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Freeloading SBS Has A Beef With Samsung, LG and Amazon

TV freeloaders SBS and the ABC, have a beef with Samsung, Amazon and LG.

On one hand SBS wants to sell five minutes of advertising every hour in their SBS On Demand App, but to get more traction up against competitors, they need more people using their app which currently has around 3.3 million registered users, so they are lobbying the Government to get priority for free, on TV’s, sold by TV manufacturers and on streaming services such as Foxtel, Amazon and Google.

Both the ABC and SBS argue that they want to prioritise Australian content, despite the likes of Netflix telling a recent Senate Inquiry that they like Foxtel already invest millions in developing and airing Australian content. Foxtel also told a recent Senate Inquiry that their new Hubbl will run local and free content from all the free to air networks in Australia for free alongside the paid streaming services.

James Taylor CEO SBS

At last week’s Senate committee hearing SBS managing director James Taylor (seen below), was highly critical of Samsung and Amazon because they had asked SBS who are already funded by Australian tax payers, to pay for prioritisation on the Samsung Tizen Smart TV platform and Amazon’s Fire TV OS, similar to what Apple and Google already do with app developers via their stores.

What SBS and the ABC along with Australia’s struggling free to air TV Stations want is akin to having a product, which in the SBS case is their On Demand App, and then asking a main stream media organisation to not only provide access to their audience for free, but to then prioritise placement of the app ahead of other paying advertisers.

“It is frankly scandalous that these massive global tech firms can unilaterally insert themselves as gatekeepers between Australians and their free Australian content, trusted news and information,” Mr Taylor said.

In the case of Samsung, LG and Sony, these brands deliver a massive audience of consumers, who have purchased one of their TV’s and free to air TV stations now want access to their customers for free.

Now they are pitching the Federal Government to bring in legislation that prioritises their apps on the TV manufacturers platforms.

Samsung, LG, and Foxtel, who last week launched their new Hubbl streaming platform in Australia, have spent tens of millions developing their content streaming systems and are now looking for a return on their investments which SBS and the ABC don’t like.

Last week Taylor told the Senate committee that in 2018, Samsung demanded a 15 per cent cut of any ads that ran through SBS On Demand when it was accessed on the Samsung Tizen platform.

When SBS refused, he claimed Samsung made the app much harder to find.

Samsung claim this is not true and all they did was prioritise paying app developers ahead of SBS and the ABC apps.

In 2020, Samsung made the same demand, threatening to take SBS On Demand off its devices entirely.

last year, Amazon demanded 30 per cent of all revenue derived from advertising on their Fire TV platform.

SBS refused to pay and now the Government is being asked to step in in an effort to deliver a “Free ride” for the likes of SBS, the ABC and free to air TV network off the back of TV manufacturers and the likes of Foxtel.

The managing directors of the ABC and SBS, have gone cap in hand along with Seven West Media, Nine Entertainment, and Paramount ANZ (which owns Network Ten) along with the ABC and SBS to lobby the Federal Government to legislate that TV manufacturers and the likes of Foxtel and Amazon give away valuable marketing space on their networks to organisations who are struggling to deliver an audience as consumers move to streaming apps.

“SBS and ABC management who live in a world of free handouts from Governments, now want to compete in a commercial world without having to pay a cent” said a former senior Samsung Executive.

“They also want prime positions on platforms for free, it’s pure socialism” he said.

Last week Foxtel boss Patrick Delany, outlined to Senators how the new Hubbl platform would benefit free to air TV stations by running their content side by side with international content with local content often coming up first especially when consumers are looking for local sport and drama. There is even a tag that delivers all available local content which is free on the Hubbl platform.

Delany plans to continue to push for reform to the federal government’s legislation on prominence and anti-siphoning, after telling Senators that any moves to give popular BVOD apps further protection would be a “dangerous outcome” for TV consumers.

Mr Delany has pledged to lobby for an even playing field when it comes to search results and app placement, as a matter of priority.

Taylor said “The set manufacturers do not pay a cent towards the content they are seeking to grab revenue from – the very definition of rent-seeking. They know the power they have over the primary access point to content in the home, and they are squeezing it for all it’s worth.”

What he failed to exp

ABC CEO David Anderson said the ABC iView app was taken off one major TV manufacturer’s devices in 2021 and the ABC was asked to pay to restore it. “On principle, we haven’t paid,” he said.

Seven West Media chief executive James Warburton said. His network has spent at least $21 million building and maintaining different apps for 21 different operating systems and TV manufacturers.

“That’s $21 million in our capex (capital expenditure) bill just to have the apps on the platforms we’re across,” he said. “Everyone wants a clip of the ticket, between 10 and 20 per cent.”

Delany disagrees with the free-to-air networks. It undermines a consumer’s right to choose, he said. “What we want to do is deliver the best experience for the customer and that’s been our business model for over three decades,” he said.



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