The rationale behind the name change, we’re told, is to draw attention to the wider range of SBS’ digital offering and to improve access to the public broadcaster’s podcasts and live streaming services and to reflect the evolution of SBS’s cross-platform offering across more than 60 different languages.
David Hua, (below) SBS Director of Audio & Language Content 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,” he said. “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.”
Mr Hua went on to say, “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.
The new 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.
News of the re-brand came on the same day that the public broadcaster announced the findings of its five yearly Language Services Review in which each of those 60 languages is evaluated in terms of their popularity and relevance to the changing needs of Australia’s migrant mix as measured by the most recent census.
Six languages did not meet the selection criteria in the Language Services Review – Albanian, Bulgarian, Finnish, Romanian, Slovak and Slovenian. These will be replaced by more South Asian languages. For more information about the review. go here.
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.”
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.