SBS

Background

The Special Broadcasting Service is an Australian federally-funded TV service aimed at providing multicultural and multilingual programming. The service was established in 1977 by an amendment to the Broadcasting Act 1942. The service initially ran as a small radio network consisting of two stations with plans for further expansion and a test service running on the Sydney and Melbourne stations of the ABC. On 24 October 1980, the service launched on television as Network 0-28, using UHF channel 28 and VHF channel 0, the latter having recently been vacated by the 0-10 Network in some markets. The channel took on the SBS name in 1985. In 2001, SBS was one of the earliest adopters of digital television, along with its sister network, the ABC. In 2009, the main channel was renamed SBS One, coinciding with the introduction of their second digital channel, SBS 2 (now SBS Viceland, a joint venture with Canada's Vice Media). By 2019, SBS had launched more digital channels including SBS Food (originally a joint venture with Food Network, now a standalone service), SBS World Movies and National Indigenous Television, a service with content about and aimed at Aboriginal Australians.

Contents

1st Logo (1979-1980)	2nd Logo (1980-1983)	3rd ID (1983-1985)	4th ID (1985-1986)	5th ID (1986-1989)


6th ID (1989-1993)	7th ID (1993-2002)	8th ID (2002)	9th ID (2002-2008)

1st Logo (1979-1980)

Visuals: An abstract symbol consisting of a circle with two bent rectangles either side meant to represent broadcast waves emitting from a transmitter is seen rotating on a blue background.

Technique: Cel animation.

Audio: Some generic strings music is heard and an announcer says "This is SBS Ethnic Television".

Availability: This ident mainly survives through a clip of a special produced for the 20th anniversary of SBS uploaded to YouTube.

2nd Logo (1980-1983)

Visuals: Live action clips of individuals engaging in various activities such as running in a park, talking with friends, eating out are shown. This culminates on a group of people converging on a white space to form a circle. This transitions to the circular logo for 0/28 - the name that SBS was broadcasting under in its first years as a standalone channel.

Technique: Live action.

Audio: A song performed by a group of male singers.

3rd ID (1983-1985)

Visuals: A wireframe globe zooms into the screen revealing a series of live action clips which change to match the place being mentioned in the song, e.g. an Indian film clip for "Delhi", two Geisha Girls for "Tokyo", the Parthenon for "Athens". This eventually culminates in a cavalcade of images as the wireframe globe zooms out into the screen and becomes solid as a ring appears behind it and the "NETWORK 0/28" wordmark zooms into place.

Technique: Live action clips of SBS programming and stock footage matching the lyrics of the song.

Audio: A new original song called "Bringing the World Back Home". This jingle would outlast the original lyrics, the slogan and the original logo. In fact, it would remain in use in one form or another well into the 1990s.

4th ID (1985-1986)

Daytime variant
Nighttime variant

Visuals: On an orange-brown plane, the SBS wordmark flies past the screen as the camera pans up to the sky. Against the sky we see various clips of people from different cultures inside bubbles that fly away from the camera. The camera then zooms out to reveal that the sky background was actually a part of the SBS globe logo. As this happens, the SBS text in slver zooms into place.

Variants: A nighttime variant has the text in gold instead of silver.

Technique: CGI with live action clips.

Audio: A tense synth theme that eventually transitions into an instrumental version of "Bringing the World Back Home".

5th Logo (1986-1989)

Visuals: On a black background, a glowing blue wireframe globe zooms in towards the camera. and forms a horizontal grid plane. Then, images of SBS presenters fly past the screen. plane then turns back into a globe, zooming out as a metallic ring settles around it and the SBS text swings upwards into place to form the then-current station logo.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: An instrumental version of the "Bringing The World Back Home" theme in its original arrangement from the 3rd logo.

6th Logo (1989-1993)

Visuals: A metallic version of the SBS globe flies in and settles close to frame. Then a series of rectangles fly in and cover the screen, forming a map of Australia on a brown background. The SBS logo appears in the bottom left.

Variants: In addition to the generic variant described above, there are some longer variants that feature items from various cultures and clips of SBS shows flyiing past.

Technique: CGI and live action clips once again.

Audio: One of several synth themes, all ending with the "Bringing the World Back Home jingle". The different versions include a pan-pipe driven variant, an Asian-style variant and a more generic woodwind-based variant.

7th Logo (1993-2002)

Unknown

8th Logo (2002)

Unknown

9th Logo (2002-2008)

Unknown