Discussion of international news bulletins carried on SBS and SBS Vicelands
Looks like a relaunch of WorldWatch following the main channel’s rebrand last year; some elements of the existing package remain, as seen here from about 59 seconds.
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What’s the story with Punjabi News? The intro music is the same as this?
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The announcement of SBS2 becoming Viceland at the end of this year could put the future of Worldwatch into doubt. At the moment around 20 news bulletins from around the world are shown on SBS and SBS2 every weekday from early morning to mid afternoon. SBS2 also shows bulletins moved over from the main channel when live sport is on. If Viceland becomes a 24/7 channel with its own distinct type of programming, it will be impossible for all these bulletins to be shown only on the main channel. I fear some bulletins may be dumped completely or can only be watched on SBS website, which will be unfair to viewers who have limited or no internet access but want to hear the news from their homeland.
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During SBS World News tonight, it was announced that SBS will show ABC (US) This Week on Monday mornings at 6:30am
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Does SBS Worldwatch still present the message when SBS Worldwatch Bulletin scheduled isn’t recieved by the overseas provider? If yes, does anyone have a photo of the message in 2020 now?
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CGTN, a 15-minute Mandarin service, and CCTV, a 30-minute English language service, are aired on SBS as part of World Watch programming.
Isn’t CGTN the international (English language) service?
Yes, I believe that’s correct.
CGTN also broadcasts on Foxtel channels 653 and 654 (the latter being their “Documentary” channel), it’ll be interesting to see how long those remain on the platform in light of SBS suspending the use of CGTN programming as part of WorldWatch.
SBS’s temporary suspension of CGTN bulletins could not have come at the worst time, given the current tense diplomatic and trade relationship between Australia and China. It will be interesting to hear the response from the Chinese Embassy in Canberra.
(Last month, the Chinese government revoked the right of BBC to broadcast in mainland China, partly as retaliation to UK media watchdog Ofcom’s revoking the licence of CGTN)
EDIT: SBS’s suspension of CGTN bulletins was discussed in detail on both Mandarin and Cantonese language shows on SBS Radio this morning (6/3).
EDIT 2 12/7: According to The Australian, SBS still has not completed its review into CGTN and the bulletin remains off air.
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The English live stream is available on the website, and stories are regularly added to the website, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Aside from the political aspect, does it really matter that much that it’s not on SBS?
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International news bulletins will soon be leaving SBS and SBS Viceland. SBS is creating a dedicated free to air news channel next year, likely to be called SBS WorldWatch, that will feature international news content. According to the SMH, the channel will also produce 30 minute local weeknight bulletins in Arabic and Mandarin featuring content tailored to those communities in Australia.
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I was actually going to mention something about these new bulletins as I saw this job advertisement for a Executive Producer of Mandarin TV News the other day:
To further deliver on our purpose and Charter, we are proudly announcing we will be launching SBS-produced television news bulletins in Mandarin. These 30-minute bulletins will be delivered Monday-Friday and will focus on Australian news, particularly reflecting the perspectives of Mandarin-speaking communities in Australia. The services will also include national and international coverage of events and issues of particular interest and relevance to these communities. We are planning to launch before the end of the year.
With that in mind, SBS is now looking for a creative television Executive Producer to help launch and lead this new TV news service.
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The foreign language bulletins on SBS have served the migrant community well for over the past 25 years. Most of these bulletins are now widely available on the net anyway (e.g. SBS on Demand or YouTube).
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Hopefully in HD for the sake of it 
Media Release from SBS
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I’ll be outraged if I can no longer watch the French and German bulletins in glorious HD! 
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To fit this extra channel on their spectrum, you’d have to think it would have to be MPEG-4? That could make it quite inaccessible to a fair portion of the potential audience for this kind of channel and programming.
I’m going to assume their entire multichannel lineup will now be in MPEG4, including Food and NITV. I expect this, Food and NITV to be MPEG4 SD.
I think its clear that this argument is invalid now. 10Bold has more than proven that the amount of people with aging non-MPEG4 TVs is tiny.
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MPEG4 has been installed in tuners for over a decade now, I think it gets to a point that new services are going to use it by default and IIRC all of SBS’s other multi-channels use MPEG4?
It will be interesting to see how SBS now fills these hours of airtime on the main channel and Viceland.
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