WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon Channel will mark the one-year anniversary of its launch by broadcasting live from the Joint Service Open House at Andrews Air Force Base on Friday, May 20, 2005.
The Pentagon Channel broadcasts military news and information for and about the 2.6 million members of the U.S. Armed Forces: Active Duty, National Guard and Reserve. Broadcast 24/7, the Pentagon Channel helps ensure that U.S. Forces remain the best informed in the world.
Today, more than one million service members on 201 military bases in the U.S. can watch the Pentagon Channel - and this number is increasing every day. The Pentagon Channel is also available to the 700,000 service members and their families serving in 177 countries overseas via the American Forces Radio and Television Service. In addition, the Pentagon Channel also offers streamed programming live at pentagonchannel.mil - as well as individual newscasts and original programs as Video On Demand.
"Our focus at the Pentagon Channel is to communicate to the men and women in the military," said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. "We provide what our service members want and need to their jobs better: relevant, timely, and credible military news and information."
Service members who work and live on military bases can watch the Pentagon Channel on their installation's cable systems. But many live off-post – particularly National Guard members and military reservists, who comprise nearly half the potential military audience. The Pentagon Channel works to ensure their access to military news and information by encouraging carriage of the service by commercial cable and satellite systems.
The Pentagon Channel now reaches more than 12 million households through this commercial distribution.
The Pentagon Channel is carried nationwide by DISH Network, as well as by divisions of Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Mediacom Communications Corporation, RCN Corporation, Armstrong Cable Services, Knology Holdings, GCI Communications, Verizon Services Corporation, and a number of smaller cable companies and public access and government channels in communities around the country.