Fiktiv Australia - SBS

The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is a hybrid-funded Australian public service broadcaster. About 80% of funding for the company is derived from the Australian Government. SBS operates six TV channels (SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World Movies, SBS Food, SBS World News Channel and NITV) and seven radio networks (SBS Radios 1, 2 and 3, Arabic24, SBS Chill, SBS PopDesi and SBS PopAsia).

SBS Online is home to SBS On Demand video streaming service. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia's multicultural society". SBS is one of five main free-to-air networks in Australia.

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SBS is a national public television network in Australia. Launched on 24 October 1980, it is the responsibility of SBS's television division, and is available nationally. In 2018, SBS had a 7.9% audience share.

SBS began test transmissions in April 1979 as SBS Ethnic Television when it showed various foreign language programs on ABV-2 Melbourne and ABN-2 Sydney on Sunday mornings. Full-time transmission began at 6.30 pm on 24 October 1980 (United Nations Day) as Channel 0/28. At the time, SBS was broadcasting on UHF Channel 28 and VHF Channel 0. Bruce Gyngell, who introduced television to Australia back in 1956, was given the task of introducing the first batch of programs on the new station. The first program shown was a documentary on multiculturalism entitled Who Are We? which was hosted, produced and directed by well-known Australian journalist Peter Luck.

When transmission would begin for the night, the opening announcement would be as follows with "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Aaron Copland playing in the background: "Welcome to Channel 0/28 Multicultural Television, Sydney and Melbourne. A section of the Special Broadcasting Service, transmitting on VHF Channel 0 with a vision carrier frequency of 46.25MHz and on UHF Channel 28 with a vision carrier frequency of 527.25MHz. As well as from the Hyatt Kingsgate Tower in Kings Cross, Sydney, on UHF Channel 54 with a vision carrier frequency of 737.25MHz".

On 14 October 1983, the service expanded into Canberra on UHF28, Cooma and Goulburn on UHF58 and at the same time changed its name to Network 0–28. Its new slogan was the long-running "Bringing the World Back Home".

On 18 February 1985, the station changed its name to SBS and began daytime transmissions. In June, SBS expanded to Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle, Wollongong and the Gold Coast. On 5 January 1986 SBS ceased broadcasting on the VHF0 frequency. Although many Australians at the time did not have UHF antennas, SBS's VHF license had already been extended by a year at this stage and not all antennas had worked well with the low-frequency Channel 0 either. Following this, on 16 March 1986, SBS commenced transmission in Perth, Mount Gambier, Loxton-Renmark, Port Pirie, Broken Hill, Toowoomba, Townsville, Bendigo, Ballarat, Traralgon and Hobart. Darwin was the last capital city to receive the channel, with a local signal launched on 20 May 1994. Other cities that have launched the channel on, between and beyond those days included Maryborough/Wide Bay–Burnett, Rockhampton, Mackay, Katherine, Cairns, Bunbury, Albany, Kalgoorlie, Esperance, Geraldton, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Mount Isa, Orange, Griffith, Mildura, Swan Hill, Wagga Wagga, Albury-Wodonga, Coffs Harbour, Lismore, Tamworth and Taree. Shepparton was the last city to launch SBS in the late 1990s.

Although, SBS Television commenced transmissions as a non-commercial television network, in 1991 it began accepting and broadcasting television advertisements (a controversial move at the time). These were shown between programs, rather than interrupting the programs.

The year 2001 saw the introduction of digital terrestrial television in Australia with transmissions available to most of SBS Television's coverage area on 1 January 2001, this was soon followed by the gradual introduction of widescreen programming.

The hosts of The Movie Show, David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz, moved to the ABC in April 2004 to host a new program called At the Movies. The Movie Show continued with four new hosts, which included Megan Spencer, Jaimie Leonarder, Fenella Kernebone and Marc Fennell. The final episode of The Movie Show aired in June 2006, after the show was axed. The same month, SBS announced it would start showing advertisements during programs, unlike the previous practice in which advertisements were only shown in between programs. In 2007, The Movie Show returned with a new interactive ten-minute format, presented by Lisa Hensley and Michael Adams.

On 1 June 2009, SBS TV was renamed "SBS ONE" to coincide with the launch of sister channel SBS TWO and later that year, SBS have switched from the Supertext logo to the generic Closed Captioning logo.

