2003 - 04 Annual Report - Sbs

68has grown, as recorded by the 1996 and 2001 national censuses. The Punjabi language was placed on the nationalschedule for the first time and a second hour of Indonesian was added nationally.While the commissioned radio surveys (see above) concentrated on SBS Radio programs in languages otherthan English, evidence from other feedback sources – phone calls, emails, attendance at outside broadcasts etc.– suggests that audiences for SBS Radio programs in English and to younger Australians are increasing. Alchemywas extended on Thursday evenings and now runs all night on Fridays and Saturdays. It is too early to measure howcommunities have responded to the new and expanded language programs, but initial evidence is that they have beenwell-received. In existing programs, improved analysis of survey results has enabled program teams to identify gaps intheir listening demographics and to formulate program strategies to address them.1.3OBJECTIVE:Increase audience engagementMEASUREMENT:Increased interaction with our audiences; links and interactions with different parts of the Australian community throughpublic activities; and audience and community feedbackSBS Radio staged a record 108 outside broadcasts during 2003-04. Teams from the Sydney and Melbourneproduction centres attended most of the major community events in both cities and also travelled to Canberra, Perth,Adelaide, Newcastle and Wollongong for festivals in those cities. Audiences at some major outside broadcasts – suchas the Vietnamese Tet New Year Festivals in Sydney and Melbourne – attracted tens of thousands of loyal fans.During the year, senior Radio managers attended 615 functions, events or official occasions. In addition, Radiobroadcasters attended many hundreds of individual community events. Direct telephone calls, faxes, emails andtalkback segments on some language programs, as well as occasional competitions, provided additional andimportant feedback opportunities. During the year, SBS Radio entered into 40 new or renewed sponsorships orpartnerships with organisations or events with intersecting interests, particularly in the areas of the arts, culture andservice delivery. An SBS Radio-sponsored Cultural Diversity Quest Award received 400 creative entries from schoolsthroughout VictoriaSBS Radio maintained its commitment to raising funds for community development projects and disaster relief work,raising $47,000 in four radiothons. Over the past seven years, SBS Radio has helped to raise more than $5.5 million forgood causes in Australia and overseas. Over the same period, the 60 audience surveys in 41 languages garnered theopinions of 25,000 individuals.In 2003-04, SBS Television expanded its WorldWatch schedule – which presents news programs (mainly in LOTE)from overseas – as a service to Australia’s language communities.Although SBS applies rigorous standards of editorial independence and impartiality to the news and current affairsprograms SBS itself produces, WorldWatch bulletins are produced in their countries of origin to a range of editorialstandards, with some programs under State influence or control, and therefore go at air without editorial endorsementby SBS.