SBS World News Channel

The SBS World News Channel was an Australian television channel broadcast by SBS Television that launched on 12 June 2002. The channel, which used to be available only to digital television viewers in Australia, was the first digital-only multi-channel for the Special Broadcasting Service. The news service was broadcast for eighteen hours per day, seven days a week, retransmitting news from fifteen countries. In between news retransmissions, the channel displayed weather information, news headlines, and some commercial advertising.

SBS World News Channel
CountryAustralia
Broadcast areaNationally
NetworkSBS Television
Programming
Language(s)English
Various
Picture format576i (SDTV) 16:9
Ownership
OwnerSpecial Broadcasting Service
History
Launched12 June 2002
Closed1 June 2009
Replaced bySBS 2
Availability at time of closure
Terrestrial
FreeviewChannel 32[1]
Cable
FoxtelChannel 648
TransACTChannel 17
Satellite
FoxtelChannel 648
AustarChannel 610

History

The SBS World News Channel was officially inaugurated by Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Richard Alston on 12 June 2002, with the launch broadcast simultaneously live onto the channel.[2]

It was previously known as The World News in its first year.[3]

Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Arabic language broadcasts were added to SBS' WorldWatch schedule in 2003.[4] The Vietnamese service, taken from the government-controlled channel VTV4, was heavily protested against by the Vietnamese community, many of whom found the bulletin's portrayal of the communist Vietnamese flag and Ho Chi Minh offensive. The Vietnamese Community of Australia, claimed that the program's lack of reports on political arrests and religious oppression were also offensive, especially to those who fled the country following the Vietnam War[5]

The backlash resulting from these events prompted SBS to begin showing disclaimers before all externally produced bulletins, distancing the broadcaster from each bulletin's editorial content.

Genre restrictions imposed by the Australian government on digital multi-channelling were lifted along with the media ownership laws passed through the Australian parliament on 18 October 2006.[6]

The channel was set up as an experimental full service channel.[7]

SBS World News Channel was broadcast on channel 33 from its launch until 29 January 2009, when it was moved to channel 32. Thereafter, a simulcast of SBS was shown on channel 33. SBS World News Channel was closed and replaced by SBS 2 on 1 June 2009.

Programming

The SBS World News Channel broadcast for 24 hours each day, retransmitting over two-hundred news programs per week, from twenty-three countries. The channel's programming line-up consisted of retransmissions of bulletins from news services throughout the world, including:

These programs are also presented on SBS TV, along with PBS's Nightly Business Report and PBS NewsHour, SBS TV broadcasts World News Australia, and the English version of Deutsche Welle's bulletin.

earthTV

earthTV was broadcast on the SBS World News Channel when news programs are broadcast. It also acted as a filler when news programs are delayed.

Notes
  1. SBS — Australia-wide Digital Upgrade
  2. "SBS launches World News Channel". dba.org.au. August 2002. Retrieved 12 October 2007.
  3. INQUIRY INTO THE UPTAKE OF DIGITAL TELEVISION
  4. "SBS Timeline". Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 2 March 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2007.
  5. "Crunch time for SBS over Vietnamese news bulletin". Sydney Morning Herald. 2 December 2003. Retrieved 20 May 2007.
  6. Day, Julia (18 October 2006). "Australia opens up media investment". MediaGuardian.co.uk. London: guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2007.
  7. "INQUIRY INTO THE UPTAKE OF DIGITAL TELEVISION" (PDF). aph.gov.au. aph.gov.au. p. 11. Retrieved 24 March 2009.

References
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