SBS to get extra $20m funding from government

SBS managing director Michael Ebeid has welcomed the $20m of additional funding the network will receive over the next three years from last night's budget.

"SBS is a lean and agile hybrid broadcaster which punches above its weight with distinctive and innovative content, despite operating on one fifth of the average budget of all the other broadcasters,'' Ebeid said.

"This funding will equip SBS to provide the services that are critical to its responsibility to be a broadcaster for all Australians, in a climate where commercial growth is subdued, content costs are increasing and audiences are fragmenting across the myriad of channels, platforms and devices available to them."

"It is recognition by the federal government that in todays increasingly diverse communities, SBS has a continuing and vital role to play in contributing to social cohesion, and to Australias success as a migrant nation."

"The funding will help to fill the gaps between our role and responsibility to provide services which encourage all Australians to understand and appreciate other cultures through content, and help to meet the increasing cost of delivering those services across the platforms and devices audiences are choosing to use."

"It will also allow SBS to continue broadcasting in 74 languages on radio.''