SBS is celebrating a successful six months since the launch of its dedicated multilingual news channel, SBS WorldWatch.
The network used its 2023 Upfront event to highlight the expansion of its international news offering, including bulletins in major South Asian languages Gujarati and Malayalam added to its SBS WorldWatch channel line-up.
It has also added nine new programs in English across the wider SBS network on SBS and SBS VICELAND, also available on SBS On Demand.
SBS WorldWatch launched in May 2022 as a free-to-air channel dedicated to providing Australians with access to news from around the world in languages other than English featuring bulletins from leading international broadcasters. The channel expanded SBS’s international and multilingual news offering, ensuring SBS audiences are better served than ever before, including with SBS عربي News (SBS News in Arabic) and SBS 中文 News (SBS News in Mandarin), SBS’s own news programs broadcast in prime-time each weeknight serving the diverse Arabic and Mandarin-speaking communities of Australia.
The launch of the channel has also enabled SBS to significantly add to the number of international news bulletins across the network with SBS WorldWatch adding two new international news bulletins in Gujarati and Malayalam from Indian Public Broadcaster Doordarshan (DD).
These two bulletins have been added to better serve Australia’s evolving news audiences, as speakers of Gujarati have increased by 54% since the 2016 Australian Census, and speakers of Malayalam by 48% over the same period.
With 13 new news bulletins across the SBS network and SBS On Demand, the changes allow popular programs to enjoy a better timeslot or expanded broadcast throughout the week.
Director of news and current affairs, Mandi Wicks, said: “With the launch of SBS WorldWatch, the SBS network has undergone broader rescheduling of our multilingual TV news across the network, now offering 66 news bulletins from 49 different broadcasters in 36 languages other than English, and 20 in English.
“SBS WorldWatch gives free-to-air and SBS On Demand audiences more coverage and choice than ever before. It’s great to see audiences’ positive response, which is reflected in the channel’s steady growth.”
SBS continues to bring leading international news bulletins in English across other channels on the network. Eleven new programs now feature on SBS and SBS VICELAND as well as being available on SBS On Demand, with SBS VICELAND adding Fiji One News; Te Ao with Moana from New Zealand’s Māori Television; CBC's The National, from Canada; APTN National News from Canadian Indigenous network, Aboriginal People’s Television Network; TRT World Newshour from Turkey; Indian Country Today news from USA Indigenous network, IndiJ Public Media; and ABC Nightline from ABC America.
SBS has also added ANC's The World Tonight from The Philippines; BBC News at 10; DD India from India Public Broadcaster Doordarshan and a weekly show from APAC Network, a Brisbane-based Asia-Pacific news start-up.
Central to the SBS WorldWatch offering are SBS’s flagship half-hour nightly news bulletins in Mandarin and Arabic, produced in-house, serving the two largest nonEnglish language audiences in the country
Executive producer of SBS WorldWatch, Paul Williams, said: “Six months on from our launch of SBS WorldWatch we’re pleased with how viewers are engaging with the new content, and we will continue to build and adapt our offering to best meet our growing audiences’ needs.”
SBS WorldWatch reaches more than 400,000 viewers* a month, and growing. It has cemented itself as the home for in-language world news in Australia.
SBS WorldWatch builds on SBS’s commitment to provide comprehensive news and information across its network - in English through SBS World News, and in more than 60 languages across SBS Radio services, podcasting, and digital platforms - and the multilingual services it has been delivering to Australians for more than 45 years.
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