SBS Worldwatch

TV News and Current Affairs ABC and SBS News
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SBS will further expand its multiplatform multilingual services in 2022, with the launch of new free-to-air television channel, SBS WorldWatch, from 23 May. F

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ABOUT SBS WORLDWATCH

SBS WorldWatch is SBS’s free-to-air multilingual news channel, launching on Monday 23 May, 2022.

It provides Australians with access to news from around the world in languages other than English, with a line-up of news bulletins from leading international broadcasters in more than 35 languages.

SBS عربي News (SBS News in Arabic) will be broadcast on the channel live at 8pm, and SBS 中文 News (SBS News in Mandarin) at 8.30pm, weeknights. These programs are produced and presented by SBS and are also available to stream live on SBS On Demand.

Audiences can also watch SBS current affairs programs available on the channel, broadcast in English with subtitles in Arabic and Simplified Chinese.

SBS WorldWatch expands SBS’s commitment to providing 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.

On SBS WorldWatch, news programming will not be interrupted by SBS’s commitments to broadcast live sporting events as occurs on SBS and SBS VICELAND from time to time.

We’re pleased to be able to offer both an extension of our services, and improve the viewing experience, with the launch of SBS WorldWatch.

HOW TO ACCESS SBS WORLDWATCH

How can I watch SBS WorldWatch?

From 23 May, 2022, you can watch SBS WorldWatch on free-to-air television channel 35.

The channel may appear on your television before this, but programming will not commence before this date.

If watching on a television, SBS WorldWatch is accessible on television sets, or devices using recorders or set top boxes, which are MPEG-4 compatible. MPEG-4 refers to the compression technology commonly used by broadcasters today for the distribution of high-quality video content. Most television sets made after 2014 use this technology, and in fact many TV channels in Australia are broadcast with it. It allows us to provide better picture and sound quality.

SBS VICELAND is an MPEG-4 channel, therefore if you currently watch a news bulletin on SBS VICELAND on your television, you can access SBS WorldWatch.

The channel is available to stream live on SBS On Demand.

Programs broadcast on the channel are also available to catch up on SBS On Demand, where there are also additional international news programs available to stream which aren’t shown on television.

Do I need to retune my TV?

Some people may need to retune for the channel to appear. Should you need to retune, SBS has basic instructions for doing so available on our online help centre here.

More…

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One of the interesting pieces of info provided in that link is the gap created by moving the bulletins/programs that have aired on SBS/SBS Viceland to the new Worldwatch channel will be partly filled by SBS & SBS Viceland introducing new English-language international bulletins to their schedules.

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Which means the new English-language bulletins on SBS and SBS Viceland will be interrupted from time to time by live sport, such as FIFA World Cup in Qatar later this year. Fortunately, these bulletins will also be available on SBS on Demand.

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I assume it will be broadcast in MPEG4 SD then?
Is SBS Food MPEG2? Because if so then I assume that will be transitioned over to MPEG4 as well.

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On the SBS multiplex, SBS Food and NITV are MPEG 2 in addition to SBS ONE.

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could that be a problem though? I’ve noted that so far the only English bulletins SBS airs as WorldWatch are from

  • France 24
  • Deutsche-Welle
  • NHK World
  • Al Jazeera English
  • BBC
  • PBS America
  • ABC America

Surely they can’t use those to fill in all the gaps in the schedule. They can expand a bit with things like Newshub and Global TV Canada News, etc.

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Broadcast rights can be very difficult to attain, especially if they broadcast content (i.e sport footage) that exclusive to that broadcaster or another broadcaster in Australia has the rights to specific content.

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Sport footage can be used by other news programs (ie the AFL is a 7 program but 9 can use the footage for news) so that wouldn’t pose an issue for something like SBS worldwatch.

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You should keep in mind though that SBS has in the past replaced WorldWatch slots on Viceland with sports matches they have exclusive rights to. I mean with FIFA World Cup happening this year SBS might replace some radio program slots with live FIFA matches.

But regardless I wonder how the new channel will turn out. If you remember the “SBS World News Channel” from 2002 to 2009 it basically relayed all SBS WorldWatch bulletins but on a separate channel.

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SBS has started to roll out the LCN 35 placeholder promo loop for Worldwatch.

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MPEG4 SD here in Melbourne

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Pre launch loop is very similar to the promo video released 2 weeks ago.

Currently running with just 1.5 Mbps. I’ll run a check over an hour or so to see impact on other services.

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7 News Perth in an alternate dimension.

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For some bizarre reason i cannot watch it on fetch, have rescan twice and rebooted three times. It just won’t come up :thinking:

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I like the idea of this news channel.

Am interested to see how the presentation of news bulletins around the world varies… even though I won’t understand a word they are saying!

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I could not find the channel on fetch till I went into the channels list in settings and added it to my favorites it comes up as unknown channel 1 and has a random channel logo on it.

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Me too!

Hey, you kinda sound like the person I am; I like listening to random languages even though I don’t understand a word they’re saying. Maybe you should try SBS Radio …

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SBS have had a roadblock of bulletins in the mornings for as long as I remember.

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I don’t watch much TV in the mornings though, mostly in the evenings. it make it easier to watch them anytime, hopefully different countries will appear on different nights.

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The Google Translate app does a pretty good job these days of transcribing major non-english language audio to text in real time. I use it to listen to Spanish radio (helps my Spanish learning) and it works pretty well with Russian and Portuguese also.

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