SBS World News

"World News Australia" is the news service of the Special Broadcasting Service. Its flagship nightly bulletin is at nowrap|6.30pm, in addition to weeknight 'late' bulletins at nowrap|9.30pm. "World News Australia" is currently presented by Lee Lin Chin, Anton Enus, Janice Peterson, Ben Fajzullin, Neena Mairata and Rena Sarumpaet.

History

"The World News" began as a half-hour bulletin, first seen in 1980, soon after the launch of the then-named Channel 0/28. George Donikian was the service's first presenter; veteran newsreader Mary Kostakidis began reading the weekend news in 1986. The network's long-running investigative documentary series "Dateline" started in 1984.

Closed captioning for the World News was introduced in March 1997.

In 2002, a digital-only World News Channel was launched, aimed at providing a comprehensive foreign-language news channel, mainly showing additional bulletins already seen in SBS' morning WorldWatch timeslot. No English-language bulletins are currently shown on the channel.

"World News Australia" was relaunched in its current one-hour format in January 2007, taking over the timeslot of "Toyota World Sport" and signing CNN correspondent Stan Grant to co-present alongside Mary Kostakidis. The merger between the two programs took place as a result of a claimed drop-off in viewers between programs, when a solid block of advertising would be shown. As a result, the relaunch saw the introduction of commercial breaks during the bulletin. [ [http://www20.sbs.com.au/sbscorporate/index.php?id=1214 Commercials and Promotions FAQ] Accessed 20 May, 2007] .

The new bulletin format has since lost viewers, with the late bulletin often out-rating the flagship 6.30 bulletin;Fact|date=October 2008 most of this has been attributed to the perceived commercialisation of the bulletin by the SBS Board.Fact|date=October 2008

A dispute between long time presenter Mary Kostakidis and the network arose in August 2007, when she walked out of the network in frustration at what she saw as increased commercialisation at the network, and a shift away from the original values of both the news service and the station in general.cite news |first=Amanda |last=Meade |title=Kostakidis in bitter SBS sign-off |url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22286293-601,00.html |publisher=The Australian |date=2007-08-22 |accessdate=2007-09-02 ] It was widely speculated that Kostakidis' contract stipulated she would be the network's main news presenter, and maintain editorial control over bulletins, somewhat altered by World News Australia's change in format. Kostakidis is currently taking legal actioncite news |title=SBS management to meet with Kostakidis |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/22/2012366.htm |publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=2007-08-22 |accessdate=2007-09-02 ] against the broadcaster for breach of contract.

Since the early 1990s, the "World News" and "World News Australia" themes have been written by Australian composer Nigel Westlake. [cite web | title = Nigel Westlake's Rimshot Music: Scores for Television | url = http://www.rimshot.com.au/Credits.html#TV | publisher = Nigel Westlake | date = 2005-06-15 | accessdate=2008-03-13]

Bulletins

World News Australia

World News Australia, nightly at 6.30pm is Australia's only local news bulletin with its focus on world events. It is presented by Anton Enus and Janice Peterson on weekdays, with Lee Lin Chin presenting bulletins on weekends. Craig Forster, Mike Tomalaris, Robert Grasso and Emma Simkin present sport throughout the week.

Former anchors of World News Australia include Mary Kostikidas and Stan Grant, who both departed in 2007, and Amrita Cheema who resigned in June 2008. [cite web | title = Amrita Cheema leaving World News Australia| url = http://www20.sbs.com.au/sbscorporate/index.php?id=1250 | publisher = SBS Corporation Accessed = 2008-06-11]

World News Australia is now broadcast in High-definition.Dubious|date=September 2008

World News Australia Late

Originally referred to as "World News Tonight", the late bulletin no longer has any branding distinct from the 6.30 bulletin. It is currently presented by Ben Fajzullin or Neena Mairata

World News Australia Online

Until its end in August 2006, the specially-produced online news bulletins were presented by Ashleigh Nghiem. The online bulletins have since been replaced by stand-alone reports.

Current Affairs Programming on SBS

="Dateline"=

Since 2005, "Dateline", SBS' investigative current affairs programme, has been presented by George Negus.

="Insight"=

"Insight" is a current affairs programme in the form of a discussion forum, in which guests from various backgrounds debate a particular current issue. It is presented by Jenny Brockie.

"Living Black"

"Living Black", SBS' indigenous current affairs programme, is hosted by Karla Grant.

References

External links

* [http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/ The World News]
* [http://203.15.102.143:8080/ramgen/media/wn_bulletin_hi.rm Latest Online News Bulletin]
* [http://colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=138257;querytype=;rec=0;resCount=10 SBS at the National Film and Sound Archive]