The Alaska Rural Communications Service (ARCS) is a statewide network of low-powered television stations, serving 235 communities throughout the Alaskan Bush areas. Developed in the late 1970s, the network is based in Anchorage, Alaska, and is operated by Alaska Public Media.[1][2] Programming is beamed via satellite to the rural transmitters owned by the Alaska state government.
Low powered television broadcasts began in 1959, with a transmitter in the Suntrana-Healy area. In 1972, the Alaskan Public Broadcasting Commission (APBC) received FCC permission to test the use of videotapes to bring television to areas of Alaska with no ability to access terrestrial repeaters; tests began in three villages the next year. Alaska's state legislature then provided funding to the state's Office of Telecommunications to lease a satellite transponder and modify existing telephone earth stations for television in 1976. The first satellite-fed television transmissions began on January 15, 1977, in Tenakee Springs. A Telecommunications Committee under the Alaska Federation of Natives selected programming for the new service, the committee became known as the Rural Alaska Television Network (RATNET). In 1995, after state funding cuts, Bethel Broadcasting, Incorporated, operators of KYUK, assumed responsibility for the service, at the time called The Alaska Satellite Television Project (ASTP).[3]