Free to Air Satellite Receivers
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.
Recommended Receivers
References