FTA or Free to Air satellite is encoded in MPEG2 and not encrypted. It is legal for people to receive and view FTA satellite broadcasts. FTA uses a small dish similar to those used by subscription based services such as DirecTV and Dish Network.
Free to Air satellite TV is a subset of TVRO, and was originally transmitted on C Band, but now utilizes Ku "Kurtz under" band, which allows for the new smaller dishes. The old C Band dishes were very large.
Free to Air satellite broadcasts are received with a FTV or Free to View receiver. Many such broadcasts are International, and some are regional based. There is a region code component of Free to Air similar to DVD. A complete list of available channels are available on www.lyngsat.com.
It is noteworthy to mention that Australia's ABC "Australian Broadcasting Corporation" is available as a FTV broadcast.