Do you still get the free AFN Box and Sattelite when you live out in town? I was there in 2005-2007 and you could. Thanks

You don't have to pay for service, but you have to purchase the dish & decoder. At least, this is what the housing office told me when I inquired about it in September.

Katherine2 is correct, except the decoder is a monthly rental fee, $17, you don't own the decoder. You do have to purchase the dish, look around for a used on on this site to save some money. This changed when AFN converted to a digital signal.

Is an AFN dish the only way to get American programming (e.g. ESPN...) off-base?

JCOM has a limited selection of English chanels, we had the full digital package and the salesman said there were 30 English chanels, turned out to be 10 and some of those changed to mixed or completely to French in one case. These were some old US TV shows, Disney Chanel and some older (2+ years since release) movies. We ended up dropping JCOM, went with a less expensive internet provider and are getting ready to set up our AFN dish, it works out quite a bit cheaper too.
AFN through the dish is only 10 chanels, not the same as on-base, just be aware of that.

Bummer

JCOM does have roughly 30 channels that will broadcast shows in English..the channel itself though is not in English. I would say that there is probably 10+ or so channels that have English shows pretty much all the time..Fox,National Geo..CNN.

http://www.jcom.co.jp/english/servi...tents.html

In general most of the channels you might recognize..Fox,Disney,Universal,TBS will have shows in English. Most western movies shown will also be in English. On our JCOM probably 50% of the time I have to hit a button on the remote to to actually broadcast the audio in English. If you flip though the language button it will go through Japanese, English, both, and I think sometimes Chinese and/or Korean. Anyway, it can be frustrating as the screen tv guide is only in Japanese. They send you a magazine every month with what shows are playing during the month. We can generally figure out what channel and what day/time they will be on.

Also, even if a channel usually has English as an option it isn't a guarantee it will always be available. For example some MTV shows were only in Japanese but others you could get English. Or a channel like Goria will show US football with English..(don't get too excited they only play like 1 or 2 games on a Sunday/Monday..but it is something), however any games like Japan baseball will be in Japanese.

Programming is generally behind what you see in the US for shows but there is something at least. So far it seems to be our best option as far as Japanese companies for us. It becomes more random for us as we turn it on..if there isn't something on..oh well and go back to netflix or something like that.

AFN is probably the best choice for inexpensive and all English programming. JCOM will give you more things than AFN but it can be a pain to use.

I actually brought my AFN decoder and dish with me from the UK.(you have to buy them there, not rent) I have not made the effort though to hook it up. I was thinking of selling it though as we have been managing pretty well with Japanacable, netflix, and slingbox.

http://www.vipbox.tv/

Website where I watch all my live sports,they have some tv shows as well.

This is in reference to off base housing. My husband just told me today that the housing office told him that the AFN Satellite costs from $70-$150 and we are given the decoder for free? and then to get cable and internet we have to get JCOM or NIT and that is $60 for just internet.

This sounds dumb. Is it right?

Each base is different. I'm a retiree & contractor; in Iwakuni AFN cost me $25/mo. That price included the decoder and I had to buy my own antenna. I don't think anyone gonna pay as much as your husband said.

yea that sounds nuts right? Maybe others can chime in....

Wel,l AFN never offers internet as far as I know. So you are stuck paying NTT or JCOM for it. You can pay less for internet though, it just depends on what speed you want to pay for. The highest speed is 6,300 yen. Lowest is 3100 yen.

http://www.jcom.co.jp/english/services/net.html


If you do get the decoder for free it is actually a pretty good deal for only $75-$150 ( I am guessing the difference depends on what they have to do to install). When I bought my decoder it was pretty expensive, even used. I think it cost me close to $200 for a used one and another $150 to install it. But on the plus side after your 75-150 it sounds like you don't have to pay a monthly fee.

Posted By octobersongs on 09-27-2012 10:22 AM
This is in reference to off base housing. My husband just told me today that the housing office told him that the AFN Satellite costs from $70-$150 and we are given the decoder for free? and then to get cable and internet we have to get JCOM or NIT and that is $60 for just internet.

This sounds dumb. Is it right?

The way I understand this post is she is saying the AFN "dish" will run between 70-150 (Purchase one time deal, unless it blows away) and they get the decoder for free to use.  If they decide to get the internet the providers are offering it through cable and they are JCOM & NIT for around 60.00 billed monthly.

right 20mm...The decoder with be free and the AFN dish will be 70-150 depending on how much they have to install, which I was told, depends on what the house can handle...? Does anyone living in Yokosuka have anything to add on this topic in regards to costs?