As of 10 December 2013, SBS no longer broadcasts on analogue TV and is now only available through digital TV or digital set-top box. On 4 July 2015, SBS ONE changed its name back to SBS TV.

SBS is required by charter to meet certain programming obligations. Although it has a strong focus on international news and current affairs, it also presents documentaries and educational programs, drama, comedy, films and sport. SBS devotes a significant part of its morning television schedule to news bulletins in languages other than English as well as showing many subtitled, foreign-language films. Its own news and current affairs aim to have a higher concentration on international affairs than the ABC or the commercial networks. It also shows many documentaries and current-affairs programs, while its sports coverage has a strong focus on international sports.

SBS's drama line-up consists of mostly imported content. International productions shown include Inspector Rex, Unit One, Funland, Shameless, Medici and ZeroZeroZero. Recent locally produced programs have included Kick, or East West 101.

Comedy on SBS is included locally produced shows SBS Monday comedy slot but also foreign series such as The Ricky Gervais Show, Skins, Bro' Town, South Park, Corner Gas, Nighty Night and Queer as Folk. The channel presents flagship comedy shows, which include Pizza, Newstopia, Life Support, John Safran, Swift and Shift Couriers, Bogan Pride, in addition to reality television series, Nerds FC, or Song for the Socceroos. As well as this, anime is broadcast, with programs including Neon Genesis Evangelion, Samurai Champloo (as well as shows like Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 and Bleach in the past) and the Studio Ghibli movies, as well as several cult movies. Dadı, the Turkish version of the American sitcom The Nanny was shown on SBS, as were numerous sitcoms, soap operas, drama series and movies in languages other than English, including Mexican and Brazilian telenovelas and Bollywood movies. Such programming is subtitled in English (such subtitling is typically applied by SBS itself via their inhouse subtitling department), but very little such content is now shown on the station; it has been replaced by largely English-language programming.

The remainder of SBS's schedule consists of English-language lifestyle, music, game and talk shows. These include Iron Chef, RocKwiz, The Movie Show, MythBusters, Top Gear (2005–2009), Global Village, Top Gear Australia, The Food Lovers' Guide to Australia, Food Safari, Remote Area Nurse, Mum's the Word, HELP, Vasili's Garden, Lonely Planet: Six Degrees, Salam Cafe, Inside Australia, Storyline Australia, First Australians, The Nest, My Voice, Oz Concert, the Eurovision Song Contest. In addition to foreign language film show SBS Film which include the best of international films is also available from The World Movies Channel as aired. Late at night, when there is no scheduled programming, SBS usually broadcasts a weatherwatch program which shows a weather map of Australia. In late 2005, the program was updated to feature weather information from cities around the world, along with a short clip of selected cities.

SBS has a range of news and current affairs programming, including its nightly, national, news service SBS World News, investigative programme Dateline, discussion forum Insight, indigenous affairs program Living Black, in addition to its morning & afternoon World Watch timeslot, featuring bulletins in languages other than English. Until early 2007, Toyota World Sport was shown on weeknights until it was axed to accommodate the relaunched, one-hour World News Australia and World Watch.

SBS Sport currently holds the broadcast rights to a range of sports, which are broadcast on SBS. These primarily include the Tour de France, the World Superbikes, the World Rally Championship, The Ashes, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, FIFA World Cup (every tournament since 1986; shared 2002 tournament with the Nine Network), FIFA Confederations Cup, FA Cup, and the UEFA European Football Championship. SBS also produces and broadcasts a range of sport related programming including The World Game and the UEFA Champions League Magazine. Previously, the channel has broadcast other sporting events including the 2004 Summer Olympics, the 2005 Ashes series and the American National Football League's Super Bowl. Previous to this SBS also broadcast live FA Premier League matches until the early 2000s.

SBS World News is the news service of the Special Broadcasting Service in Australia. Its flagship nightly bulletin is broadcast at 6.30pm on SBS with additional weeknight 'late' bulletins from 10.30pm on SBS.

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.

World News Australia was relaunched in its current one-hour format in January 2006, 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.

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

A dispute between longtime 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. 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 took legal action against SBS for breach of contract.

