FTA Receiver

A free-to-air or FTA Receiver is a satellite TV receiver designed solely to receive unencrypted broadcasts. Modern decoders are naturally compliant with the MPEG-2/DVB-S and more recently the MPEG-4/DVB-S2 standard for digital television, while older FTA receivers relied on analog satellite transmissions which have declined rapidly in recent years.

Mainstream broadcast programming

In some countries, it is common for conventional broadcasters to broadcast their channels over satellite as FTA. Most notably, in the German-speaking countries, most of the main terrestrial broadcasters, such as ARD Das Erste, ZDF and ORF offer FTA satellite broadcasts, as do some of the more recent satellite rivals such as Sat. 1, 3sat and RTL. The satellites, on which these channels broadcast, at Astral’s 19.2° east position, are receivable right through most of Europe.

In the UK, three of the original five terrestrial broadcasters, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV1 broadcast FTA on digital satellite, including many of their regional variations. However, in some countries, it is not the norm for mainstream channels to broadcast on FTA satellite television.

Ethnic and spiritual programming

FTA receivers are sold in the United States and Canada for the purpose of viewing unencrypted free-to-air satellite channels, the mass of which are located on Galaxy 25 (97°W, Ku band). This provides an alternative option for various ethnic communities to watch television from their native countries without subscribe to an often expensive programming package from a major satellite TV provider. The distinctive one-meter Ku-band dishes are becoming a common fixture in ethnic communities as, in some cases; programming offered is not available by any other means.

There is also a substantial amount of Christian-based programming available on several satellites over both North America and Europe, such as The God Channel, JCTV, EWTN and 3ABN.

Educational programming

The PBS Satellite Service offers educational programming on Ku band DVB from the AMC 21 satellite (125°W). As there is no standard MPEG audio on many of these channels, the AC3-only feeds require a Dolby Digital-capable receiver. They are otherwise free. Channels include PBS-HD/PBS-X as well as various secondary programmers normally carried on digital sub channels of PBS terrestrial member stations.

The main PBS New York feed is absent from the free-to-air version of the PBS satellite service to afford local terrestrial member stations a chance to broadcast material before it becomes available on PBS-X or PBS-HD. Typically, PBS-X feeds carry programmers (except news) a day later than the main terrestrial PBS network.