The American Forces Network (AFN) is increasing the protection of its television programming by requiring viewers to register decoders annually, instead of once every three years. Owners of both the Cisco 9865 and AFN7500HD decoder must register once every 12 months by visiting www.myafn.net and clicking on “Manage My Decoder.” This includes viewers who purchased a new decoder but never personally registered the box, or individuals who were issued a decoder by a housing office.

This change helps increase an already strong relationship between AFN and various programming providers throughout the industry. “AFN receives millions of dollars of gratis sports and news programming, as well as countless hours of the best in broadcast, cable, and streaming-service originated entertainment,” said AFN spokesman George Smith. “In return, we will continue to take vigorous steps during the registration process to validate individuals authorized to receive our service. In fact, we ask viewers who have never registered their decoder or haven’t done so in the last year, to register.”

Additionally, all decoder users should deregister it when they sell their box to another authorized user, return the decoder to housing, or rotate back to the States. Individuals who receive AFN via an on-base cable provider are not impacted by changes in decoder registration.

AFN is authorized only for use overseas by active and retired U.S. military members and families, active DoD employees and families, State Department employees and families and contractors serving on an active DoD contract