Global Furry Television started as a one-man project in the bedroom of a Singapore public housing apartment, purely for fun and leisure.
Today, it is a trailblazing media channel with a genuine impact — serving for the first time in history furry fandom news and data in both English and Mandarin Chinese, and actively working to create meaningful cultural exchanges between furries in Asia and around the world.
2014 – 2017
17 August 2014: The Maritime Link was launched.
The website is part of a media channel called the Henrusian News Broadcasting Corporation (HNBC), a personal project founded by Pawsry (present-day Project Head of GFTV), who by then was yet a furry.
The Maritime Link gathers news articles from sources globally across different topics. HNBC creates videos and livestreams to cover major events in Singapore, such as National Day.
As of 2016, The Maritime Link got nearly a thousand monthly visitors from all major continents.
Archive of HNBC collaterals and programmes
21 August 2016: Pawsry founded the Henrusian Mascot Association (HRSMA) on a platform focusing on bringing mascot fans globally together.
16th August 2017: HNBC merged with HRSMA’s media wing to form the HRSMA-HNBC Media Publicity Service (HRSMA-HNBC MPS).
On the same day, The Maritime Link closed as a result of a shift in content focus and to create way for a much more professional newsgathering practice.
2017 – 2018
1 October 2017: HRSMA-HNBC MPS became HRSMA Media and Broadcasting (HRSMA M&B).
The platform wanted to ramp up efforts to connect global mascot fans together. On the fandom-centric footing, Pawsry also founded the Octonauts Fandom Association (OFA) on 22 May 2018.
OFA strives to create content and community spaces revolving the popular British children’s cartoon Octonauts.
16 September 2018: HRSMA M&B started to cover the furry fandom.
The platform shifted focus as Pawsry became a furry in August 2018. He debuted HRSMA FurryTalks, a furry talk show.
2018 – 2019
9 November 2018: HRSMA M&B became the International Furry Broadcasting Service (IFBS).
HRSMA FurryTalks became The Furry Show on 22nd December 2018, and The Furry Report (today as GFTV NewsSpot) was launched on 26th January 2019.
The IFBS was an important ground for many experimental projects. They exemplify things the channel wanted to create, for examples:
– an internet radio station — GFTV FurWave (today RadioFurry) launched on 2nd March 2019, and broadcasted as a linear channel two weeks later;
– a robust news series — GFTV Newsday is a furry morning show and brony and mascot fandom news reports put all in one, released in various parts of the day like a 24-hour newsroll;
– a linear TV channel — the Mass Broadcast shows how an IFBS TV broadcast would look like.
On 9 February 2019, an US-based furry radio station attempted merger with IFBS, but it failed. The intention was called off three days later.
12 February 2019: IFBS became Global Furry Television (GFTV).
2019 – 2023
18 May 2019: HRSMA and OFA’s chapter concluded.
Pawsry, as both projects’ founder, assumed GFTV’s leadership as its project lead. The channel focused on furry fandom projects ever since.
Bridging barriers of language and geography
14 May 2019: GFTV launched GFTV China.
The channel produced content in Mandarin Chinese for the first time. At launch, there was an overwhelmingly positive reception. GFTV, in turn, became the world’s first bilingual furry fandom news channel, immensely impacting the Chinese-speaking furry community globally.
GFTV fulfilled the demand for globally relevant furry fandom content and news in the Chinese language. After five years – GFTV China, now known as GFTV Digital Chinese (兽视中文台), have closed in to 30,000 subscribers.
As of mid-2024, all of GFTV’s platforms are bilingual in English and Mandarin Chinese.
“That was really sort of a, “undeserved” thing for the channel, to me too, because the channel is not so established by then, and yet people want to see it and had so much hopes for it.”
-Project Head Pawsry
May 2019: GFTV debuted staff openings.
Furries from across the Americas, Europe and Asia signed up for GFTV’s team. Today, GFTV personnel proudly spans race, language, religion, nationalities and culture.
Bettering accessibility, broadeing reach
26 October 2021: GFTV enabled subtitles for all its video news content in 2021.
Committing to accessibility beyond heard speech, GFTV enabled subtitles for programmes under GFTV News (today NewsSpot) released in 2021. Subtitling would become the norm for all GFTV content ever since.
16 July 2022: GFTV launched the world’s first bilingual linear internet TV channel.
Following the “television” marker in its name, GFTV launched a 24-hour linear internet television channel showcasing the full breadth of its content library from across all programme categories.
As of 2024, the linear TV channel is in hiatus until further notice.
10 November 2022: GFTV debuted RadioFurry on smart feature phones.
Via podcast service PodLP on KaiOS and Jio, GFTV expanded RadioFurry’s reach to some 100 million more people. This aims connect with furries potentially living in developing countries.
24 June 2023: GFTV launched the Community Initiative and Outreach (CIO).
The CIO wants to enhance GFTV’s multi-cultural potential by actively hosting cultural exchanges within a furry fandom now increasingly polarised by politics.
Fortifying its status as an information hub
20 March 2020: GFTV launched the COVID-19 Furcon Updates tracker.
The tracker is made to bolster GFTV’s COVID-19’s impact on furries. Eventually, it became part of Wikifur’s coverage. Furry events even used the tracker to decide the next step for their own events!
6 October 2021: GFTV renamed the COVID-19 Furcon Updates as the Furcon Status Tracker (FURST).
Now as the world’s biggest furry convention directory, FURST is pivotal in documenting the growth of furry fandom in Asia and around the world.
17 August 2022: GFTV synchronised their news feeds with Indonesia’s Tiger1.
Tiger1, formerly known as Torazer Furry Network, launched on 17 August 2020. The news feed synchronisation earned audiences access to Indonesian furry fandom updates.
10 January 2023: GFTV announced its content partnership with FurTimes.
This earned audiences access to Taiwanese furry fandom updates. The partnership synchronised the news channels’ Chinese-language resources, allowing FurTimes’ reporting to debut, at GFTV, in the English language as audiovisual material.
This has made GFTV a hub for Asia’s furry fandom information as never seen before.
10 years and beyond
Global Furry Television 