I returned this evening from a week overseas and tuned into SBS at about 18:20 in preparation for the nightly news. I was shocked to see a huge white watermark logo on the bottom right of the screen.

I was so shocked and livid with rage that I rang the 1800 number listed on your web site to find out what was going on. A helpful chap explained that SBS had adopted watermarking for station identification and as an anti-piracy measure.

I pointed out that permanent visual station identification was technically redundant, as all modern receiving equipment—both analogue and digital—can display the station identification when changing channels or on request. In the digital age, not only can you see the station IDs, you can instantly access metadata streams such as program guides and promotional side-programs.

On the anti-piracy issue, I said that I had never heard of or met a single case of anyone ‘bootlegging’ pirate copies of SBS programs, but the chap on the phone pointed out to me that he personally knew of people who had purchased pirate copies of Queer as Folk. I took his word for his, but I did not have time to debate the following related issues over the phone:

• The presence of a watermark will not stop piracy. Devotees of a show will simply ignore watermarks.
• Software is publicly available that can easily and automatically remove watermarks from video streams. Professional pirates will use such software to clean their recordings.
• Is the volume of pirated SBS programs commercially significant? I wouldn’t think so.
• If it is known that some shows are being pirated, why is the watermark on shows that are not piracy candidates?
• Why don’t you invisibly ‘fingerprint’ shows instead of watermarking them? This would be a far more effective way of discouraging and detecting pirates.

In light of these points, I think the adoption of watermarks to prevent piracy is technically retarded and ineffective.

Putting aside issues of station identification and piracy, I think the most serious issue regarding SBS watermarks is an artistic one.

Without a doubt, SBS is a national treasure that broadcasts superb quality shows with astonishing diversity. Will all those beautiful movies and fascinating documentaries that I love so much on SBS be permanently disfigured with watermarks? Will the next Kubrick festival or Kurosawa movie on SBS have a watermark over it? If so, then I hope you get avalanches of complaints rolling into your offices. I promise you that I will never watch a watermarked show on SBS.

I can’t yet determine how SBS is using the watermark in the long-term, but I have already noticed that it changes intensity and position, and it mysteriously vanishes during advertising and the news. At its brightest, the watermark is abominable, being brighter, larger and closer to the centre of the screen than those on commercial stations. Over dark backgrounds, the watermark is so bright and crisp that I actually feel the compulsion to get a moist cloth and wipe it off.

After the ABC introduced watermarks earlier this year I abandoned them completely and migrated to watching SBS almost exclusively. SBS now looks like a trashy cable TV station and its unique identity has been destroyed. I am about to abandon SBS.

Thank you for the decades of fabulous SBS programming I’ve grown up with, but it’s all changed and it’s all gone now.

Yours sincerely,
Greg Keogh