SBS has a long and proud history of helping build belonging and connection for all people. As SBS nears its 50th anniversary in 2025, we remain committed to serving contemporary Australia with multilingual content tailored to the needs of diverse communities.
We’ll grow our digital-first multi-platform approach across broadcast radio, live streaming, digital publishing and podcasting to better meet audience preferences, as reflected in our new brand name SBS Audio which is now live.
Updates to language services
SBS will continue to serve over 60 diverse languages, representing 92% of Australia’s 5.6 million users of languages other than English, and ranging from some of the largest language groups to some of the smallest. See table below for our updated language list.
| Languages meeting the LSR Selection Criteria (63) | ||
| Amharic | Hmong | Polish |
| Arabic | Indonesian | Portuguese |
| Armenian | Italian | Punjabi |
| Assyrian | Japanese | Rohingya |
| Bangla | Karen | Russian |
| Bislama (new) | Khmer | Samoan |
| Bosnian | Kirundi | Serbian |
| Burmese | Korean | Sinhala |
| Cantonese | Kurdish | Somali |
| Croatian | Lao | Spanish |
| Dari (includes Hazaragi) | Macedonian | Swahili |
| Dinka | Malay (new) | Tamil |
| Dutch * | Malayalam | Telugu (recommit) |
| Filipino | Maltese | Tetum (new) |
| French | Mandarin | Thai |
| German | Mongolian | Tibetan |
| Greek | Nepali | Tigrinya |
| Gujarati | NITV Radio ** | Turkish |
| Hakha Chin | Oromo (new) | Ukrainian |
| Hebrew | Pashto | Urdu |
| Hindi | Persian | Vietnamese |
* SBS Dutch to pilot commissioned digital content to reach Afrikaans users. ** Additional digital content for Indigenous languages to grow the prominence of First Nation voices | ||
Summary of changes
- Fifty-eight currently served SBS languages will continue.
- Four new high needs languages will launch – Bislama, Malay, Oromo and Tetum.
- One large language will be recommissioned – Telugu.
- Six currently served languages did not meet the minimum language selection criteria – Albanian, Bulgarian, Finnish, Romanian, Slovak and Slovenian.
SBS intends to decommission these services, making existing content available online for an extended period. - Three languages in recess since 2018 – Czech, Estonian and Hungarian – also did not meet the minimum language selection criteria and will not be recommissioned.
- In response to growing migration from South Asia, SBS will recommit to commissioning Telugu and grow its Punjabi and Nepali teams. SBS will also launch an English-language podcast and social media targeted to younger, South Asian audiences to assist daily life and help strengthen belonging and social cohesion.
- In partnership with NITV, SBS Learn and other stakeholders, SBS will grow the prominence of First Nations voices as outlined in SBS’s Reconciliation Action Plan 2022-2026. We will commission digital content in Indigenous languages to aid language preservation, in addition to continuing the NITV Radio service.
- SBS will also increase investment in Auslan accessible content and bespoke resources for emerging migrant communities via the SBS Language Settlement Guide, as well as commission an Afrikaans-language podcast to be distributed through SBS Dutch and rename SBS Dari to SBS Dari (includes Hazaragi) to increase visibility of existing services to this community.
SBS is strongly committed to delivering on our Charter with these updates designed to reflect contemporary Australia. As SBS nears its 50th anniversary in 2025, we look forward to strengthening our unique role in the Australian media landscape by continuing to serve all Australians with distinctive multicultural and First Nations content in more than 60 languages to build long-lasting social cohesion and belonging.
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