24 April 2025
BBC News Burmese launches post-quake direct-to-home video channel
‘Aimed for an audience in need’: BBC News Burmese launches on direct-to-home video channel in the aftermath of Myanmar earthquake
To ensure audiences can access crucial information in the aftermath of the Myanmar earthquake, the BBC World Service has added a direct-to-home satellite video channel to the platforms delivering BBC News Burmese content.
In the coming four months, the Thaicom 6 satellite, which covers Myanmar, Thailand, and the wider region, will deliver BBC News Burmese TV and audio programming. The channel will also provide access, via a QR code, to the service’s website, bbc.com/burmese.
BBC News Global Director and Deputy CEO, Jonathan Munro, says: “In Myanmar, where press freedom is severely restricted and where a vicious conflict continues, we now have an audience also beset by a natural disaster. During the week of the disastrous earthquake, BBC News Burmese total digital reach quadrupled as people came to the BBC for trusted information. With the launch of this new satellite-based video service, featuring our TV, radio and online output in Burmese, we’ll be offering a critical information stream for an audience struggling to recover from the calamity which took so many lives. Aimed for an audience in need, this is yet another timely and much-needed initiative born from the commitment and expertise of the BBC teams.”
In the aftermath of the disaster that struck Myanmar on 28 March 2025, millions in the country, as well as Burmese-speakers in Thailand, came to the service’s platforms for accurate updates and analysis. BBC News Burmese journalists were deployed to the earthquake epicentre and were reporting from Mandalay, Yangon, and Bangkok, as well as from London. BBC News Burmese extended its daily live radio bulletin from 15min to 30min to include additional reporting and lifeline information. Audiences can also watch the Monday to Friday 15-minute TV bulletin which goes on air at 20.45 local time.
BBC News Burmese channel on Thaicom 6 satellite will run all this programming, with evening repeats of radio and TV bulletins from May 2025. The channel will also visualise the QR code for the website bbc.com/burmese, so the viewers can access the latest news and information online.
Over the next few months, the direct-to-home satellite video channel – formerly used by VOA (currently off the air following the effective closure of Voice of America ordered by President Trump, but subject to court cases) – will add to BBC News Burmese availability via the service’s website as well as its YouTube channel and its Facebook page which has a following of 25m people. BBC News Burmese also connects with audiences via Instagram, Telegram and X. Digital free-to-air TV channel, Mizzima TV, rebroadcasts BBC News Burmese TV programmes.
BBC News Burmese is part of the BBC World Service.
21 May 2018
News content from the BBC in Thai and Burmese is now available via Thailand’s leading news website, Khaosod. Selected daily updated stories from the BBC News Thai website, bbc.com/thai, and the BBC News Burmese website, bbc.com/burmese, appear on Khaosod’s Thai- and Burmese-language indexes.
BBC News Thai Editor, Nopporn Wong-Anan says: “I am delighted to see our news stories published on a respected website such as Khaosod. I hope that, thanks to this collaboration, new users in Thailand will be able to sample our journalism – from BBC News Thai and our colleagues at BBC News Burmese – and be informed by the BBC’s globally trusted news coverage.”
Executive Editor of Khaosod, Chumchan Chamniprasart (pictured right), commented: “Khaosod is excited to enter a partnership with the BBC in disseminating news, articles and interviews with various viewpoints from BBC News Thai and BBC News Burmese in an age when vast amounts of information circulate. We are firm in our belief that, as accurate mainstream news sources, both Khaosod and BBC serve the public through journalism.”
BBC News Thai reaches around 1.6m people every week via its website bbc.com/thai and social platforms such as Facebook (with over 2.2m followers), Instagram and YouTube. The service covers national, regional and international politics, as well as business, culture, health, technology, science and entertainment, women’s issues and social affairs. BBC News Thai also carries material from BBC Learning English for Thai-speaking learners.
BBC News Burmese reaches a weekly audience of 6m via the website bbc.com/burmese, Facebook (with over 13.3m followers, more than a million of whom are in Thailand), Twitter and YouTube, daily radio broadcasts and a Monday to Friday TV news programme.
BBC News Thai and BBC News Burmese are part of the BBC World Service.
8 August 2016
For the first time ever, BBC Burmese radio programmes will be rebroadcast by Myanmar’s state broadcaster, Myanmar Athan (Myanmar Radio) expanding the BBC Burmese service’s footprint in Myanmar further. Three programmes – the BBC Burmese youth show, Mobigeno, the technology and digital innovations programme, Cool Tech, and the programme introducing innovative farming methods, San Thit Tehtwin Lai Myay Ta Kwin, are now part of the Myanmar Athan programming aired on FM, medium- and shortwave.
Collaboration with Myanmar Athan further expands BBC Burmese availability in Myanmar. BBC Burmese is currently broadcast through major local broadcasters, on TV and radio. Its audio news bulletins are available on mobile phones in the country.
BBC Burmese Editor, Tin Htar Swe, commented: “Our collaboration with Myanmar Athan means that now, for the first time for BBC Burmese in Myanmar, our content will be available via a state broadcaster. In addition to medium- and shortwave availability, airing these programmes on FM will help us capture a new radio audience which will include a lot of young people who listen to FM on their mobile phones. This is great news for the BBC in Myanmar, further reinforcing our multiplatform presence in Myanmar.”
