SBS World Watch is the latest free-to-air television station to hit the market.
The new channel will be accessible via Channel 35 and SBS On Demand.
The multi-lingual channel will feature news bulletins in more than 35 languages.
As well as the dedicated SBS Arabic and SBS Mandarin television news bulletins, international news services will beam in from 30 countries, which the network said would enable culturally and linguistically diverse communities to catch up on world news in their preferred language.
James Taylor, managing director of SBS, said the channel builds on SBS’ expanding range of multilingual services across TV, radio and digital.
“Our multilingual strategy sits at the heart of SBS and we are very excited to extend our offering with the launch of the SBS World Watch channel today, which sees us further expand our in-language news bulletins for people whose preferred language may not be English,” he said.
“From today our Mandarin and Arabic news programs, which we soft launched on SBS On Demand earlier this year, will have a prime-time home on the SBS World Watch channel – a very real demonstration of how we are delivering on our charter in providing both local and international news to these communities.”
Mandi Wicks, director of news and current affairs, said SBS World Watch is a further demonstration of the broadcaster’s commitment to meeting the needs of a culturally and linguistically diverse Australia.
“SBS is uniquely placed to reach and engage the many Australians who speak a language other than English, and we are thrilled to be evolving and enhancing our offering with the launch of SBS World Watch,” she said.
“It is exciting to be increasing our commitment to more SBS-produced multilingual news through the Arabic and Mandarin bulletins, ensuring access to relevant and current news for two of Australia’s largest and fastest growing language communities.”
The new channel joins SBS, National Indigenous Television (NITV), SBS Viceland, SBS Food and SBS World Movies, making it the broadcaster’s sixth free-to-air channel.
