much to shout about. For its Upfront, it focused on news for the commercial partners in the audience. For a detailed look at the broadcaster’s achievements, take the time to thumb through its recently released 247-page 2024 Annual Report.

Jane Palfreyman SBS’s Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer (centre), with some of the members of the SBS Media sales leadership team (L:R) Keiran Beasley, National Sales Manager – TV & Digital, Lee Callagher, National Manager – Operations and Digital Product, Kate Young National Manager CulturalConnect, Kevin Harris Head of Operations and Trading.

SBS funding

The broadcaster has just ended the first year of its five-year funding cycle. The government funding was $335m for the 12 months. Much of the rest of its budget is made up of advertising and sponsorship. In FY 23-24 that was $145m.

Like all broadcasters, ad spending dipped across the year. In FY 22-23, SBS reported advertising and sponsorship revenue of $171m. That haul was boosted by the fact it was a World Cup year. That’s how much impact the festival of football has every four years.

Commercial metro TV broadcasters were hurt in the most recent year too. ThinkTV reported their revenue dipped 12% YOY. Collectively they dwarf SBS though, with a metro haul of $2.224b for Seven, Nine and 10.

Jane Palfreyman at SBS Upfront

Ad revenue challenge

Palfreyman: “It’s been a challenging year of course for all of advertising but I think we’re performing well navigating the inflection point around the shift to digital viewing.”

If the market comes back, SBS could be well positioned. “For 2025 we’ve got a wonderful content slate. It’s premium content, it’s diverse content and it’s a wonderful mix of our returning favourites like Alone and Rogue Heroes and Tour de France and The Handmaid’s Tale as well as some really thought-provoking new content with The Idea of Australia and Robodebt. Next year will be an exciting year for the network.”

It will also be the broadcaster’s 50th birthday year. “It’s worth having a party for,” said Palfreyman.

“What the 50th birthday is allowing us to do is look back at our beautiful humble beginnings. SBS started as two little multilingual radio stations. The country has changed a lot in the half-century and our really critical role is ever more important. That’s something to celebrate and we’ll be excited about talking to audiences and clients about that next year.”

SBS key messages: 35-64 is the new 25-54

Two big takeaways from the SBS presentation were about demographics and the exclusive audience reach.

“The 35–64 audience is increasingly important,” said Palfreyman. “We are seeing some really smart marketers and brands recognising this and already working with us on that demo.” There’s room for more though: “We’d like more broad support in acknowledging the value of that demo,” she added.

SBS

Exclusivity of audience

As to the unique SBS audience, Palfreyman said: “We showed some really clear stats around our unique audience. They are hard to reach elsewhere and they are valuable.”

How unique? Around 70% of SBS viewers don’t watch a commercial FTA or a major subscription platform.

“We showed a lot of slides detailing the percentage of both our linear viewers who are not watching the other linear TV networks. Also our BVOD viewers at SBS On Demand who aren’t watching their equivalent streaming channels like 9Now for example but also our BVOD viewers are not watching Prime and Netflix for example.

“We have clear statistics around this as a valuable audience and it is hard to reach anywhere else. It demonstrates SBS has a clear role to play in partnering with clients to reach this audience.”

SBS ratings

Atomic 212° chairman Barry O’Brien told Mediaweek SBS successfully positioned itself against the streaming services rather than the other free-to-air networks.

Yet the broadcaster has a number of key properties that stand proudly among the best of commercial FTA in terms of eyeballs. Those programs include the Australian version of Alone, and the annual festival of pop that is Eurovision. Also strong performers are programs fronted by British broadcasters, the sadly departed Dr Michael Mosley and the man who travels by train, Michael Portillo. And, of course, the forthcoming World Cup.

Michael Mosley on location in Mt Isa for Artemis Media.
Top: Michael Mosley with Celia Tait.

Advertiser support

Ad revenue might be down, but it’s a similar percentage drop that is being felt elsewhere. “Broadly we have great support from both the big agencies and the independent agencies,” said Palfreyman.

“We’ve seen really strong support across all categories from many brands, so we’re really pleased.”

Palfreyman also spoke to the updated Beyond 3% initiative. Beyond 3% was launched in 2021 to engage media agencies and marketers to address the gap that exists in investment in First Nations media. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples represent 3.8 per cent of the Australian population, but it’s estimated that less than 0.3 per cent of advertising in Australia invested in media is dedicated to reaching these audiences.

“We are looking at things like Beyond 3% to make sure we are partnering with brands who see the opportunity to talk to First Nations audiences in an authentic way. Also broadly diverse audiences. If you’re a brand that’s looking to grow and you look at Australia as a nation the growth is coming from diverse audiences and from immigration and at SBS that’s our unique offer in terms of connecting brands with the real Australia.”

SBS On Demand – first mover advantage

“We hold a leadership position in digital and you see us continuing that with the announcement we are rolling all of our audio into SBS On Demand. That is about having one premium destination and continuing to push forward with digital innovation.”

SBS On Demand has a registered user base over 14m. When it comes to user experience, SBS On Demand has always performed well.

Palfreyman: “For some time we have been the number one rated [streaming] app on the Apple Store and more recently this year we’re also the number one rated app in the Android Store. That demonstrates the leadership position in terms of focus on user experience and the strategy of being audience first.”

FIFA Men’s World Cup 2026

It might be 20 months away, but SBS is already making a big noise about its exclusive rights to the FIFA Men’s World Cup 2026.

“Not only is it the biggest sporting event in the world, but it’s actually getting even bigger in 2026,” said Palfreyman. “We’re going from 60 matches to 104 over six weeks with more teams competing. In early 2025 we will be talking to brands about how we’ll partner with them and the line we’re going with is ‘where great brands play’.”

It’s about the content

SBS spends a lot of money and a lot of time curating content. Something it does well when you look at the breadth of the programming. They manage to beat their competitors – both FTA and streamers – with some sort-after offerings.

“We are very much focused on the SBS On Demand product and making sure we are delivering on our charter by educating, inspiring and celebrating content that tells different stories. We’re very proud of that. We also spend a lot of time listening to audience feedback to really understand where we’re doing well and how we reduce any friction in that user experience and that approach really serves as well.”

Top image: Coming to SBS in 2025 – [L-R] The Handmaid’s Tale, Marion Grasby’s Endless Summer, Big Backyard Quiz, Great Australian Road Trips