After World Cup high, media buyers see a bigger SBS play

Ray Martin standing on stage at Sydney Town Hall having a thoughtful conversation with an AI-generated clone of himself may go down as one of the more memorable moments of this year’s upfront season.

But for media buyers watching SBS fire the starter gun on the 2027 upfronts, the bigger question was more conventional: how does the broadcaster follow its biggest audience year on record?

The 2026 FIFA World Cup delivered SBS more than 18 million viewers, a historically large digital audience and the sort of cultural moment few media owners get to experience.

At the same time, franchises including Alone Australia, its food programming, documentaries and international sport have become increasingly important to the broader SBS and SBS On Demand proposition.

But without another World Cup type event sitting in the 2027 schedule, buyers were looking for what comes next.

For Enigma Media chief media officer Justin Ladmore, the answer was a broadcaster showing plenty of confidence and an ambition increasingly extending beyond its own screens.

“Full disclosure, I’m an SBS fan, so there’s probably some bias here. But judging by the reaction in the room, I wasn’t alone,” Ladmore said.

“The applause was genuine, the vibe was strong and there was a real sense that SBS has plenty of momentum behind it.”

While SBS confirmed it has secured the Australian rights to the 2030 FIFA World Cup, Ladmore said the more significant development for advertisers was what the broadcaster plans to do between those giant sporting moments.

SEE MORE: SBS builds wider advertiser platform after record World Cup

“What stood out to me most was that SBS’s strategy now seems to stretch well beyond simply getting people to watch SBS,” he said.

“The partnerships with oOh!media, MCO and Fabulate suggest a much broader ambition to extend SBS content, audiences and commercial opportunities into different environments.”

That was a recurring theme throughout the presentation. SBS pitched advertisers on taking ideas from “couch to community to counter”, with new partnerships designed to extend campaigns from television and streaming into outdoor, creator and retail environments, backed by expanded measurement capabilities.

Havas Media managing director Michael Kay said the shift in emphasis compared with previous upfronts was notable.

“It felt less about SBS fighting for a percentage share of the TV buy, or simply selling against a buying demographic, and more about a clear strategy and provocation to brands on viewing multicultural audiences as a core growth strategy rather than an incremental addition to the schedule,” Kay said.

“It’s a fair challenge for advertisers and agencies to reflect on their current audience approach and media channel mix.”

Kay said SBS continued to occupy a distinctive position in the Australian market through its combination of culturally diverse audiences, trusted environments and content that is difficult for competitors to replicate.

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But increasingly, he said, SBS was showing advertisers how those ideas could travel beyond traditional television.

“SBS Connect and the multiple new brand partnerships really hit home the storytelling capability SBS possesses and how agencies can build cultural platforms that connect their clients into communities in a credible way,” he said.

“The partnerships with oOh!media, Fabulate and MCO help bring that proposition to life, because an idea can now move beyond SBS’s own ecosystem into outdoor, creators and retail environments.”

The oOh!media relationship particularly caught Ladmore’s attention.

SBS News content will extend into office, airport and university environments, while advertisers around properties including the Tour de France will also be able to take commercial campaigns into outdoor.

“Taking SBS content into offices, airports, universities and other out-of-home environments, while creating opportunities for advertisers to extend major sponsorships beyond the screen, starts to make SBS feel more like an ecosystem than simply a broadcaster,” Ladmore said. “A smart play.”

He also singled out the Fabulate partnership, which will allow SBS advertisers to bring creators into campaigns built around the broadcaster’s programming.

“The Fabulate partnership feels particularly relevant given how major TV moments now spill almost immediately into social media and creator conversations,” Ladmore said.

SBS’s actual 2027 programming slate, meanwhile, leans heavily into the sort of content buyers already associate with the broadcaster.

Alone Australia returns for a fifth season, this time in the Arctic Circle, while SBS will air more than 850 hours of cycling and The Cook Up will pass its 1000th episode.

A new factual slate includes Ray Martin is Misinformed, exploring artificial intelligence, misinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories; Samuel Johnson-fronted Homeless 300; Bondi; Meeting a Murderer: The Hilton Bomber and SBS/NITV co-commission 2.6 Seconds: Death in the Outback.

Kay described the overall presentation as “polished and confident”, with SBS leaning into proven programming while continuing to invest in distinctive local content.

“What SBS continues to do well is create something genuinely distinctive in the Australian market that reflects a culturally diverse Australia, operates in a highly trusted environment and, increasingly, shows brands how they can take ideas well beyond the traditional TV screen,” he said.

For Involved Media group managing director Sarah Keith, that consistency could prove valuable.

“There wasn’t necessarily a dramatically deeper slate,” Keith said.

“Instead, there was something arguably more valuable: consistency. These are proven franchises. Returning series that audiences recognise, advertisers understand and SBS knows how to deliver.”

But Keith also pointed to the commercial challenge sitting behind that proposition.

SBS carries a comparatively limited advertising load on linear television, creating a cleaner viewing environment but placing more importance on audience growth and SBS On Demand to deliver commercial scale.

“The combination of premium, distinctive content and an increasingly sophisticated digital proposition gives SBS something that advertisers continue to value: an environment that feels different,” Keith said.

“But it also means the success of the SBS commercial proposition increasingly depends on how effectively it can connect the strength of its linear offering with the scale, targeting and flexibility of its digital one.”

After a year dominated by the World Cup, that may ultimately be the test for SBS in 2027.

Not whether it can immediately replicate one of the biggest television events on the planet, but whether it can use the momentum it created to make its distinctive content, audiences and cultural positioning work harder across a much wider media ecosystem.