Shaun Brown

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Shaun Brown is Managing Director of Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in Australia. Appointed 14 February 2006 for four years, Mr Brown was previously SBS Head of Television from January 2003. Mr Brown began his career in broadcasting with the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in Perth in 1970.

He later worked as a reporter, presenter and producer with Television New Zealand (TVNZ) on a wide range of news and factual programs. At the BBC he was a current affairs producer and presenter. In 1994, TVNZ appointed him Managing Editor, News and Current Affairs. He was made Head of TV One in 1997 and, in 2001, was appointed Head of Television responsible for running both TVNZ channels. Brown held this TVNZ position until joining SBS as Head of Television in January 2003.

Before 1999, the NZ government was preparing these advertising supported channels for privatisation; however a change of government at this point changed this policy.

Brown was responsible for putting advertising into the middle of SBS TV program content, rather than between programs (usually at the top or bottom of each hour) as it had been. This has resulted in a large number of complaints to SBS from viewers. For example:

21/10/2006 Hubertus: Dear SBS You are obviously not interested in what your viewers feel about ads in programs. Iron Chef just has been rendered unwatchable by your stupid ad breaks, as a result my family has switched off. You live off ~1-2 % of Australians, who are not watching SBS by accident or chance. To us SBS means no ads within programs. You make your choice now. Is it Bye-bye? Hubertus (Accessed 8 November, 2006 from: http://www.sbs.com.au/hotline/index.html?id=522)

The official position on SBS in-program advertising is available here: http://www20.sbs.com.au/sbscorporate/index.php?id=1214

In March 2007, he claimed that SBS ratings had increased since the advertising change. [1]