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SBS bringing the world back home with new channel

SBS WorldWatch showcases news bulletins in 35 languages in one destination, all in keeping with the true SBS vision.

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“WorldWatch as a concept is something that SBS has been very passionate about, almost back to the 90s with ‘Bringing the World Back Home,” Mandi Wicks (pictured top centre) SBS Director of News and Current Affairs, tells TV Tonight.

Today SBS launches its sixth Free to Air Channel, SBS WorldWatch, a dedicated 24-hour channel features news bulletins in more than 35 languages, including Indian news in Malayalam and Gujarati for the first time.

Until now, foreign language bulletins have screened at SBS VICELAND, but now they move to a new home.

“We currently have news bulletins from all over the world that broadcast on SBS main channel and VICELAND. What we’re doing with this sixth free to air channel is bringing them all together, plus a few additional languages, as a destination for all languages other than English,” she explains.

The centrepiece is two SBS-produced bulletins produced by dedicated teams of bilingual journalists, SBS عربي†News (Arabic) presented by Ali Bahnasawy (pictured top left) and SBS 中文†News (Mandarin) presented by Rena Li (pictured top right), which soft-launched earlier this year at SBS on Demand.

“The focus for the output on SBS Arabic & Mandarin is predominantly Australian news. It goes to delivering on SBS’s purpose, which is really about trying to increase understanding in Australia, build social cohesion, and being inclusive,” Wicks notes.

They will screen at 8pm and 8:30pm, respectively, scheduled so as not to clash with SBS World News at 6:30pm, but also because they are sharing the same studio space at Atarmon.

“Janice (Petersen) finishes at 730 and might do a few pickups and then she’s out. And then these teams go in Arabic goes to 8:30. Then it’s a very quick musical chairs, they’re out at 8:30 and then Mandarin takes over the chair.  It’s fascinating to watch in action!

“But we didn’t want to put them up against each other because we know that audiences will watch SBS World News, and will experience these new services.”

SBS WorldWatch, which screens in MPEG4 standard definition, broadcasts international news services from 30 countries – bringing Australians different perspectives from around the globe, and enabling culturally and linguistically diverse communities to catch up on world news in their preferred language.

Wicks says her teams are also sharing stories internally and how to shape them for their respective audiences.

“The day starts with representatives from (TV, radio, online) coming together, sharing what their focus is for the day. Everybody’s obviously covering big stories of the day, whether it’s Ukraine, the election, and then they’re sharing original or distinctive content that they are also planning to cover. The beauty is that then everybody can actually share these stories,” Wicks continues.

“A story on Arabic News, can also be done for SBS World News as well. So they’re drawing on each other’s ideas, contacts, content, to produce these news bulletins.”

SBS current affairs shows will also be translated for weekend replays.

“Every night, there is something in Arabic and Mandarin, and we’ll be playing out Insight, Dateline and NITV current affairs programs too, which is The Point and Living Black. We find multilingual communities are very, very interested in content related to our First Nations communities.”

The freeing up of airtime on SBS VICELAND will lead to more English language news and general entertainment -today includes Fiji One News, DW English News Morning, Alone, Shortland Street and Difficult People- with more to come.

WorldWatch programs will screen at local times in all states (ie. SBS News Arabic at 8pm in all states) and will add to OzTAM share for SBS from today.

SBS WorldWatch is available on Channel 35, plus Foxtel Ch 644 and SBS On Demand from today.

Viewers need to retune to access the channel (step by step guide https://www.sbs.com.au/aboutus/sbs-worldwatch)

Online help centre or call 1800 500 727 (between 8.30am – 5.30pm (AEST) Monday – Friday).

First week of programming

sbs.com.au/worldwatch

16 Responses

  1. Good to see something new that isn’t just promo for the streaming arm. Was interested to see how the main channel was going to replace the traditional News “block” but from the look of things the programming team didn’t get the memo. Seriously, the lineup makes ABC Plus look edgy..

  2. I’m seeing SBS News In Arabic and it would be good if there were subtitles in English considering that these are in-house productions. It looks like a good production, I’d be keen to understand the perspective and it would also benefit people who are learning English. It would also help with cross-cultural relations for the public. I’m hoping that is something they can introduce for the in-house news. I understand that it’s not technically possible for the imported news to have subtitles.

  3. A bit of back-to-the-future for SBS given they had their World News Channel more than a decade ago. Although a lot different now, especially being able to tent-pole it with Mandarin and Arabic bulletins of their own – probably needs something like that in an era where the multicultural community can often find such things online, including many of the bulletins WorldWatch was set up to cover.

    End of an era though, given this also appears to mean the end of non-English language foreign news on the main SBS (and Viceland) channel after probably three decades or so. The foreign English bulletins appear to be staying but it means they now have about six or seven mid-morning hours to program between the two channels. Doubt it will reach any great heights – a three-episode-a-day block of Shortland Street on Viceland seems to be the most recognisable thing right now – but maybe it doesn’t need to.

  4. Another hit to the bandwidth. That being said, I think this channel really is a great idea in keeping with SBS’s core vision, but a small part of me wishes it would replace SBS Food on Channel 33 just so bitrate doesn’t have to be shaved off their other HD channels, would have been ever been if at the same time 33 would be changed to MPEG4.

  6. An utter waste of limited resources-not in English or subtitled and therefore only available to a vanishingly small audience who both can and want to watch largely the foreign govts’ ‘pov’-one wonders what the measure of success or failure of this will be?

  10. SBS WorldWatch would be the final channel brought about on free-to-air under MP Paul Fletcher’s tenure during the Liberal/LNP government as communications minister. Along with SBS World Movies, the transition of ABC Local Radio, ABC RN (Radio National), ABC Classic, Triple J, Triple J Unearthed, ABC Kids listen, ABC Country and ABC NewsRadio onto digital TV. He did have some involvement in bringing that about behind the scenes. Some significant advancement of public broadcasting throughout. It’ll be seen what happens with the new Labor communications minister.

    1. Fletcher and the LNP also decimated funding to the ABC causing them to cut Radio Australia shortwave to the south pacific and asia. this caused a vacuum that china filled.

      1. There were a lot of factors including projected spending, efficiencies and priorities for budgeting. There’s also the notion of how effective the Asia Pacific services were, the usage of shortwave radios in the modern era and the type of programming on ABC Australia, formerly Australia Network and ABC Asia Pacific. Whether programming like Insiders and The Drum with specific domestic politics were relevant for the channel instead of programming like rugby, cooking or music videos that might be more appropriate gateway programming. It’s not as simple as the base facts. There are a lot of underlying considerations and factors. These are factors that would need to be considered in the new government and parliament. It’s not as simple as send more ABC, the content also needs to be relevant and effective.

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