Bhutan television guide: BBS news, education and language editions

Select the BBS television service by purpose

BBS’s current About page describes TV Channel I around news and current affairs and TV Channel II around education and entertainment. It identifies Dzongkha and English provision in the main television bulletin. A household wanting a particular news edition should retain the language and programme date alongside the channel name.

The education-and-entertainment destination serves a different purpose from the news service. Keep the channel number in a favourite, especially when the same television is used for news, family programmes and learning. A generic BBS label can obscure a correct connection to the wrong service.

Radio languages are not a television-audio menu

The broadcaster separately describes radio in Dzongkha, English, Lhotshamkha and Tshanglakha. That is evidence of radio-language provision, rather than a promise that every television programme has four selectable audio tracks. The medium and programme edition need to be checked together.

If the household wants a language-specific radio programme, use BBS’s Radio Live and radio-schedule routes. Audio without a picture is expected on that destination. For television, choose the actual video programme and confirm its sound rather than repeatedly changing a device-wide language setting that may only affect menus.

Read dated channel stories as history

BBS retains articles about the launch of its second television channel and the development of its services. Such stories explain the broadcaster’s history, but their original launch schedules should not become permanent viewing instructions. The current About and Programme pages are better starting points for understanding the present service.

This is particularly useful when a search result displays a recent page header above an older story. Look for the article’s own event date and wording. A historical announcement about a channel beginning transmission is different from a current notice about a programme airing this evening.

Use Bhutan’s clock rather than a neighbouring country setting

Asia/Thimphu is the local IANA identifier and uses UTC+06:00 in the checked examples. Bhutan should not be assigned the Indian clock merely because a device offers Kolkata prominently: that would introduce a 30-minute difference. A correct device clock is the starting point before diagnosing one programme guide.

For a programme announced from Bhutan, preserve its local date and convert it to the viewer’s actual Australian location. If only one guide is wrong, record the programme, channel and language edition before altering the television’s general clock. BBS’s own web and programme references do not establish availability through an unrelated subscription.

Questions about this guide

Sources and further reading

• BBS: About BBS
• BBS: BBS2 launched
• IANA Time Zone Database 2026f