World Watch

World Watch
GenreWorld news
Country of originAustralia
International
Original languageVarious
Production
Running time20-60 minutes (per program)
Original release
NetworkSBS (1993–present)
SBS Viceland (2009–present)
SBS WorldWatch (2022–present)
Release24 August 1993 (1993-08-24)[1] –
present

World Watch, or WorldWatch, is a programming block on SBS and SBS Viceland, and a standalone television channel in Australia, that carries news bulletins from countries around the world. The World Watch service gives viewers the opportunity to see news bulletins in their native language. The majority of these bulletins are produced by public or state broadcasters.

History

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The WorldWatch program began on 24 August 1993 with news bulletins from the People's Republic of China, the United States, Germany and Russia.[1]

In June 2002, SBS launched the SBS World News Channel, providing repeats of aired bulletins on SBS in addition to updated bulletins.

In October 2003, Filipino, Vietnamese and Arabic were added to the World Watch schedule. However, the Vietnamese service was controversial as the broadcaster chosen was the government-controlled VTV4, which was seen as deeply offensive and seen as propaganda to many Vietnamese Australians who fled after the Vietnam War.[2] It was quickly removed on 17 October.[3]

In 2009, SBS replaced the World News Channel with SBS 2 (now SBS Viceland), and the bulletins also moved to the new channel under the "World Watch" banner. Bulletins air from 6:00am to 6:00pm, whereas SBS airs the bulletins between 5:00am and 1:30pm.

In 2010, SBS added three new languages: Portuguese, Urdu and Hindi.

In October 2015, SBS added eleven new bulletins to the World Watch schedule: African English, Armenian, Bengali, Bosnian, Nepali, Punjabi, Romanian, Sinhalese, Somali, Tamil and Thai; and created an English language line-up on SBS, which moved the Cantonese, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin bulletins from SBS to SBS 2.[4]

Usually, before a WorldWatch bulletin, an intro animation revealing the city and country of origin of the bulletin, sometimes also including the full title of the bulletin, is shown, as well as a disclaimer, which, following the previously mentioned backlash over the choice of Vietnamese news broadcasts, explains that the bulletin may not reflect the network's standards and may include distressing content.

After a bulletin ends, information about other airtimes for that bulletin and airtimes for the bulletin language's SBS Radio program are shown, explained by a voiceover in the bulletin's native language. If the bulletin is in English, then no relevant information as mentioned is shown.

In early 2022, SBS announced that they are relocating most of non-English news bulletins from the World Watch programming block into their newly launched in-house news channel SBS WorldWatch, which launched on 23 May 2022, along with SBS-produced local news in both Arabic and Mandarin (which the latter two was premiered early on SBS On Demand since earlier that year), as both SBS and SBS Viceland are making some space for special events such as live sports that has been interrupt World Watch news bulletins (see below), although English news bulletins from international news channels (not to be confused with SBS-produced SBS World News) are still available to watch in the morning and midday.[5]

Bulletins

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In determining the World Watch schedule, the policy of SBS has been to match the selection of news programs with the ethnic composition of the Australian population. The World Watch schedule includes news bulletins from Armenia, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, France, Fiji, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Macedonia, Malta, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Somalia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The programs are usually broadcast unedited, and between the times of 2:30 am and mid-afternoon. However, SBS does edit programs under "exceptional circumstances"[6] where it breaches broadcasting regulations and its Codes of Practices. In addition, commercials and sponsorship messages are edited out, while the end of the program will also be cut out when the program runs overtime in its timeslot. Also, due to SBS broadcast rights to certain sporting events, particular bulletins can be axed from schedule to allow airtime for the sporting events. Very rarely does SBS ever fill in broadcast gaps with WorldWatch bulletins.

In case that SBS does not receive the program on time, the program's timeslot would be filled with either its WeatherWatch program or English-language programming from DW-TV in Germany.[7]

Current bulletins

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English News bulletins

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Network Country of origin Network/Broadcaster Program name
SBS  Australia APAC Network APAC Weekly
 France France 24 PrimeNews Paris
 Germany DW (DW English) DW News
 India DD (DD India) News Night
 Japan NHK (NHK World-Japan) NHK Newsline
 Philippines ABS-CBN (ANC/Kapamilya Channel) The World Tonight
 Qatar Al Jazeera News
 United Kingdom BBC (BBC One/BBC News) BBC News at Six[8]
BBC News at Ten
 United States PBS PBS News Hour
Washington Week
ABC ABC World News Tonight
This Week
SBS Viceland  Canada APTN APTN National News Weekend
CBC (CBC TV/CBC News Network) The National
 Fiji FBC (FBC TV) FBC News
 France France 24 Eye on Africa
 Germany DW (DW English) Global Us
 Qatar Al Jazeera Newshour
 Turkey TRT (TRT World) Newshour
 New Zealand Whakaata Māori Te Ao with Moana
 United States ABC Nightline
Indian Country Today ICT Newscast

