“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).