Bhutan Broadcasting Service

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The Bhutan Broadcasting Service is the national radio and television service in Bhutan. Run by the state, it is currently the only service to offer both radio and television to the Kingdom, and is the only television service to broadcast from inside the Bhutanese border.

For many years, Bhutan did not have modern telecommunications. The first radio broadcasts commenced in November 1973, when the National Youth Association of Bhutan (NYAB) began radio transmissions of news and music for a half-hour each Sunday, under the name "Radio NYAB." The transmitter was first rented from a local telegraph office in Thimphu. The government took over Radio NYAB in 1979, and renamed it the Bhutan Broadcasting Service in 1986, with expansions in radio scheduling as well as construction of a modern broadcast facility occurring in 1991.

For a long time, Bhutan was the only nation in the world to ban television. The first night of television broadcasts finally occurred on June 2, 1999, on the night of the Jigme Singye Wangchuk's silver jubilee. Currently, television service is limited to the capital city. News, documentaries, and entertainment programs were originally broadcast for three hours in the evening (7 p.m. to 10 p.m.), seven days a week, but expanded to four hours (6 p.m. to 10 p.m.) in December 2004. Most of the programming is aired in Dzongkha, but some current events and news programs are also aired in English.

As of 2005, FM and shortwave radio service reaches about 75 percent of the country. The service plans to reach the rest of Bhutan by 2010.