Live football on TV at sea – possibly the best thing to happen to sailors since a cure was found for scurvy. Until recently, only the largest aircraft carriers, such as HMS Ark Royal and HMS Illustrious were equipped to receive live TV at sea.
But life on the ocean wave has changed beyond recognition in the last two years. Live Grand Prix, World Cup Rugby, Premier League footie and internationals, not forgetting Big Brother, West Wing, Coronation Street and EastEnders!
All these programmes and more are now available to the Royal Navy following a two pronged attack by SSVC to get live BFBS TV to sailors at sea: TOMS or Television Over Military Satellite; and stabilised tracking dishes which will provide multi-channel TV.
The British Forces Broadcasting Division of SSVC (BFBS) produces a 24-hr mosaic channel a mixture of BFBS1, BFBS2, Sky News and Sky Sports which is uplinked to the Skynet satellite and uses spare bandwidth on the military data stream. Ships can receive this channel via their Scot antenna almost anywhere in the world under the Skynet footprint. Thirty-nine ships are now equipped and can get live TOMS TV. A few years ago, it was unimaginable to suggest the Navy would be enjoying all the Euro 2004 matches live at sea, but this year it became a reality. There will shortly be capacity for a second TOMS TV channel which will be Sky News, which means that ships will have a choice of viewing 24 hours a day.
BFBS were determined the Royal Navy should have an even wider choice of channels, and hence the second prong of the attack. The SSVC Operational Welfare Fund has donated £511,000 worth of receiver equipment and the Royal Navy has found the funds to provide and fit stabilised tracking dishes for 44 ships, which will be done over the next two to three years. This will mean that whenever these ships are anywhere under the Eutelsat W3 footprint they will have a choice of 6 channels – BFBS1, BFBS2, Sky News, BBC News 24, and two Sky Sports channels.
Plans are also afoot so that when they are under the NewSkies satellites covering Africa, the Falklands, and most of the Atlantic, they will be able to receive up to three channels as well as the two via Skynet.