The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) began in 1975 as experimental radio stations 2EA in Sydney and 3EA in Melbourne, broadcasting in seven and eight languages respectively, with the purpose of providing migrant communities with information about changes to the country’s health system with the introduction of the Medibank scheme.
The popularity of the stations led to the government formally establishing SBS in 1978 to manage multicultural radio services.
SBS Television services were introduced in 1980. Read more about the history of SBS.