Compare: Cable TV lineup for U.S. Military in Japan

[CrankyYankee]

Here's a link to a story about the new lineup for U.S. Militarry members in Yokota.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=42591

See how you think it compares with the packages/tiers available in the United States.

 

[BDBopper]

Very interesting. Especially with having to pay for TBN which most people don't have to do here because of their OTA signals. Also noticeably missing is the CN and ESPN channels which are absent from any of the packages. Appears most of the programming is from News Corp and Viacom. Also interesting is giving the folks over there phone numbers with US area codes. Thanks for sharing!

 

[clichemoth]

Seems odd that there aren't any ABC/Disney owned channels.

How does this compare to what's available elsewhere in Germany, Korea, Qatar, Greenland, etc.? Does anyone know?

 

[azumanga]

Of course, one thing I wonder about is how these channels reach Japan, since the Continental US birds don't reach Japan, and only a very few American channels are transmitted on the transpacific birds.

 

[Ultimajock]

Seems odd that there aren't any ABC/Disney owned channels.

...there are. ABC/Disney owns a third of the A&E and History Channel networks...

 

[BRNout]

Of course, one thing I wonder about is how these channels reach Japan, since the Continental US birds don't reach Japan, and only a very few American channels are transmitted on the transpacific birds.

The channels listed in the lineup are generally available on cable in the Phillippines and other places - so they must be up on a Pacific bird as well. FNC and the Discovery networks are also offered in Australia - so they are uplinked to more than one satellite on that side of the world.

You'll notice certain channels that aren't available here (like the Fox Movie Channel and Fox Soccer Channel). Good clue that they're not magically getting them off of a North American sat.

 

[azumanga]

The channels listed in the lineup are generally available on cable in the Phillippines and other places - so they must be up on a Pacific bird as well.

Of course, I was talking about the original American versions, not the ones for Japan or Asia. Awhile back, I found a schedule for Nick from a US Base website in Okinawa, and it was the same as the US, including Nick-at-Nite and infomercials (which Nick had at the time). The Nick for Japanese or Pilipino viewers has no N@N or infomercials. So I believe there's some sort of delay and shipping involved in providing these channels to the Pacific Rim bases.

And there's Guam, as well -- they are also outside the footrints of the North American sats.