MRTV Director-General, U Myint Htwe, said: “In such a good time of openness, Myanmar Athan will be carrying BBC content for the first time, and I am really proud of it. By adding the BBC’s high-quality radio programmes to the schedule of Myanmar Athan, we are further diversifying our radio offer. I am looking forward to continuing MRTV’s cooperation with the BBC.”
The BBC Burmese 10-minute bi-weekly programmes will be re-broadcast by Myanmar Athan and repeated the following week at these times:
Mobigeno (Mobile Generation) – 15.15 Myanmar Time on Monday
Cool Tech – 14.20 on Tuesday
San Thit Tethwin Lai Myay Ta Kwin (Innovative Methods of Farming) – 11.45 on Thursday
The BBC Burmese radio programming is broadcast from London on shortwave and on Asiasat5 satellite television channel and streamed online via bbcburmese.com. In addition to availability on MNTV, BBC Burmese TV news bulletins are streamed live on the website bbcburmese.com at 20.45 local time (14.15 GMT) Monday to Friday. The BBC Burmese Facebook page has around 6.5 million fans while the BBC Burmese channel on Viber has around 200,000 followers (August 2016). BBC Burmese also connects with its audiences on Twitter.
BBC Burmese is part of BBC World Service. (Source: BBC press release)
9 December 2015
Burmese-speaking users of Viber now have access to the BBC’s news updates thanks to the launch of the BBC Burmese channel on the app. The BBC Burmese channel on Viber will deliver several updates of key news stories of the day, in text, images as well as short audio and video clips.
With its population of 48.7 million, Myanmar (also known as Burma) has 29 million active mobile subscriptions. According to the international telecoms providers operating in the country, Myanmar is among world leaders in smartphone usage.
BBC Burmese Editor, Tin Htar Swe, comments: “While BBC Burmese audio news bulletins are available for listening on mobile phones in Myanmar, this is the first time BBC Burmese content is made available on a chat app. With Viber’s reported 14.8 million unique users* in Myanmar, we can now connect with our audiences – existing and new – through this growing platform, offering them access to news from the BBC, in their language.”
To access the BBC Burmese Public Chat on Viber App, users are required to:
- go to their App Store and download the Viber App on their smart phone; Viber will ask them to provide their phone number – that’s all they need to register
- once they are in Viber, they need to click on the ‘Public’ icon – this takes them to Viber Public Chats
- hit the magnifying glass and search for the BBC Burmese Public Chat
- hit ‘Follow’ – and the chat will be visible whenever the ‘Public’ icon is clicked.
BBC Burmese reaches 6.9 million people every week (2015). The BBC Burmese Facebook page has over 3.7 million fans (December 2015). The BBC Burmese radio programming is broadcast on shortwave and on Asiasat5 satellite television channel and streamed online via bbcburmese.com. Selected radio programming is rebroadcast by some of the country’s nationwide FM networks. BBC Burmese TV news bulletins are broadcast live on the national TV channel, Myanmar National Television (MNTV) at 20.45 local time (14.15 GMT) Monday to Friday, and are streamed live on the website bbcburmese.com.
BBC Burmese is part of BBC World Service which also offers a Public Chat channel in Nepali on Viber App. BBC World Service’s content in other languages is also available via messaging apps such as LINE, We Chat and Telegram.
7 April 2014
In another landmark development for the BBC’s presence in Burma (also known as Myanmar), BBC Burmese has launched its TV news bulletin on the national TV channel, Myanmar National Television (MNTV). BBC Burmese service’s 10-minute programme brings the BBC’s coverage of regional and international news to viewers of MNTV, live, at 20.45 Burmese Time (14.15 GMT) Monday to Friday. The programme will also be streamed live on the website bbcburmese.com.
The launch of the new BBC Burmese TV news programming is part of the continued move of the BBC’s international news services towards digital platforms. BBC Burmese Editor, Tin Htar Swe, says: “We have enjoyed mass listenership in Burma, where the BBC’s balanced, trustworthy radio programming has been in demand for decades. Thanks to this milestone partnership with MNTV, viewers across the country will now have access to BBC news on prime time TV. We are looking forward to this exciting new collaboration which will benefit those who want to keep abreast of the regional and world developments.”
Nan Mouk Laung Saing, President of MNTV and Managing Director of Shwe Than Lwin Media Co, Ltd, adds: “We are delighted to form a partnership with the BBC. As a private media company, we are particularly proud to collaborate with the BBC and we look forward to a long-term partnership. Shwe Than Lwin Media’s core objective is to entertain and inform Myanmar people, and the broadcast of BBC international TV news in Burmese language on MNTV channel will benefit our audience greatly.”
The launch of the BBC Burmese TV news bulletins on MNTV follows the recent expansion of the BBC presence on Myanmar’s media scene which saw the inclusion of selected BBC radio programming to the schedules of some of the country’s nationwide FM networks. In another first for Burma, BBC Burmese audio news bulletins were made available to the country’s mobile-phone users.
The BBC Burmese radio programming is broadcast on shortwave and on PAS10 and Palapa satellite television channels and streamed online via bbcburmese.com. In addition to providing the latest news and current affairs, BBC Burmese offers its audiences a variety of programmes on education, sport, health, technology as well as weekly debates on topical issues.
BBC Burmese is part of BBC World Service. (Source: Press release)
