§ Mr. WigginTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the facilities available for families to communicate with service personnel by television. [105644]
§ Mr. IngramThe British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) is produced by the Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC) under contract to the Ministry of Defence and provides radio and television services to most locations overseas where significant numbers of British forces are permanently stationed and, subject to practicality, to operational theatres.
Two channels of BFBS TV, plus BBC News 24 and Sky News, are transmitted continuously from the UK to a satellite covering the Greater European and middle east operational areas. The signal is distributed to 55 locations in Kuwait and from 27 March to parts of southern Iraq. BFBS TV is therefore available live at all major UK military locations in the middle east, as well as to RN andRFA ships in the area.
BFBS TV film messages from both service personnel in the Gulf and their families in the UK and Germany, and transmit these as "fillers" between TV programmes in lieu of the more usual community and welfare announcements. BFBS has a 'tie-in' with ITV's flagship programme "This Morning" (which is retransmitted on BFBS) which also provides a chance for families to see video messages from their people on operational duty. BFBS TV also communicates to the Forces via a daily news magazine programme, `BFBS Reports' which goes out across the BFBS network.