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, generally, available without subscription but is digitally encoded and may be restricted geographically. Neither of these are pay-TV, which is an encrypted subscription (or pay-per-view) service.

FTA is sometimes delivered by satellite television, but in various parts of the world free-to-air television channels are broadcast unencrypted on UHF or VHF bands.

Although these channels are described as free, in some cases 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 (in the case of Japanese television broadcasters like TV Asahi and TV Tokyo which relies on sponsorship heavily). One further variation is in Canada, whose CBC Television/Télévision de Radio-Canada network is funded by taxpayer dollars, and competes with other free over-the-air commercial networks.

Free-to-air is often used for international broadcasting. It is television's equivalent to shortwave radio.



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 microwaves, and then digital microwave using the 3.9-4.2 GHz band. Today, in the 11.7-12.2 GHz Ku band, which enables the use of under one-meter dishes, with most often the DVB-S standard, FTA is used from apartment balconies and Condo's.

The most common North American sources for free-to-air DVB satellite television are:

  • Ethnic-language broadcasters such as GlobeCast World TV on Galaxy 25 (97°W)
  • Christian broadcasters promoted by Glorystar & Spiritcast Satellite Systems TV on Galaxy 25 (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 AMC 3 (87°W)
  • NASA TV Multichannel Broadcast on AMC 6 (72°W)
  • Plus many others

    Most of these signals are carried by US satellites. There is little or no free Canadian DVB-S content available to users of medium-size dishes as much of the available Ku-band satellite bandwidth is occupied by pay-TV operators Star Choice and Bell ExpressVu, although the large style dish (over 3 feet) does have a few choices. FTA signals may be scattered across multiple satellites, requiring a motor or multiple LNBfs 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 Multilingual American Communities and their 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. Today, many American broadcasters send a multitude of programming channels in many languages, spanning many new channels, so they can get National support, which ultimately leads to carriage by cable systems, to additionally support the high costs of broadcasting signals in this way.

    Nonetheless, free-to-air satellite TV is a viable addition to any home video system, for use in locations where terrestrial over-the-air reception is poor, and additional channels are desired. High-definition television in the United States Digital terrestrial-type ATSC signals, where available, most often tend to be low-power and therefore coverage outside major cities depends largely on Satellite TV.