Inside Sydney Fish Market premieres on SBS with Rick Stein narration – A new six-part documentary takes viewers behind the scenes of Australia’s biggest seafood market. Rick Stein narrates Inside Sydney Fish Market. It premieres on SBS at 8.25pm on Thursday 8 October 2026 and will also stream on SBS On Demand.
The series goes beyond the seafood on sale. It follows the people who keep the market operating during its move to a new waterfront home. Viewers will see the working auction, the retail trade and the fishing communities behind both. This is not a conventional cooking show.
Butter Media produced the observational series for SBS and BBC Studios. Its cameras gained access across Sydney Fish Market, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest seafood market. The six episodes follow retailers, buyers, fishers and families whose work spans generations.
Inside the market and beyond
The cameras capture the pre-dawn auction, where the day’s catch changes hands. Then the series moves to the busy retail floor. There, fishers, buyers and shoppers shape the market’s daily trade.
The story also travels well beyond Sydney. Viewers will see rock lobster fishing in Far North Queensland and urchin diving off the NSW South Coast. The cameras also travel to the Chatham Islands across the Tasman. These trips show the supply chain and the changing conditions faced by fishing communities.
Fishers and traders face unpredictable conditions and uncertainty as they bring seafood to market. The series sets those pressures against the market’s move. It connects the daily seafood trade with a major change for a longstanding Sydney institution.
A market in transition
Sydney Fish Market Chair Craig Davison said the programme arrives at a significant time for the community.
“This series arrives at a pivotal moment for Sydney Fish Market, capturing our community’s story as we complete one of the most significant transformations in the market’s history. It’s a rare opportunity to show the nation what makes this industry, and the people in it, so special.”
The series is as much about people and the market’s future as it is about seafood. SBS’s programme listing also highlights the market’s reconstruction and the people shaping its next chapter.
When to watch Inside Sydney Fish Market
Inside Sydney Fish Market premieres at 8.25pm Thursday 8 October 2026 on SBS. The release says all six episodes will be available to stream on SBS On Demand.
Sydney Fish Market will also hold free catch-up screenings in its Auction Hall at 1pm every Friday for the duration of the series. No booking is required. The venue is one of the locations featured in the documentary.
For more TV Central SBS coverage, visit our SBS news section. Further details about the series and the market screenings are on the Sydney Fish Market website.
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