In February 2014, World News Australia was relaunched with new graphics along with a name, SBS World News.

In 2017 SBS World News was upgraded with a new set and improved website. The program can now be streamed on the SBS News website as well as the SBS News app.

SBS World News, nightly at 6.30pm is Australia's only locally-produced news bulletin that focuses on world events. It is presented by Anton Enus and Janice Petersen from Sunday to Thursday, and Virginia Langeberg on Fridays and Saturdays. Sport is presented by Mike Tomalaris from Sunday to Thursday and Robert Grasso on Fridays and Saturdays. Finance is presented by Ricardo Goncalves on weeknights.

SBS World News Late was originally known as World News at Nine (reflecting its original 9:00pm position), then as World News Tonight when it moved to 9:30pm. It no longer has any branding distinct from the main 6:30pm bulletin. In 2012, the bulletin moved to a later timeslot of 10:30pm. Regular presenters for this bulletin include Ricardo Goncalves, Darren Mara, Catalina Florez and Mike Tomalaris.

World Watch, or WorldWatch, is a program on SBS and SBS Viceland 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.

The WorldWatch program began in 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. 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 2 (now SBS Viceland) began broadcasting international news programs 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.

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.

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, China, Chile, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Macedonia, Malta, Nepal, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Somalia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The programs are usually broadcast unedited. 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.

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.

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SBS Viceland (stylised as SBS VICELAND) is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). It began as SBS TWO on 1 June 2009, and was branded as SBS 2 between 2013 and 2016. On 8 April 2017, SBS Viceland began broadcasting in high definition.

On 12 May 2009, SBS revealed programming details for the SBS TWO launch. This included a 5-minute feature at 6 pm called SBS TWO Launch: What is SBS TWO?, followed by the Academy Award winning short film Harvie Krumpet.

On 20 February 2013, SBS announced major changes to the programming on SBS TWO, with a relaunch as a bold, provocative channel for younger audiences aged 16–39 from 1 April 2013, known as SBS 2.

In June 2016, Shane Smith, CEO of U.S.-Canadian media company Vice, announced at the Cannes Lions Festival that the company had reached deals with international broadcasters to launch localized versions of Viceland—a television brand featuring lifestyle-oriented reality and documentary-style programming aimed towards young adults. Among the partners announced was SBS.

On 4 October 2016, SBS and Vice officially announced that SBS 2 would be re-launched as SBS Viceland on 15 November 2016. Michael Slonim, marketing director of Vice Australia, stated that SBS shared Vice's "storytelling sensibilities and curiosity about the world", and felt that the launch would "help catapult Vice further into the consciousness of young Australians". The channel remains operated by SBS, but will include original programmes produced for the American Viceland channel, alongside existing SBS 2 programmes such as The Feed. Despite using the Viceland brand name, it has no corporate association with the international affiliates.

SBS Viceland had a primetime share of 1% on its first night, up slightly from 0.7% for SBS2 the previous week, with the highest rated program Gaycation viewed by 51,000 people.

In addition to expanded international news programs during the day (including bulletins in Hindi, Korean, Greek, Macedonian, Polish and Portuguese languages), SBS Viceland screens documentary series, drama series and international films each night under themed programming blocks.

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SBS World Movies is an Australian free-to-air television channel showing international movies. The channel features foreign language films, documentaries, independent and mainstream cinema and interviews with international movie stars. It was previously known simply as World Movies and was only available on Foxtel.

The channel began broadcasting in October 1995, coinciding with the launch of Foxtel. It launched on Optus TV in May 1998. World Movies was created by its founding CEO Laurie Patton on behalf of a syndicate that included the private company of Seven Network chairman Kerry Stokes, the Australian Radio Network (ARN) and public broadcaster SBS. SBS provided access to its inventory of English language subtitles and the other shareholders funded the setup costs. In October 2009, SBS announced its intention to buy out the other shareholders, giving it full ownership of the channel.

World Movies was owned and operated by SBS Subscription TV, a subsidiary of SBS. The two have a close working relationship, with films premiering on World Movies 12 months before becoming available on the SBS free-to-air channels.

On 3 November 2014, World Movies launched a HD simulcast on Foxtel.

