SBS managing director James Taylor says broadcaster willing to share Parramatta offices with ABC to ‘save money’

SBS managing director James Taylor said jointly relocating to western Sydney with the ABC could be a significant cost-cutting measure for both broadcasters.

SBS managing director James Taylor. Picture: John Feder

A joint relocation of the ABC and SBS to Western Sydney would save significant amounts of taxpayer money, according to the managing director of the multicultural broadcaster.

Fronting a senate estimates hearing last week, SBS boss James Taylor was asked if the media organisation would be ­willing to share office space with the ABC when it shifted 75 per cent of its journalists and producers to Parramatta next year.

“If saving money is one of the objectives of the exercise then co-location with another agency may be one of the opportunities explored,” Mr Taylor said.

The federal government ­announced last month that it would conduct a feasibility study into the relocation of SBS’ ­headquarters and studios from Artarmon on Sydney’s lower-north shore to the city’s western suburbs.

Mr Taylor told the senate hearing that SBS would ­“constructively work through the process”.

“SBS has not been advocating per se for a move to western Sydney or anywhere else,” Mr Taylor said.

“I look forward to testing any merits of moving to Western ­Sydney and should SBS and the SBS board agree that there are merits then we would pursue that ­appropriately, as you would expect,” Mr Taylor said.

The steering committee is ­expected to deliver its preliminary finding later this year, with SBS likely to respond to its ­findings in 2024.