SBS World News Channel

SBS World News Channel
Launched	12 June 2002
Closed	1 June 2009
Network	SBS Television
Owned by	Special Broadcasting Service
Picture format	576i (SDTV) 16:9
Country	Australia
Language	English Various
Broadcast area	Nationally
Replaced by	SBS 2
Availability at time of closure
Terrestrial
Freeview	Channel 32
Satellite
Foxtel	Channel 648
Austar	Channel 610
Cable
Foxtel	Channel 648
TransACT	Channel 17

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.

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.

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

Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Arabic language broadcasts were added to SBS' WorldWatch schedule in 2003. 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