The channel was lanuched on free-to-air television on 1 July 2019. It is available on channel 32 in high definition. A promo loop started broadcasting in some areas on 18 June 2019, and in the rest of Australia on 23 June 2019. The channel launched on 1 July 2019 at 10am with the 2018 French film Remi Nobody's Boy.

SBS World Movies broadcasts foreign films spoken in over 200 languages and covers all genres of film, including action, adult, horror, vintage foreign film, as well as independent cinema. The channel also broadcasts documentaries and interviews with high-profile members of the foreign film community. Past interviews have included German Director Wim Wenders, Spanish actress Paz Vega, and French star Clotilde Hesme.

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SBS Food is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). The channel airs programs about food and cooking, from cultures around the world.

SBS first revealed it would launch a channel dedicated to food on 30 September 2015, following the Australian Government's decision to not permit the public broadcaster to increase the amount of primetime advertising it is allowed to broadcast. It was Australia's first and at the time only free-to-air channel to be dedicated exclusively to food-related programming. It is broadcast 24 hours a day on channel 33, and all programs aired on the channel are also available to stream on SBS on Demand.

The channel began broadcasting as Food Network on 17 November 2015 at 1 pm AEDST. The channel initially operated under a license from Discovery Inc., the operator of the American channel of the same name. The relationship included a three year programming deal with Discovery which saw numerous American Food Network programs on the channel. The first programme shown on the channel was 30 Minute Meals. The channel was first included in the official OzTAM ratings on 1 December 2015, where it recorded a 1.3% primetime share.

On 17 November 2018, the channel was rebranded to SBS Food following the ending of the Discovery Inc. deal, which saw Discovery's American shows pulled from the channel and replaced with more premium titles and less reality programming, including increased Australian content. Discovery's food shows later shifted to a new free-to-air channel, 7food network, which began broadcasting on 1 December 2018. The move proved disastrous to Seven and Discovery, and after disappointing ratings, 7food network was shut down on 28 December 2019 and its programming dispersed among Seven's networks, making SBS Food once again the only Australian free-to-air channel dedicated exclusively to food.

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SBS World News Channel is an Australian television channel owned and operated by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) that launched on 12 June 2002. The channel was the first digital-only multi-channel for the Special Broadcasting Service. The channel is broadcast for 24 hours per day, seven days a week, retransmitting news from fifteen countries. In between news retransmissions, the channel displays weather information, news headlines, and some commercial advertising.

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. The backlash resulting from these events prompted SBS to begin showing disclaimers before all externally produced bulletins, distancing the broadcaster from each bulletin's editorial content.

Genre restrictions imposed by the Australian government on digital multi-channelling were lifted along with the media ownership laws passed through the Australian parliament on 18 October 2006.

The SBS World News Channel broadcasts 24 hours a day, retransmitting news programs from 39 countries. The channel's programming line-up consists of retransmissions of bulletins from news services throughout the world, including:
Arabic – Dubai TV
Armenian - ARMTV
Bengali - Channel i
Bosnian - BHT 1
Cantonese – TVB Jade
Croatian - HRT
Czech - ČT
Dutch – NOS (via BVN)
Filipino – ABS-CBN (via The Filipino Channel)
French – France 2
German – DW-TV
Greek – ERT
Hindi - NDTV India
Hungarian – Duna TV (via Duna World)
Indonesian – TVRI
Italian – RAI
Japanese – NHK
Korean – YTN
Latin American Spanish - TVN (Chile)
Macedonian - MRT
Malaysian - RTM TV1
Maltese – PBS
Mandarin – China Central Television
Nepali - Nepal Television
Polish – Polsat
Portuguese - RTP
Punjabi - PTC Punjabi
Romanian - TVR (via TVRi)
Russian – NTV
Serbian – RTS
Sinhalese - SLRC
Spanish – RTVE
Somali - Universal TV
Tamil - Polimer TV
Thai - ITV
Turkish – TRT
Ukrainian - NTCU
Urdu - PTV
Vietnamese - VTV (via VTV4)

These programs are also presented on SBS and SBS Viceland.

Earth TV is broadcasted on the SBS World News Channel when news programs are not broadcast. It also acts as a filler when news programs are delayed.

