For military service members, their families, and DoD civilians stationed overseas, the ability to receive U.S. commercial radio and television programming is a key quality of life service.

AFIS provides this service through its Armed Forces Radio & Television (AFRTS) network. From the AFRTS broadcasting center we bring U.S. radio and television programs to the 156 countries where American Forces and their families are stationed. In most locations, we provide three channels of television and nine channels of radio services.

In partnership with the Navy, we pushed the technological limits in developing satellite dishes that were small enough to fit on ships but capable of picking up signals from satellites we positioned to provide a signal anywhere in the oceans. Today, sailors aboard most types of ships can receive radio and television programming wherever they are deployed.

Since AFIS cannot provide all the commercial programming that is routinely available to an U.S. based audience, the programming it does provide must represent a balanced content and be free of any type of censorship.