SBS Radio today announced changes to its services according to the findings of 2016 Census.
The revised services will include seven new languages to reflect the 1.3 million people that migrated to Australia last year, including six ‘high needs’ languages and one ‘large’ language supporting new communities as they navigate life in Australia.
The new languages are: Telugu, Karen, Tibetan, Hakha Chin, Rohingya, Mongolian and Kirundi (Rundi).
All content in the new languages will be available digitally via on demand audio podcasts accessible via the SBS website and SBS Radio app to meet the needs of those audiences.
Twelve current languages including Kannada, Tongan, Norwegian, Cook Island Maori, Fijian, Swedish and the African program (in English) will be discontinued as they do not meet the Selection Criteria. These languages have been in recess for the last 12 to 18 months alongside Lithuanian, Malay, Latvian, Danish and Maori. The remaining nine languages of the 21 languages currently on SBS Radio 3 will be retained and include Estonian, Finnish, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Czech, Bulgarian, Slovak, Romanian and Armenian which will be made available on analogue radio services.
Meanwhile, 24 hour music radio station SBS Chill will be temporarily simulcast on SBS Radio 3 after the changes are implemented.
The Turkish and Croatian languages will each reduce one program going to four from five hours per wee; while German will reduce two programs dropping to five from seven hours weekly.
Hungarian, Bosnian and Albanian will also reduce to one program per week. SBS Radio will overall offer services in 68 languages and the new SBS Radio services will be implemented on air effective Monday 20 November 2017.
The Greek language radio program will remain as it is. Greek radio shows will continue to broadcast seven days a week between 4pm and 6pm. SBS Greek will also have a stronger online presence from November onwards.