These days in North Cyprus you can have pretty much anything you like in the way of television, ranging from local channels to satellite packages.

There are local channels which can be viewed via a small ariel installation such as BRT 1, 2 and 3, part of the Bayrak International Group of media companies, which broadcasts English speaking programmes.

There are plenty of choices on the satellite side of things, one of which is Digiturk.  You can choose from a standard package which includes movie channels, sport channels, news channels and drama channels, to which you can add more sports, movie and comedy channels for an extra fee each month.  At the time of writing a basic family package is around 40ytl but prices do change, and you will need to rent the satellite box at a one-off cost of around 75ytl, and you would need to return this box if you ever cancelled the service.

All you do to get connected is pop to Digiturk’s offices or a branch of electrical retailer Tektan, located around the island in main town centres, to organise an installation which usually only takes a few days.  You can then pay upfront for either 6 months or a year, or pay monthly – whichever suits you.  The installer will take your credit card details in case you miss a payment though!  They also now have a website for North Cyprus – Digiturk Kıbrıs.

One man we can point you to if you want SKY is Mustafa Ozhakki, aka The Iceman, who is one of the most skilled hardware technicians and satellite installers around.   Many will know him from chat forums and his website.  To find out all about the services and tailor-made packages that the Iceman can supply visit his website: – http://www.skycyprus.com/ or you can email him on info@skycyprus.com or skycyprus@gmail.com or you can call him on +90 533 861 0329 or +90 392 815 2195 or his SKYPE name is skycyprus – he really is the answer to all your television prayers, and his packages start at just £17, after installation that is!

Other television options are Showtime, which offers a subscription package which includes movies, sports & general entertainment.  This will set you back around £550 a year and installation and equipment costs on top of that.  You can also have a box which can be used to connect via the internet, such a service is usually on a pay per view basis, but most certainly you will need a good internet package to ensure quality of connection.  You can also check through Cyprus Today as there are more and more companies offering satellite services with UK channels springing up all the time.

Finally, you might not be aware that you can sign up to watch TV, including your favourite soaps, on the internet for free!  www.uknova.com and www.thebox.bz – these are both what we guess you would call ‘file sharing’ – both services offer free downloads upon registration, featuring programmes donated by users, so if you need to catch up with Eastenders or Corrie then you are sure to find them here!  Again, you will need a very stable internet connection as the downloads can be pretty big.

There are even further options, some of which may be deemed to be unethical or even illegal, but we think we have mentioned enough to give you a good idea of what’s available on the television front!  Whatever your requirements are just make sure you do your homework, as installation costs can vary from free to £500 and sometimes more.

Here in North Cyprus you can choose from various radio stations to suit your tastes.  Bayrak International (formerly BRT), was formed in 1963 and broadcasts on 87.8/105FM and is one of the favourites here. 

Bayrak also has other stations such as Bayrak Classic on 93.4/88.4FM and Bayrak FM on 98.1/92.1FM.  You may also be able to pick up Radio 1 which is on 90.6/102FM, but we have never been able to get it! Another radio station Ada Radio broadcasts in Turkish, English and Russian on 93.8/ 96.2FM and they also have a website  Ada TV and TV station which you can find via Turksat.

There are modern dance music stations such as Dance FM broadcasting on 95FM, and Kral on 107FM.  Most of the major universities also have their own radio stations, such as the Eastern Mediterranean University’s radio station which you can tune into online at http://ww3.emu.edu.tr/, or Near East University on 88FM which broadcasts a mix of Turkish and English pop, blues, jazz classics and country music

However, satellite radio stations are also available through your television these days, and there are plenty of them to try.  You can also listen to UK stations through your computer should you have a good connection, which is convenient if you’re working and fancy some Drive Time news and views!  In addition you can also try the BBC World Service which is broadcast on 1340MW, but signal strength can sometimes be quite poor depending on your location.

Below are some of the frequencies for local stations, or alternatively if you know your short waves from medium and long waves then take a look at this handy site for broadcasting frequencies and other stations – http://radiostationworld.com/locations/cyprus/radio_websites.asp.

Ada Radio 93.8MHz, 96.2MHz

Akdeniz FM 88.6 MHz

Bayrak International 87.8 MHz, 105 MHz, 1494 KHz, 6.150MHz

Bayrak FM 98.1 MHz, 92.1 MHz

Bayrak Classic  93.4MHz, 88.4MHz

BBC World Service 1.340MHz

Dance FM 95.0 MHz

Eastern Mediterranean University 106.5 MHz

First FM 90.0 MHz

Near East University FM 88.0 MHz

Radio 1 90.6 MHz

Newspapers

The longstanding Cyprus Today publication is most people’s favourite here in North Cyprus, and they also have a subscription mailing service for those who like to receive the paper in their native country if they are not yet permanent residents in TRNC.  You can contact the newspaper by emailing cyprustoday@yahoo.com.  Formed in 1991 this newspaper has been the mainstay for many expats.  The paper has feature articles, local news, a leisure section, industry contributor features, which most of the time are really quite invaluable, and much more!  It’s available every Saturday for 2ytl in shops and supermarkets.

The other weekly newspaper is the Cyprus Star, again available on a Friday, and via their website subscription service, Cyprus Star . This full online version used to be free, but they have had to change to a charged subscription service so as not to discriminate against the paying readers.  It now apparently costs around £52 for a yearly sub, which is quite expensive, but you also get the Turkish Star with that as well!  However, you can view the front page free after you register with them.  All that said it’s a pretty good read, with its offerings fairly similar to the other two.

There are also lots of Turkish language newspapers as well, obviously, but as we are assuming that the majority of readership for About North Cyprus.com is English speaking, we will refrain from detailing these for you!  Suffice to say, there are plenty to choose from, all seemingly veering towards one political persuasion or another!

Magazines

The English language magazine market features a variety of colourful monthly publications which are normally free!  There are some tourism based magazines available as well such as North Cyprus Magazine, which always has some very interesting articles, and also the Tourism Monthly magazine published by the Northern Cyprus Hoteliers’ Association.  This has informative articles on hotels and people in North Cyprus for example.  Then you have the fairly new Living Magazine run by Tom Roche and his team which you can also see an abbreviated version of online at www.livingmagazinecyprus.com – this magazine takes a lighter and more entertaining look at life in North Cyprus.

Internet Based

You can also choose to access your media via the internet these days – as you well know if you’re reading this!  There are many websites offering general news from North Cyprus.  Bayrak International, the biggest radio and television broadcaster in North Cyprus has an English website version for example Bayrak International which is definitely worth checking out, or put ‘north cyprus news’ into your search engine and you will have a whole heap of websites to sift through.  One such informative site is the government’s Public Information Office which has a Latest News section which you can find at TRNC Info, this is quite useful if you want to have an official account of a particular subject, although the information provided is limited.