Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS)

Bhutan Broadcasting Service, incorporated as Bhutan Broadcasting Service Corporation Limited (BBSCL), is Bhutan’s state-owned national radio and television broadcaster. It began on 11 November 1973 as Radio NYAB, a volunteer service established by members of the National Youth Association of Bhutan. It came under the Department of Information and Broadcasting in 1979 and was renamed Bhutan Broadcasting Service in 1986. A Royal Kasho delinked BBS from the responsible ministry and granted it operating autonomy in 1992. Television broadcasting began on 2 June 1999, making Bhutan the last country in the world to introduce television.

Media assets

Television: BBS1, BBS2, BBS3

Radio: BBS1, BBS2

BBS 1 carries news and current-affairs programming. BBS 2, launched in January 2012, carries educational, entertainment and parliamentary programming. BBSCL migrated its television services from standard definition to high definition on 26 July 2023.

BBS also operates two round-the-clock radio services, with one broadcasting in Dzongkha and the other in English, Lhotshamkha and Tshangla. Continuous 24-hour radio service was established in 2013.

BBS Channel 3 is not listed as a BBSCL media asset. It is a separate, non-commercial Royal Project devoted to educational programming and describes itself as technically affiliated with BBSCL.

Ownership and governance

BBSCL is a state-owned enterprise. The Ministry of Finance’s latest detailed state-enterprise report identified it as 100% owned by the ministry. Corporate governance is exercised through a Board of Directors within the state-enterprise framework. The board employs the Chief Executive Officer, but no statutorily protected or independently constituted process for appointing the board itself was identified.

BBS has a statutory public-service designation, but the institutional arrangements necessary to implement it remain incomplete. Section 180(2) of the Information, Communications and Media Act 2018 states that BBS shall be designated as the public service broadcaster and governed by an approved by-law or charter. Section 181 sets public-service objectives that include universal access, unbiased and comprehensive news coverage, locally relevant programming, pluralism and mechanisms for audience complaints.

No approved BBS governance charter or by-law establishing an independent board, protected appointments or enforceable separation from the state shareholder was identified. In November 2024, the National Council’s Social and Cultural Affairs Committee reported that BBS continued to operate as a state-owned enterprise and was still struggling to attain effective public-service-broadcaster status. The Committee noted that a roadmap towards this status had first been prepared in 2008.

The transition remained unfinished in 2026. In February, the government said that it was redrafting the National Information and Media Policy and had asked BBS management to submit a detailed restructuring proposal. Officials acknowledged that simply changing the broadcaster’s name without reforming governance, management and financing would not produce a viable public-service institution. In April 2026, Kuensel reported that the government’s pledges on media reform, including the transformation of BBS, had largely not been realised.

BBS experienced a leadership transition during the review period. Its board terminated the contract of CEO Kaka Tshering in February 2025, citing misconduct and weak leadership. The Thimphu District Court upheld the decision in June, and the High Court upheld the lower court’s ruling in September 2025.

Dorji Tashi subsequently became CEO, taking office in December 2025. He remained in the position in 2026. The post had been advertised as a three-year contractual appointment through BBSCL’s board rather than filled by direct ministerial appointment.

A separate employment dispute involving a former Chief Editor remained unresolved. The journalist filed a complaint with the Department of Labour in November 2025 alleging procedural irregularities, discriminatory treatment and workplace intimidation, and submitted his resignation in mid-April 2026. BBS disputed parts of his account and said that it was cooperating with the Labour Department’s review. No final determination had been reported by mid-July.

Source of funding and budget

BBS depends heavily on government support. During the National Council’s 2024 review, the Ministry of Finance described BBS as fully supported by the government through grant assistance and annual performance compacts. It reported that BBS received approximately Nu 931 million during the 11th Five-Year Plan and Nu 1.2 billion during the 12th Five-Year Plan.

The latest detailed state-enterprise report identified BBSCL as one of the Ministry of Finance’s loss-making enterprises in 2021, with a loss of approximately Nu 31 million. It received a government operational subsidy of Nu 200.33 million in the 2020/21 fiscal year.

BBS also earns commercial income, including advertising, programme-related services and revenue from entertainment productions. No more recent publicly available audited breakdown establishing the precise shares of government and commercial income was identified. The available evidence nevertheless establishes substantial and continuing dependence on direct state support.

Government advertising also affects the wider market. RSF reports that advertising expenditure by public bodies is allocated predominantly to public media, and has recommended that Bhutan ensure the equitable distribution of public advertising between public and private media, which it states is not currently the case, while private publications face low readership and insufficient commercial revenue.

Editorial independence

The 2018 Act establishes public-service obligations, including unbiased news coverage, but it does not by itself create an independent governance structure for BBS. The separate charter or by-law envisaged by the Act has not been adopted, and BBS continues to operate as a government-owned and government-funded state enterprise.

RSF states that BBS lacks a special status guaranteeing editorial independence, and has recommended that Bhutan promote editorial independence particularly at state-owned media outlets. It also notes that the five members of the Bhutan InfoComm and Media Authority are directly appointed by the government. BICMA therefore cannot be treated as a fully independent external safeguard for BBS’s editorial autonomy.

BBS has also lost substantial editorial and technical capacity. The National Council’s review recorded that 87 professionals left BBS in 2022, followed by 19 in 2023 and 15 in 2024. A separate sectoral assessment found that more than 60% of Bhutan’s senior journalists left the profession between 2021 and 2023. Former employees cited a range of factors, including pay, migration, career opportunities and the working environment.

AI and digital policy

BBS distributes content through its website, streaming services, mobile platforms and social-media channels. No publicly available BBS editorial policy governing generative artificial intelligence, synthetic media, automated production or disclosure of AI-assisted content was identified.

BBS was actively exploring AI-based production and digital-media cooperation in 2026, including through discussions with Thai PBS and its hosting of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union’s AI Forum. These activities did not amount to a publicly adopted editorial governance policy. No binding national framework specifically regulating AI use by Bhutanese state media was identified.

Classification rationale

BBS remains classified State-Controlled (SC). It is wholly owned by the state through the Ministry of Finance, operates within the government’s state-enterprise governance system and depends substantially on public grants and operational subsidies. No independently constituted governing board, protected board-appointment process or enforceable structural separation from the state shareholder was identified.

The 2018 Act’s public-service designation and its requirements for unbiased and comprehensive coverage are relevant countervailing provisions. They indicate a legislative intention to create a public-service broadcaster. They have not, however, been completed by the approved by-law or charter required to establish an arm’s-length governance, appointment and accountability system. The government itself continued to describe the transformation as work in progress in 2026.

July 2026