British Forces Broadcasting Service The British Forces Broadcasting Service was established by the British War Office ( now the Ministry of Defence ) in 1943 . Today it provides radio and television programmes for HM Forces , and their dependents , in Afghanistan , Belize , Bosnia , Brunei , Canada , Cyprus , the Falkland Islands , Germany , Gibraltar , Kosovo , the Middle East , Northern Ireland and Tristan da Cunha as well as a live satellite service to Royal Navy ships at sea . Editorial control is independent of the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces themselves . Since the 1980s , BFBS has formed part of the Services Sound and Vision Corporation ( SSVC ) , a registered charity , which is also responsible for the British Defence Film Library , SSVC Cinemas , and Combined Services Entertainment , providing entertainment for HM Forces around the world . Neither BFBS Radio nor BFBS Television carry commercial advertising . BFBS Radio . BFBS Radio ' s 3 stations broadcast on a combination of local FM and AM analogue frequencies , via live streaming at bfbs . com / listen , on Sky Guide Number 786 , Freesat , and since April 2009 on DAB Digital Radio in the UK . The three BFBS Radio stations can be heard by the entire global Forces Community . BFBS broadcasts to service personnel , their families and friends all over the world with local radio studios in Afghanistan , Belize , Belgium , Bosnia , Brunei , Canada , Cyprus , Germany , Gibraltar , The Falkland Islands , Kosovo , the Netherlands and Northern Ireland . In addition , BFBS radio is heard by troops in Oman , Iraq and Ascension Island as well as onboard Royal Navy ships at sea via live satellite links , on the World Wide Web at BFBS . com / Radio and on Sky Digital channel 0211 , via a Eurobird 1 transponder . The Forces Station BFBS is a music , news , entertainment and community service providing bespoke content to the global Forces Community with a focus on Forces News and connecting the Forces communities with around the world . Many of the programmes on BFBS Radio 2 are sourced from BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Five Live , including the soap opera " The Archers " , which was popular in Hong Kong until BFBS Radio ceased broadcasting on 30 June , 1997 before the handover to China . BFBS Radio also provides programmes in Gurkha li , for the Gurkha units serving with the British Army . At midnight on Saturday 12 January 2008 , The Forces Station BFBS began a trial period of broadcasting nationwide across the UK on DAB , which ran until 23 : 59 on 31 March 2008 . Audience research carried out during the trial concluded that it was successful , and The Forces Station BFBS now broadcasts nationally on DAB Digital Radio . On Monday 31 May 2010 , BBC Radio 1 teamed up with BFBS transmitting the 10 hour takeover show from Camp Bastion with BFBS presenters and shout outs from the military community . BFBS Television . In the early 1960s a BFBS Engineer named John Bull promoted the idea that BFBS could have a Television Broadcast service for a relatively low cost and demonstrated this by building his own Television Station broadcasting from his home in Nicosia , Cyprus two nights a week . Despite successfully proving the point he failed to convince the management at the time and so another ten years passed before BFBS eventually had a television service . BFBS Television started in Germany in 1975 , using taped broadcasts from the BBC and ITV , but now broadcasts live via satellite . DVDs are still sent to forces serving in more remote areas . There is also a service known as BFBS Navy TV , which broadcasts time - shifted versions of the channel to Royal Navy vessels around the world via military satellite . Most programmes come from the BBC , ITV , Channel 4 , Five and Sky , including news from BBC News , Sky News , ITN , and sport from BBC Sport and Sky Sports . BFBS also has its own programmes , including the magazine programme " BFBS Reports " and the children ' s request programme " Room 785 " . BFBS Television is broadcast in some areas as a terrestrial service , but is encrypted for copyright reasons , as it is intended solely for HM Forces and their families . Until 1997 , it was widely available in Cyprus , but its signal is now encrypted or confined to the Sovereign Base Area s of Akrotiri and Dhekelia as local broadcasters had bought local rights to show English football . However , BFBS 1 is watched by civilians in the Falkland Islands , where it is currently the only terrestrial TV service . It is shown on a timeshifted basis ( which means that " live " events are shown between 3 and 5 hours after they have actually happened . ) There are plans to expand the civilian terrestrial TV service as part of a digital upgrade , which would include BFBS 1 , BFBS 2 , BFBS 3 and one other channel . Since 2009 there have been four BFBS Television services : A combined version of these four called " BFBS Navy TV " is available on some naval vessels . Since 2005 , BFBS has also distributed commercial networks Q , Sky News , Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 to certain areas . It also started a movie channel on 2 May 2008 , using money that it has saved following the Premier League ' s decision to waive the £250 , 000 rights fee .