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National Indigenous Television (NITV) is an Australian free-to-air television channel that broadcasts programming produced largely by Indigenous Australians. NITV was initially only carried by cable and satellite providers, along with some limited over-the-air transmissions in certain remote areas. NITV was re-launched in December 2012 by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) as a free-to-air channel.

Indigenous groups and individuals lobbied the Australian Government to fund a nationwide Indigenous television service in the 1980s and 1990s, however no major political party championed this cause.

In the late 1990s the Imparja Info Channel (also known as "Channel 31") was launched free-to-view on the satellite Optus Aurora service, providing largely Aboriginal programming direct to homes and via network of BRACS transmitters to remote Aboriginal communities. The Aboriginal programming on this channel later became known as Indigenous Community Television. In 2004, Imparja stated a desire to run a better funded service, at least within its license area.

In the same year, a voluntary NITV Committee was formed and a summit was held in Redfern, Sydney. The summit involved a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media professionals and community members committed to the establishment of a national Indigenous broadcasting service.

Following an Australian Government review in 2005, the Government announced $48.5 million in funding for NITV.

In 2007, NITV established a head office in Alice Springs and a television arm in Sydney. On 13 July 2007 NITV launched, replacing Imparja Info Channel on Optus Aurora and in the remote Aboriginal communities it previously reached. It soon after also became available free-to-air on Optus D1 to Australia and eastern Papua New Guinea.

NITV launched on Australian subscription television services on 1 November 2007 on Foxtel and Austar's satellite service on channel 180, with it becoming available on its cable service soon after. It showed Australian programs and sports like The Marngrook Footy Show, and the annual NSW Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout.

On 30 April 2010, NITV ceased broadcasting on Sydney's digital television Datacasting service along with other services. However, it remained available on subscription services Foxtel, Austar and Optus TV.

In 2010, the Australian Government commissioned a wide-ranging review of its investment in the Indigenous broadcasting and media sector. The review was headed up by retired senior public servant Neville Stevens with the assistance of Expert Panel members Laurie Patton and Kerrynne Liddle. The review recommended that NITV continue to receive government funding only on the basis that it was re-structured.

Subsequently, Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy invited NITV to enter in negotiations with the Special Broadcasting Service to access one of that network's unused digital terrestrial channels. On 8 May 2012, SBS received $15m a year in government funding dedicated to a new free to air Indigenous Australian channel which would replace NITV in July 2012, with 90% of staff transferring to this new channel. SBS took over the management and operation of NITV on 1 July 2012, and NITV was re-launched on 12 December 2012 by SBS as a free-to-air channel on Freeview channel 34. Among its launch day programmes were two live broadcasts from Uluru, including From the Heart of Our Nation, a two-hour event to mark the channel's launch at Noon, and a concert in primetime simulcast by SBS One.

On 29 February 2016, SBS unveiled a refreshed brand and revamped schedule for NITV with an increased focus on its central charter, Indigenous news and current affairs.

NITV's line-up focuses on programming of interest to and showcasing indigenous Australians, such as documentaries, current affairs programs, sports, drama, adult animation and a block of domestic and international children's programming focusing on Indigenous and Aboriginal culture (under the name Jarjums), and films. It also broadcasts programs relating to First Nations culture worldwide.

NITV News is a program broadcast on Australia's National Indigenous Television which is the only nightly television news service that covers entirely Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories from across the country in a half-hour bulletin. It is presented by Natalie Ahmat.

It started in February 2008, the program began with 5 minutes of news, followed by 15 minutes before finally extending to a half-hour bulletin.

The program is directed at Indigenous and non Indigenous viewers, but has found a wide audience among all Australians interested in Indigenous Australian issues, as such topics are rarely covered in the mainstream Australia media.

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SBS Radio is a service provided by the Special Broadcasting Service that aims "to inform, educate and entertain Australians, especially those of non-English-speaking backgrounds". SBS Radio originally began as two stations based in Melbourne and Sydney, set up to provide pre-recorded information about the then-new Medibank health care system in languages other than English. Today the service targets the estimated 4+ million Australians who speak a language other than English at home with programs in 68 languages.

Like SBS Television, SBS Radio supplements its government funding with paid-for information campaigns for government agencies and non-profit organisations as well as commercial advertising and sponsorship.

