SBS is first cab off the rank for this year’s upfronts, with Jane Palfreyman set to officially unveil her 2027 plans as Managing Director.
SBS will kick off the 2027 upfronts season with a luncheon at Sydney Town Hall tomorrow, as the broadcaster prepares to reveal its plans for the year ahead.
The presentation will put new and returning programming front and centre, while also looking at innovation and technology across the SBS business.
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It will be the first SBS upfront with Palfreyman officially in the Managing Director’s chair, although she is certainly no stranger to the event.
Palfreyman led last year’s presentation while serving as Acting Managing Director, but tomorrow’s event will be the first in her official capacity following her appointment to the permanent role in May.
That makes the 2027 upfronts particularly interesting, coming after a year in which SBS has made some significant changes to both its programming and the way audiences access it.
So, what can we expect to hear?
Alone Australia should be back
If there is one title that feels almost certain to feature in SBS’s 2027 plans, it is Alone Australia.
The fourth season is nearing the end of its run after taking the format to the Arctic Circle, with a reunion still to come.
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SBS has also already opened casting for a fifth season, with applications having closed in April. That makes a 2027 return a fairly safe bet, even if the broadcaster has yet to formally unveil the next season’s details.
The series has quickly established itself as one of SBS’s biggest home-grown entertainment properties, so expect it to remain a major part of the network’s strategy.
The SBS favourites likely aren’t going anywhere
While tomorrow will be about the new, there should also be plenty of familiar names in the mix.
Insight, Dateline, Mastermind, Who Do You Think You Are? and SBS’s broader factual and documentary slate have become important parts of the network’s identity, while The Cook Up with Adam Liaw remains a key food offering.
Eurovision is another obvious inclusion, with SBS having been the Australian home of the Song Contest since 1983. The broadcaster’s coverage has become an annual fixture, alongside other returning entertainment and factual programming.
SBS has also increasingly found ways to extend these brands beyond the traditional television schedule.
Last year’s upfronts saw the launch of dedicated FAST channels for Insight, Dateline and The Cook Up, alongside further investment in SBS On Demand.
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That digital strategy is likely to continue into 2027.
Shabana Azeez and Hugo Weaving star in SBS drama The Airport Chaplain, which premiered last week (image – SBS)
More Australian drama?
SBS has spent the past few years steadily building its local scripted offering, and The Airport Chaplain is the latest example.
The eight-part drama starring Hugo Weaving and Shabana Azeez premiered last week, giving SBS another distinctive Australian drama to build on.
It also arrives at an interesting time for the broadcaster.
Rather than simply chasing the biggest possible audience, SBS has continued to back stories that feel particularly suited to its identity, with diverse casts and stories about modern Australia at their centre.
A new Australian drama — or perhaps more than one — would therefore be a very reasonable expectation for tomorrow.
SBS2 returned to screens in August, with the channel’s refreshed branding and programming lineup (image – supplied)
SBS2 is back
One of the most visible changes to SBS’s television offering this year has actually been a return to an old name.
SBS VICELAND became SBS2 again on August 21, ending the broadcaster’s longstanding branding partnership with VICE Media. The refreshed channel is aimed at 25-to-54-year-olds and is designed to complement SBS’s broader television and streaming offering.
The timing is important.
The SBS2 name has only just returned, meaning tomorrow’s upfronts will be one of the first opportunities for SBS to show advertisers what it intends to do with the channel in 2027.
WorldWatch is heading in the other direction
At almost exactly the same time, SBS has announced a very different future for SBS WorldWatch.
From September 18, SBS WorldWatch will cease broadcasting as a linear television channel and move entirely to SBS On Demand.
The digital service will continue providing international news in 38 languages from 49 broadcasters, with SBS promising additional daily bulletins and greater flexibility for viewers.
The announcement was only made last week, making it one of the freshest changes hanging over tomorrow’s presentation.
Taken together, the return of SBS2 and the move of WorldWatch online say plenty about where SBS sees the future of television.
Some brands are being given a stronger linear identity, while others are being moved towards an on-demand model.
Demi Vollering celebrates after claiming her second Tour de France Femmes title, with SBS continuing to build its cycling offering ahead of 2027 (image – Getty Images)
Sport remains an important part of SBS
Sport will also be an important part of the conversation, even without the FIFA World Cup dominating the 2027 schedule.
