Welcome to our August newsletter...
At BFBS we are looking forward to some big milestones in September. BFBS TV will be turning 50 so we’ll be celebrating across our channels and at the Royal Television Society Convention in Cambridge. We’re also hosting the final of our Pro League – the first ever esports tournament for the UK Armed Forces – more on that below. And for those of you heading to this year's DSEI we look forward to seeing you on our stand in the Tech Zone, where there'll be a chance to meet our teams and try your hand at our esports gaming rig.
In this newsletter, we're also sharing updates to our MiPlayer and radio app, and we celebrate successes for our Live Events team. We've hand-picked some top stories from Forces News and have the latest on the global events attended by our Media Innovation and Creative teams.
I wish you all a very happy, healthy summer!
Ben Chapman CEO
BFBS Pro League...Get Ready for the Final!
Since we launched the first ever BFBS Esports tournament for the armed forces community in April, it’s been a thrilling ride for players and spectators.
Throughout June and July, we had more than 1,000 sign-ups from serving personnel and their families, reservists, veterans, cadets, and MOD civil servants, and we've had eight qualifying rounds. It’s been a battle of the best gamers, as they've pitched their skills and tactics in more than eighty hours of competitive Rocket League matches, clocking up more than 4,500 goals.
Adam Waters, Director of Creative and Academy said: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the response to our first Pro League tournament and the gamers that have been showcasing their incredible skills and talent – many of which are relatable to their service roles.
“Bringing the military community together to compete and share their passion for gaming reflects the wider BFBS ethos of uniting our armed forces through positive entertainment and media experiences...we can’t wait for the finale event and to crown our first BFBS Pro League champion.”
Our Pro League finalists will be announced later this month, and the finale event will be livestreamed Sunday 28th September – look out for details of how to watch at bfbs.com/esports.
Top Picks from BFBS Forces News
Following the release of the Strategic Defence Review, co-author General Sir Richard Barrons joined Professor Michael Clarke and Commander Tom Clarke on BFBS for a Sitrep Live podcast to unpick the report. A wide-ranging and thoughtful discussion was followed by questions posed by a highly engaged online audience.
The final episode of our series following female officer cadets at Sandhurst concluded with their training and an assessment of the critical mass trial. Sandhurst Women: Army Ready captured the young women's reaction to trolling that they had received after the earlier films. RMAS applauded their courage for speaking up.
As the Coldstream Guards marked the anniversary of their formation with a trip to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, we filmed them at King's Cross station. The sight of red tunics and bearskins on board the train captured the imagination, with 424k views on our YouTube channel alone.
And we've also been reporting on a wide range of exercises involving our forces and our allies, including Ramstein Flag, Hedgehog, Submerged Shield and Grand Crossings, plus the epic voyage of the Carrier Strike Group – 96k watched our coverage of the ships leaving Portsmouth.
More Great Content On More MiPlayers!
Our MiPlayer platform which delivers TV, radio, and digital magazines and newspapers to those in disconnected regions with no internet, now offers even more superb content. Users can enjoy audio podcasts and specials, plus new daily content from BFBS Forces News with our bite-sized Forces Shorts videos.
Those deployed on CSG 25 can access the MiPlayer, a final batch of MiPlayers for eight new Type 26 vessels have also been delivered.
Back on land, our BFBS engineers are continuing to work in Eastern Europe every six to eight weeks to install the MiPlayer in new locations, while meeting our audience and users.
Find out more about our BFBS MiPlayer here.
Award-Winning Entertainment for our Armed Forces
Over the past few months our Live Events team has been delivering entertainment overseas and in the UK, benefitting the wellbeing of those on ops and at home by creating vital in-person experiences to bring people together.
At Al Minhad Air Base in May, and for those serving with 140 EAW and 2(AC)Sqn on Op CHESSMAN in Poland, they worked with local production teams to create shows with comedy acts and solo musicians. And they were back in Poland last week too, delivering an extremely well-received gig for those serving on Op CABRIT.
In the UK, the team produced a series of three Mess functions for 4 SCOTS in Catterick ahead of their move to Cyprus, and also supplied production and event management for the Royal Logistic Corps as they hosted their annual Sports Awards.
And we are thrilled to share the news that the team has just been recognised with two prestigious EVCOM (Event and Visual Communication Association) Clarion Awards for their 'BFBStival On The Road in Poland'. They also won a silver award for Celebratory Live Event and a much-coveted gold for Live: Health and Wellbeing.
BFBS Live Events Manager Angie Avlianos said: "We are absolutely chuffed to receive these awards for the event we delivered last year for Exercise Steadfast Defender. The team worked so hard to make it a special night and the troops were blown away with headline act Sigma."
Contact our Live Events team here to find out about booking your entertainment.
Fresh Functions on BFBS Radio App and Alexa
It's just got even easier to enjoy your favourite BFBS Radio shows and the top tunes on our playlists. We have a new function on our BFBS Radio mobile app that shows each song playing in the main window of the station’s homepage, with the ten most recently played songs listed beneath it. You can see the current song title via Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in your car too.
We've also added an update for anyone who listens to a BFBS station on an Alexa smart speaker – you can now say "Alexa, ask BFBS what’s playing" and she will tell you!
If you're a fan of music specials, you can still catch some we've produced in the last few months, including The Sherlocks Music Special and The Sonique Music Special, as well as an ‘in-house’ Oasis special to mark the return of the band: What’s The Story (Forces Glory)?
And coming up...BFBStival returns for the August Bank Holiday weekend with back-to-back festival anthems and more music specials.
Conferences Call
We're always on the lookout for opportunities to share updates about our core and commercial services, and explain how we work with the military and the Defence industry.
Last month, members of our BFBS Creative team were in Riga for the NATO Strategic Communications Conference to network and take to the stage with a powerful pitch to explain their work as a not-for-profit agency helping the UK Armed Forces, Defence, and government to tell their stories.
In May, at the Combined Naval Event in Farnborough, our Media Innovation team unveiled a new stand, showcasing our future solutions for bringing media to submariners. It was an excellent opportunity to meet with friends and stakeholders in the global naval community.
Further afield in Singapore, Senior Operations Manager, Sharon Wilkinson represented the BFBS Media Innovation team on board HMS Prince of Wales. The aircraft carrier was the venue for an event organised by the Government's Defence and Security Exports (DSE) department, where BFBS was one of 30 UK companies invited to demonstrate and discuss defence and security capabilities.
In the UK, our development and strategy team was recently invited to Azimghur Barracks in Colerne, home of 21 Signals and Electronic Warfare Regiment, to show MOD stakeholders the capabilities available as part of Skynet 6. They demonstrated our traditional MiPlayer and hybrid LEO (Low Earth Orbit via Starlink) options, and BFBS was also represented by our friends at Eutelsat Oneweb on their demo truck.