World Watch

World Watch
Genre World News
Country of origin Australia
International
Original language(s) English
Arabic
Cantonese
Filipino
French
German
Greek
Hindi
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Malaysian
Mandarin
Spanish
Russian
Taiwanese
Turkish
No. of seasons 23
Release
Original network SBS (1993-present)
SBS 2 (2009-present)
Picture format 576i (SDTV)
1080i (HDTV)
Audio format Dolby Digital 5.1
Original release August 1993 – present
External links
Website

World Watch is a program on SBS and SBS 2 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 in August 1993 with news bulletins from People's Republic of China, United States, Republic of China, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Republic of China 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, and was seen as deeply offensive and seen as propaganda to many Vietnamese-Australians who fled after the Vietnam War.[1] It was quickly removed on 17 October.[2]

The resulting backlash on the decision to air the program has seen SBS air disclaimers on all of its World Watch programs that distance the broadcaster from the editorial content of each bulletin.

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

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

News 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 China, Chile, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malta, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Spain, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, and the United States.

The programs are usually broadcast unedited. However, SBS does edit programs under "exceptional circumstances"[3] 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.

If SBS does not receive the program on time, it will replace the program with its Weatherwatch program or DW-TV from Germany in English [4]

Bulletins currently airing

Daily on SBS, except the English bulletins

Daily on SBS2

Weekly Programs

Former Bulletins

References

  1. ↑ Gibbs, Stephen (2 December 2003). "Crunch time for SBS over Vietnamese news bulletin". The Age. Fairfax Media.
  2. ↑ "A brief history of SBS (Archived)". Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 2 March 2007.
  3. ↑ "FAQ's - World Watch". Special Broadcasting Service.
  4. ↑ "SBS World Watch Intro for no news from ERT, Greece.".
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