SBS’s cycling offering has become particularly formidable.
Earlier this year, the broadcaster expanded its rights to include all three men’s Grand Tours, all three women’s Grand Tours and all five cycling Monuments, with the new Giro d’Italia Women and Il Lombardia rights secured through 2028. SBS has also picked up additional UCI WorldTour and ProSeries races for the next three years.
The broadcaster already holds the exclusive Australian rights to the Tour de France through 2030, while its free-to-air rights to the Tour de France Femmes have also been extended through 2030.
That gives SBS a substantial year-round cycling proposition rather than simply one big event in July.
There is also the Dakar Rally, SailGP, World Gymnastics and other international sporting coverage within the SBS Sport portfolio.
So while 2026 had the World Cup, SBS doesn’t suddenly become a broadcaster without significant sport in 2027.
What’s ahead for NITV
It is also important not to overlook NITV, which sits within the SBS family and continues to provide a significant part of the broadcaster’s First Nations storytelling.
Programs including Living Black and The Point remain cornerstone current affairs offerings, while Going Places with Ernie Dingo returned for its seventh season this year with Brooke Blurton joining Ernie Dingo, Mark Coles Smith and Rae Johnston.
SBS and NITV have also continued to work together on co-commissions and documentary projects, meaning tomorrow’s slate could include more First Nations programming across both services.
Living Black, in particular, celebrated 23 years on air with 14 new episodes in 2026.
Don’t be surprised to see another season, alongside new NITV commissions and returning factual titles.
Pia Miranda and Shaun Micallef star in Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey, with SBS set to reveal more of its 2027 plans at tomorrow’s upfronts (image – SBS)
What is still coming in 2026?
Another thing worth remembering is that SBS’s 2026 slate isn’t quite finished yet.
The broadcaster’s focus tomorrow will understandably be on 2027, but there are still plenty of titles from this year’s programming cycle either airing now or arriving later in the year.
The fourth season of Alone Australia is still working its way towards its conclusion, while Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey is currently airing its second season.
SBS has also continued to roll out its factual and documentary slate throughout the year, including the second season of Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey, which only arrived in August.
That means tomorrow isn’t necessarily about replacing an old slate with a completely new one.
Some of the strongest performers of 2026 are likely to simply roll into another year.
What could be the next big thing?
This is perhaps the biggest question facing SBS tomorrow.
Last year’s upfront had a very obvious headline: the FIFA World Cup.
SBS promised more than 550 hours of exclusive World Cup content, alongside its broader entertainment, drama, factual and sporting slate.
There is no equivalent World Cup-sized event sitting in the middle of 2027.
Instead, SBS will have to sell the strength of its regular programming and the breadth of its offering.
That could mean another major factual format, a new entertainment series to sit alongside Alone Australia, another ambitious Australian drama or a big new international acquisition.
Or it could simply be about continuing to build the distinctive mix that has worked for SBS.
Jane Palfreyman was officially appointed Managing Director of SBS in May, with tomorrow’s upfronts marking her first in the role (image – supplied)
The first official look at the Palfreyman era
Perhaps the most interesting announcement tomorrow won’t be a program at all.
It will be the broader message from Palfreyman.
She has already led an SBS upfront, so this isn’t her first time standing in front of advertisers to talk about the network’s future.
But it is the first time she will do so as the broadcaster’s officially appointed Managing Director.
That comes after a year of significant movement across SBS — from the return of SBS2 and the coming move of WorldWatch to SBS On Demand, through to a rapidly expanding digital offering and an increasingly ambitious sports portfolio.
Tomorrow should provide a clearer indication of how those pieces fit together.
Will SBS continue putting its biggest investment into distinctive Australian stories?
Will Alone Australia become an even bigger pillar of the schedule?
Will there be a new drama capable of following The Airport Chaplain?
And what will SBS’s next big audience-driving format be?
Those are the questions we will be watching closely.
TV Blackbox will be there
TV Blackbox will be represented at the SBS upfronts tomorrow, with our own Steve Molk attending the luncheon at Sydney Town Hall.
We’ll be bringing you all the big announcements as they happen, including the new programs, returning favourites, major sporting news and any changes to SBS’s television and streaming strategy.
And with Foxtel’s 2027 upfronts following later this week, the Australian upfronts season is officially underway.
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