British
Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan will be able to watch EastEnders
or NCIS, The Bill or Dragons’ Den, and many more of their
favourite television programmes at a time that suits them thanks
to the new BFBS '1 day later' channel which is launched on Monday
11th February 2008.
So if
Top Gear is on at 2100 hours on Monday evening for families in Germany
– which is after midnight in Helmand Province and well past
their bedtime – now the boys and girls in the desert can catch
it at Tuesday teatime at 18.30 hours local Afghan time.
The new
channel, which is an 18-hour delay of peak time BFBS 1, is rolling
out across Afghanistan and is also available in Iraq and on HM ships
at sea in the region. BFBS is also making the channel available
to single and unaccompanied personnel in SLA in Cyprus.
BFBS
1 day later has been funded by SSVC.
For some
time BFBS has been aware that troops in Afghanistan particularly
have been missing out on some of the most popular programmes on
BFBS1 due to the time difference. Now, thanks to the SSVC trustees,
they can watch the programmes that they really want to watch, at
a convenient time. BFBS2 already caters for differing timezones
by repeating its 6-hr block of programmes three times in 24 hours.
In a
survey carried out in Iraq last year, 85% said they would welcome
this time-shifted channel.
Those watching via DTT in
Iraq and Afghanistan on their own TV sets with Freeview boxes, or
on laptops with DTT sticks, will need to rescan to see the new channel.
It can be found on channel 9. |