Experimental ethnic radio stations 2EA (Sydney) and 3EA (Melbourne) began operations on 9 June 1975, under 3-month temporary licenses, with 42 hour per week schedules in seven and eight languages, respectively. The initial purpose was to inform ethnic communities about proposed changes in the healthcare system via the Medibank scheme. During 1977, programming and language coverage expanded to 119 hours per week in 33 languages on 2EA and 103 hours per week in 22 languages on 3EA.

In November 1977, the Broadcasting and Television Act 1942 was amended to form the Special Broadcasting Service, which commenced operation and assumed responsibility for 2EA and 3EA on 1 January 1978.

Most programs contain a mix of news, current affairs, sport, community information and music relating to a specific ethnic or language group. The exception is the English language news program World View, and overnight programming from the BBC World Service.

SBS Radio has three main radio services, Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 3, as well as a national FM service. Radio 1 is available on AM in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Wollongong (1107, 1224, 1440 and 1485 respectively, and can also be listened to in FM on the SBS Radio app) while Radio 2 is available on FM in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra (97.7, 93.1 and 105.5) and on AM in Wollongong (1035). Radio 3 is only available on digital platforms. It broadcasts the BBC World Service on all days of the week unless of special circumstances. The national service (branded simply as SBS Radio) is available throughout the rest of the nation through FM broadcasting (except in Newcastle, where it is available on AM) and on the Viewer Access Satellite Television satellite service, and is composed of material from Radios 1, 2 and 3. Additionally, a few community stations in areas without dedicated SBS Radio transmitters carry some SBS Radio content.

Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 3 are all available nationwide through digital terrestrial television, through DAB+ digital radio in available areas, on satellite from free-to-air Optus D1 and Optus B3 C-band satellite transmissions, and on major subscription television services (such as Foxtel). Until the launch of Radio 3 in April 2013, programs available on Radio 1 and Radio 2 varied depending on the platform and the location: for example, digital radio and television in Brisbane largely followed scheduling in Sydney, while digital radio and television in Adelaide and Perth largely followed scheduling in Melbourne.

On digital radio in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra, SBS has some additional digital-only services: SBS Radio 4 (relays BBC World Service most of the time), SBS Chill, a mix of chillout and world music; SBS PopAsia, a mixture of J-pop, K-pop and C-pop; SBS PopDesi, a mixture of Bhangra, Bollywood music and South Asian pop music; and SBS PopAraby, featuring Arabic pop music. All of these services are also available online.

As of October 2020, SBS Radio broadcasts in the following languages:

Broadcast on Radio 1
Aboriginal (as NITV Radio)
Albanian
Amharic
Bosnian
Cantonese
Croatian
Dinka
French
Greek
Hebrew
Hungarian
Japanese
Khmer
Korean
Macedonian
Mandarin
Polish
Samoan
Serbian
Tigrinya
Vietnamese
Yiddish

Broadcast on Radio 2
Arabic
Assyrian
Bengali
Burmese
Dari
Dutch
Filipino
German
Gujarati
Hindi
Hmong
Indonesian
Italian
Kurdish
Lao
Malayalam
Maltese
Nepali
Pashto
Persian
Portuguese
Punjabi
Russian
Sinhalese
Somali
Spanish
Swahili
Tamil
Thai
Turkish
Urdu

Broadcast on Radio 3
African
Armenian
Bulgarian
Cook Islands Maori
Czech
Danish
Estonian
Fijian
Finnish
Kannada
Latvian
Lithuanian
Malay
Maori
Norwegian
Romanian
Slovak
Slovenian
Swedish
Tongan
Ukrainian

Notes: All languages broadcast on Radio 1 are available (with reduced hours) on the national FM service, as well as all languages on Radio 2, except Dari, Lao and Maltese. None of the languages which have programs on Radio 3 are available on analogue radio.

1. Aboriginal and African services are mostly conducted in English. The German service includes English segments.
2. Arabic is also simulcast with SBS Arabic24.

SBS radio news bulletins are broadcast throughout the day - including the flagship national bulletins, but also feature more national and international news stories. The main national bulletins are broadcast on SBS Radio on the hour, 24 hours a day, with the flasgship English language news and current affairs program, World View broadcast each weekday at 6am and 5pm on SBS Radio 1.