Non-English News bulletins on SBS WorldWatch

[edit]
Language Country of origin Network/Broadcaster Program name
Arabic  France France 24 نشرةالأخبار (Nashrat Al'akhbar)
صباح فرانس 24 (Sabah France 24)
Armenian  Armenia ARMTV Լուրեր (Lurer)
Bengali  Bangladesh Channel i সংবাদ (Sambāda)
Bosnian  Bosnia and Herzegovina BHRT (BHT 1) Dnevnik
Croatian  Croatia HRT (HRT 1) Dnevnik HRT
Dutch  Netherlands NPO/NOS (NPO 1 via BVN) NOS Journaal
Filipino  Philippines ABS-CBN (Kapamilya Channel), A2Z (via TFC) TV Patrol
French  France France Télévisions (France 2) Journal de 20 heures
France 24 Paris Direct
German  Germany ZDF heute-journal
Greek  Greece ERT (ERT1 via ERT World) ΕΡΤ Ειδήσεις (ERT Eidiseis)
Gujarati  India DD (DD Girnar) ઇવનિંગ ન્યૂઝ (Evening News)
Hindi Aaj Tak नॉनस्टॉप 100 (Top 100 News)
Indonesian  Indonesia TVRI (TVRI National) Klik Indonesia Petang
Italian  Italy RAI (Rai 1) TG1
Japanese  Japan NHK (NHK G via NHK World Premium) NHK News 7
Korean  South Korea YTN (via YTN WORLD) 뉴스N이슈 (News N Issue)
Macedonian  North Macedonia MRT (MRT 1) Dnevnik MRT
Malayalam  India DD (DD Malayalam) വാർത്തകൾ (Vārttakaḷ)
Maltese  Malta PBS (TVM) L-Aħbarijiet
Nepali    Nepal Nepal Television नेपाल टेलिभिजन समाचार (Nepal Television News)
Polish  Poland Polsat Group (Polsat/Polsat News) Wydarzenia
Portuguese  Portugal RTP (RTP1 via RTP Internacional) Telejornal
Punjabi  India PTC News PTC News
Romanian  Romania TVR (TVR 1 via TVRi) Telejurnal
Serbian  Serbia RTS (RTS1) Дневник 2 (Dnevnik 2)
Sinhalese  Sri Lanka SLRC (Rupavahini) රූපවාහිනී ප්‍රවෘත්ති (Rupavahini News)
Spanish  Spain RTVE (La 1 via TVE Internacional) Telediario
Tamil  India Polimer TV செய்திகள் (Ceytikaḷ)
Telugu DD (DD Yadagiri) వార్తలు (Vārtalu)
Thai  Thailand Thai PBS Thai PBS News
Turkish  Turkey TRT (TRT Haber) Öǧle Ana Haber
Ukrainian  Ukraine Suspilne (Pershyi) United News
Urdu  Pakistan PTV (PTV Home/PTV News via PTV Global) Khabarnama

Currently suspended

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Language Country of origin Broadcaster Program
English  China CGTN[a] The World Today
Mandarin CCTV (CCTV-4)[a] 中国新闻 (China News)
English  Russia Russia Today[b] Live simulcast
Russian NTV[b] Сегодня (Segodnya)

Former bulletins

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Language Country of origin Broadcaster
Arabic  Lebanon TL[11]
 United Arab Emirates Dubai TV[c]
Cantonese  Hong Kong ATV[12]
TVB (TVB Jade International)[c]
English  Fiji Fiji TV (Fiji One)
 New Zealand TVNZ (TVNZ 1)
Filipino  Philippines NBN (now PTV)[13]
French  France TV5Monde[c]
German  Germany DW (DW Deutsch)
Greek  Cyprus CyBC[c]
 Greece ANT1 (via ANT1 Pacific)[14]
Hindi  India NDTV (NDTV India)[c]
DD (DD News)[c]
Hungarian  Hungary MTVA (Duna/M1 via Duna World)[c]
Latin American Spanish[d]  Chile TVN[c]
Polish  Poland TVP[15]
Somali  Somalia Universal TV[c]
Tamil  India DD (DD Podhigai)[c]
Vietnamese  Vietnam VTV (via VTV4)

Notes

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  1. ^ a b In early 2021, SBS suspended its Chinese-sourced Mandarin and English bulletins from CCTV and CGTN in response to a complaint from a human rights group that the channels were broadcasting "forced confessions."[9] CGTN bulletin for 6:30am timeslot was later replaced with English-language Deutsche-Welle bulletin instead.
  2. ^ a b Programming from NTV and Russia Today was suspended on 25 February 2022 due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine following feedback from Russian-speaking viewers. However, Russian-language programmes are still being offered on SBS Radio.[10]
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Currently available on SBS On Demand
  4. ^ Listed as "Latin American News"

References

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  1. ^ a b "Monday 23 August 1993 — MELBOURNE". Television.AU. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  2. ^ Gibbs, Stephen (2 December 2003). "Crunch time for SBS over Vietnamese news bulletin". The Age. Fairfax Media.
  3. ^ "A brief history of SBS (Archived)". Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 2 March 2007.
  4. ^ Sainsbury, Zoe (6 October 2015). "SBS to bring more breaking international news & culture to TV". SBS Radio. Special Broadcasting Service.
  5. ^ "SBS WorldWatch". SBS Corporate. Special Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  6. ^ "FAQ's – World Watch". Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 2 August 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  7. ^ "SBS World Watch Intro for no news from ERT, Greece". Archived from the original on 21 December 2021.
  8. ^ "BBC News at Six news joins SBSs morning World Watch line-up". SBS Media Centre. Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 17 November 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  9. ^ "SBS suspends Chinese-sourced news programming after receiving human rights complaint". SBS News. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  10. ^ "Statement from SBS regarding acquired Russian TV news programming". SBS Corporate. Special Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  11. ^ "Télé Liban (TL)". Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 21 October 1997. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  12. ^ "Asia Television Limited (ATV)". Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 21 October 1997. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  13. ^ "SBS Television - What's on". Special Broadcasting Service. 22 February 2004. Archived from the original on 22 February 2004. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
  14. ^ "Antenna Television SA (ANT1)". Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 21 October 1997. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  15. ^ "Telewizja Polska S.A. (TVP)". Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 21 October 1997. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
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