DoD News is going off the air Friday after more than a decade as an independent broadcast TV channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What was officially known until last summer as the Pentagon Channel is transitioning to an on-demand product, defense officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Produced by the Defense Media Activity, DoD News will continue to create and air current military news and information programming for distribution on the American Forces Network and online at Defense.gov, both live and on-demand, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The transition to these delivery methods will provide more opportunities for the military community stationed around the world and at sea to keep up with DoD news and events,” officials said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The new service will provide military members and their families the opportunity to watch live events on AFN or as a video stream on Defense.gov 24\/7,” officials said. “Defense.gov will archive the programs to allow for on-demand viewing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DoD News operated as a separate, free, 24-hour broadcast channel since its founding in 2004. The American Forces Network overseas, as well as many stateside commercial cable companies, carried it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The channel’s slate of 18 programs included “Battleground,” featuring historical films from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War; “Close Combat,” a limited series about military combatives training; “Fit for Duty,” a half-hour, high-intensity workout program; and “FNG” \u2014 “For New Guys,” not the more indecorous version of the acronym \u2014 a lifestyle show featuring information aimed at young troops new to the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For several years, the channel also aired “The Grill Sergeants,” a cooking show featuring top military chefs dishing out a variety of recipes and culinary tips while the in-house U.S. Army jazz quartet “The Taste Buds” provided musical accompaniment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defense officials said the decision to transform the DoD News service is rooted in the rapid and far-reaching changes rolling across the media landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“As technology improved and audience-viewing habits changed, Internet-based distribution became a more economical and efficient way to reach the military’s geographically dispersed audiences,” officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The former Pentagon Channel will cease operating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":96051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15,88],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2247],"class_list":["post-98737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-military"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KYJLGIUKMBH3LMAHCZ53MDMZKU","arc_canonical_url":"\/2015\/04\/14\/dod-news-tv-channel-going-off-the-air\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n