The Bhutanese Leading the way.
A major technical failure at the South Asia Satellite (SAS) hub in Thimphu has left many people across the country without access to BBS television services for more than a month.
According to GovTech Agency, the outage began on 15th October 2025, when key electronic components at the Thimphu hub failed, causing all three BBS TV channels and radio services to go off-air for households receiving signals through SAS.
GovTech apologised for the inconvenience and said that its teams, together with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), worked urgently to find a temporary solution. An alternate link was created through the Delhi hub, allowing BBS-2 to resume transmission on 28th October. Despite ongoing technical challenges with this arrangement, BBS-2 was successfully used to broadcast the Global Peace Prayer Festival.
GovTech has assured the public that National Day celebrations and the upcoming Parliament session will be broadcast live without interruption, thanks to continued support from ISRO.
To permanently fix the issue, GovTech is in the process of securing replacement components and bringing in external technical experts to fully restore the Thimphu hub. Until the system is fully repaired, GovTech and ISRO are working to add more BBS channels through the Delhi hub by the end of the week.
