A satellite dish stands near the American Forces Network Pacific headquarters on Yokota Air Base, Japan, Jan. 30, 2026. (Marc Castaneda/Stars and Stripes)
The American Forces Network is ending its eight-channel satellite television service for U.S. military personnel living off base across Europe and Asia.
The long-running service known as “direct-to-home” is screening its final programming before going dark March 22, said Kimberly Antos, director of AFN’s Broadcast Center.
The network is replacing the satellite broadcast with its AFN Now application, which has drawn 57,000 registered users since it launched in 2022, she told Stars and Stripes in a Jan. 30 email.
“This transition is absolutely a cost-saving measure,” Antos said, adding she doesn’t have information about how much money the broadcaster will save.
The change reflects the way modern audiences expect to consume their news, sports and entertainment, she said.
AFN will continue its “direct-to-sailor” broadcast of four standard-definition channels intended for U.S. Navy, Coast Guard and Military Sealift Command vessels, Antos said. Receiving that service requires a 6-foot-wide satellite dish.
The U.S. military began television broadcasts in 1953. Satellite broadcasts to off-base customers, who could tune in with a pizza-box-sized dish and decoder, began in Europe in 1997 and the Pacific in 2004, Antos said.
AFN doesn’t have a way to measure its direct-to-home audience but estimates 400,000 viewers, including service members, government civilians, their families and retirees, across all services, she said.
Not everyone is thrilled about the change. Lanny Haney, a retired airman and AFN viewer since 1980 who lives near Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo, reported technical issues with AFN Now.
“There are times it will lag,” he told Stars and Stripes in a recent text message. “It will also timeout in the middle of something you’re watching (and) you then have to take the time to go to the website and reauthorize the device.”
Haney called the direct-to-home shutdown “the death of being able to easily watch American programming.”
The app shouldn’t be glitchy, Antos wrote in her email. Viewers with technical issues should contact the AFN Now help desk at +1 571-559-1415 or via email at DMA.AFNnow.Help@mail.mil.
Viewers living on military installations or receiving AFN through an on-base cable system should see no change when direct-to-home ends, she said.
Off-base residents can watch AFNsports, AFNsports2, AFNnews, AFNprime Atlantic, and AFNprime Pacific on AFN Now, Antos added.
“We will add additional AFN channels later this year,” she said.
The app also features sports, news, TV series, movies and specials as on-demand content, Antos said.
AFN Now is available free to all Defense Department personnel and their families assigned overseas, she said.
The service is available on mobile devices, some smart TVs, and devices like Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV, and will soon be available on the Microsoft Xbox gaming consol, Antos said.
