Free-to-air
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Free-to-air (FTA) television (TV) and radio broadcasts are sent unencrypted and may be received via any suitable receiver. Free-to-view (FTV) is available without subscription but is encoded and may be restricted geographically. Neither of these are pay-TV, which is an encrypted subscription (or pay-per-view) service. FTA is usually delivered by satellite television, but in various parts of the world with encrypted digital terrestrial television channels it is broadcast on UHF or VHF bands.
Although these channels are described as free the viewer does in fact pay for them. Some are paid directly by payment of a licence fee (as in the case of the BBC) or voluntary donation (in the case of educational broadcasters like PBS), others indirectly by paying for consumer products and services where part of the cost goes toward television advertising and sponsorship.
Free-to-air is often used for international broadcasting. It is television's equivalent to shortwave radio.
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[edit] Australia
Australia's two main government-owned TV channels, ABC and SBS, along with the digital-only multichannels ABC2 and the SBS World News Channel are both availably free-to-air on the NSS5 satellite (SBS can also be received from the Optus B1 satellite). Viewers in remote parts of Australia can also access Seven Central and Imparja Television, or WIN WA and GWN through the free-to-view Optus Aurora program.
Other satellite-only channels such as Indigenous Community Television, TVSN, and Al Jazeera English are available free-to-air on various satellites.
[edit] South Asia
Around 33 FTA television channels are broadcast from three transponders on the NSS-6 satellite covering India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and parts of Afghanistan, China, and Myanmar. In India The channels are marketed by Doordarshan, India's national broadcaster as "DD Direct +", although other channels such as BBC World and Zee Music are also provided.
[edit] Europe
In contrast to the United States, European countries have a tradition of most television services being free to air. Germany, in particular, receives in excess of 100 digital TV channels free to air, including MTV (which remains encrypted for much of Europe). Approximately half of the television channels on SES Astra 1 (19.2E) and 2 (28.2E), and Eutelsat Hotbird (13E) are free to air.
In general, all satellite radio in Europe is free to air, but the more conventional broadcast systems in use mean that XM and Sirius style in-car reception is not possible.
A number of European channels which would likely be free-to-air, including many countries national terrestrial broadcasters, do not do so for copyright reasons - rights to purchase shows to show free-to-air are often higher in price than for encrypted broadcasts. However, these channels usually provide a scheme to offer free, but encrypted, viewing with free-to-view broadcasts. The UK's Channel 4 and Five, certain programming on Italy's RAI, the majority of Dutch channels and the 4 national Irish channels are covered by such systems.
[edit] New Zealand
The national networks, Television New Zealand 1 and 2, and Māori Television are free-to-air on Optus B1. The planned digital FreeView will also be free-to-air.
[edit] North America
There are a number of competing systems in use, with early adopters having used C-band satellite dishes of several feet in diameter to receive signals which were originally analogue FM, later digital using the Motorola-proprietary Digicipher II system or later still going to Ku-band and under one-metre dishes with most often the international DVB standard.
The most common North American sources for free-to-air DVB satellite television are:
- Ethnic-language broadcasters such as Globecast World TV on Intelsat America 5 (97°W)
- Christian broadcasters promoted by Glorystar Satellite Systems TV on Intelsat America 5 (97°W)
- Individual local stations of major US terrestrial TV networks, such as the Equity Broadcasting stations on Galaxy 10R (123°W)
- Public educational broadcasters including PBS on AMC3 (87°W)
Most of these signals are carried by US satellites. There is little or no free Canadian DVB content on medium-size dishes as much of the available Ku-band satellite bandwidth has been siphoned away by pay-TV operators Star Choice and Bell Expressvu. FTA signals may be scattered across multiple satellites, requiring a motor or multiple LNBs to receive everything.
The largest groups of end-users for Ku-band free-to-air signals were initially the ethnic-language communities, as often free ethnic-language programming would be sponsored by foreign governments or broadcasters. Depending on language and origin of the individual signals, North American ethnic-language TV is a mix of pay-TV, free-to-air and DBS operations.
Nonetheless, free-to-air satellite TV is a viable alternative for use in locations where terrestrial over-the-air reception is poor. Digital terrestrial signals, where available, most often tend to be low-power and therefore coverage outside major cities depends largely on analogue terrestrial reception, subscription TV or satellite TV.
