SBS has today gone live with a rebrand of its audio offering for multilingual audiences by switching on SBS Audio.
The change coincides with a refresh of SBS Audio’s digital offering, designed to better showcase and improve access to the public broadcaster’s podcasts and live streaming services.
The move was announced last November at SBS’s Upfront where the network unveiled its 2023 content line-up to reflect the evolution of SBS’s cross-platform offering across more than 60 different languages. It comes on the same day that the public broadcaster announces the findings of its five yearly Language Services Review.
“Today is a big day for SBS and how we respond to our listeners,”
– said David Hua, SBS Director of Audio and Language Content.
“We’ve always been in conversation with our audiences, speaking their language and sharing stories. Not only are we announcing an update on how we are reflecting contemporary Australia in our content, but we are also going live with changes to SBS Audio that demonstrate how we are better serving our audiences on their preferred platforms.
“Every week we broadcast more than 262 hours of original audio content. The new SBS Audio digital experience across the app and website will further drive growth in a space where we are already seeing more than six million streams and podcast downloads every month.”
With more than 5.6 million Australians using a language other than English at home, SBS Audio provides content for diverse communities, including in English and for those learning a new language. Its SBS Radio 1, SBS Radio 2 and SBS Radio 3 channels broadcast news, information and entertainment in over 60 languages, while its SBS Chill, SBS PopAsia and SBS PopDesi music channels engage all Australians through music and culture from around the world. Its SBS Arabic24 channel and SBS 中文 (SBS Chinese) program provide comprehensive services for Australia’s largest language communities across a growing audio and digital offering.
Today’s digital changes see a number of new features introduced to the SBS Audio website that include better showcasing of podcast content from across the entire SBS network, improved discoverability of live language and music programming at any time, and new individual pages for all seven radio stations.
The new station pages are designed to help users understand what’s available and when to tune-in to their preferred live programming. SBS will also help audiences answer the question of “What was that song?” with a new music search feature using day and hour filtering on music station pages for SBS Chill, PopAsia and PopDesi.
SBS was named Podcast Publisher of the Year at the 2022 Australian Podcast Awards, and both the website and app showcase all the popular and award-winning podcasts from across the network also including SBS News and Current Affairs, SBS Television, and NITV Radio.
Adam Sadler, SBS Director of Media Sales, noted that since the change had been announced there had been a very positive reaction from brands and agencies looking to speak directly to multilingual audiences.
“There has always been a large, highly engaged audience tuning in on radio and digital,” said Sadler. “We are heartened by the reaction of the market who recognise the benefit of this shift enabling us to reach specific and highly engaged communities in a way which is both highly effective and clearly measurable.”
Hua noted that the change in name did not impact individual programs or SBS’s commitment to serving audiences on linear radio.
“Radio has always been at the heart of what we do and that won’t change,” said Hua. “What began more than 45 years ago as radio programs in a handful of languages has evolved to become an innovative, multi-platform media network that is meeting the needs of not just first-generation migrants, but also multilingual speakers who might be second or even third-generation and we are doing it on the platforms they prefer.”
The new SBS Audio website is at SBS.com.au/Audio. The SBS Audio App can be downloaded via the App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android.
Media Release – SBS
