SBS – six billion People… and counting

The one word that I think could best define the Special Broadcasting Service or SBS is that it is a breath of fresh air. It sits just outside and yet not too far away from the convoluting barrage of regular and often annoying mainstream broadcast. Here in the land down under, it is perhaps the best and most direct way to keep in touch with the world abroad. Coming from a country such as Malaysia, multiculturalism is for me an idea not all that foreign at all. The dominant broadcast service back home is provided through satellite TV which almost every household has a share of. The cultural constitution of the community here in Australia shares some common traits with the one I am most familiar with back home. And in terms of broadcasting stations or channels, the SBS can find itself a similarly motivated counterpart from that part of the continent.

It is a daring and yet noble effort to have a national broadcasting company functioning on the service for minorities. I fully understand the part of terrestrial television in Malaysia, their devotion to an every day multi – lingual broadcast service can be explained by the diverse ethnic groups, each of which speak their own language and make up, even on their own, a rather big part of the majority. On the contrary, in a country where the widespread medium of communication is only English, and where the majority of people speak that one same language, it is surprising that the existence of TV channel such as SBS was even suggested at all. For all that talk about neglecting minorities, I think SBS is one step in the right direction. It opts to take the most unusual stand by shying away from the majority, a move that could even be seen as neglecting the majority. But to attest the latter would seem unfair. SBS does so well not only to recognize and provide a service for minorities, it succeeds in even giving at least some decent entertainment for the majority. Not to mention the awareness it raises of other cultures within and outside the country. And while mainstream television more often than not have such bad programs on show, the ‘alternative’ entertainment provided  by SBS might just be seen as a step up from the aforementioned ‘decent’. Whatever the line up is like at the next station, one can always count on SBS to be a breath of fresh air, and more.