World Watch, or WorldWatch, is a programming block on SBS and SBS2, 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 The WorldWatch program began on 24 August 1993 with news bulletins from the People's Republic of China, the United States, Germany and Russia.
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. It was quickly removed on 17 October.
In 2009, SBS replaced the World News Channel with SBS 2 (now SBS2), 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.
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 SBS2 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.
Bulletins 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 2:30am and mid-afternoon. However, SBS does edit programs under "exceptional circumstances" 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.
Current bulletins English News bulletins Network Country of origin Network/Broadcaster Program nameSBS APAC Network APAC Weekly France 24 PrimeNews Paris DW (DW English) DW News DD (DD India) News Night NHK (NHK World-Japan) NHK Newsline ABS-CBN (ANC) The World Tonight Al Jazeera News BBC (BBC One/BBC News) BBC News at Six BBC News at Ten PBS PBS News HourWashington WeekSBS2 APTN APTN National News Weekend CBC (CBC TV/CBC News Network) The National FBC (FBC TV) FBC NewsFrance 24Eye on Africa DW (DW English) Global Us Al Jazeera Newshour TRT (TRT World) NewshourWhakaata MāoriTe Ao with Moana Indian Country Today ICT Newscast
Non-English news bulletins on SBS On Demand Following the announcement that the SBS WorldWatch linear channel would close on 18 September 2026, all of the non-English news bulletins only became available to stream through SBS On Demand.
Language Country of origin Network/Broadcaster Program name Arabic France 24 نشرةالأخبار (Nashrat Al'akhbar)صباح فرانس 24 (Sabah France 24) Armenian ARMTV Լուրեր (Lurer) Bengali Channel i সংবাদ (Sambāda) Bosnian BHRT (BHT 1) Dnevnik Croatian HRT (HRT 1) Dnevnik HRT Dutch NPO/NOS (NPO 1 via BVN) NOS Journaal Filipino Kapamilya Channel, ALLTV, A2Z (via TFC) TV Patrol French France Télévisions (France 2) Journal de 20 heures France 24 Paris Direct German ZDF heute-journal Greek ERT (ERT1 via ERT World)ΕΡΤ Ειδήσεις (ERT Eidiseis) Gujarati DD (DD Girnar) ઇવનિંગ ન્યૂઝ (Evening News) Hindi Aaj Takनॉनस्टॉप 100 (Top 100 News; Nonstop 100) Indonesian TVRI (TVRI Nasional) Klik Indonesia Petang Italian RAI (Rai 1) TG1 Japanese NHK (NHK G via NHK World Premium) NHK News 7 Korean YTN (via YTN WORLD) 뉴스N이슈 (News N Issue) Macedonian MRT (MRT 1) Dnevnik MRT Malayalam DD (DD Malayalam) വാർത്തകൾ (Vārttakaḷ) Maltese PBS (TVM) L-Aħbarijiet Nepali Nepal Television नेपाल टेलिभिजन समाचार (Nepal Television News) Polish Polsat Group (Polsat/Polsat News) Wydarzenia Portuguese RTP (RTP1 via RTP Mundo) Telejornal Punjabi PTC News PTC News Romanian TVR (TVR 1 via TVRi) Telejurnal Russian DW (DW Russian) новости (Novosti) Serbian RTS (RTS1 via RTS.rs) Дневник 2 (Dnevnik 2) Sinhalese SLRC (Rupavahini) රූපවාහිනී ප්රවෘත්ති (Rupavahini News) Spanish RTVE (La 1 via TVE Internacional) Telediario Spanish France 24 (Español) El Mundo Ahora (The World Now) Tamil Polimer TV செய்திகள் (Ceytikaḷ) Telugu DD (DD Yadagiri) వార్తలు (Vārtalu) Thai Thai PBS Thai PBS News Turkish TRT (TRT Haber) Öǧle Ana Haber Ukrainian Suspilne (Pershyi) Urdu PTV (PTV Home/PTV News via PTV Global) Khabarnama
Currently suspended LanguageCountry of originBroadcasterProgram English CGTN The World Today Mandarin CCTV (CCTV-4) 中国新闻 (China News) English Russia Today Live simulcast Russian NTV Сегодня (Segodnya)
Former bulletins Language Country of origin BroadcasterArabic TL Dubai TV Cantonese ATVTVB (TVB Jade International)EnglishFiji TV (Fiji One)TVNZ (TVNZ 1)ABC Filipino NBN (now PTV) French TV5MondeGermanDW (DW Deutsch) Greek CyBC ANT1 (via ANT1 Pacific) Hindi NDTV (NDTV India)DD (DD News)HungarianMTVA (Duna/M1 via Duna World) Latin American Spanish TVN Polish TVPSomaliUniversal TV Tamil DD (DD Podhigai) Vietnamese VTV (via VTV4)
Notes
References
External links Official Site for SBS World News World Watch on SBS World News Australia