FTA or "Free To Air" simply means that the signal is not encrypted. Most cable type programming is encrypted. Occasionally programmers may turn the scrambler machine off and you can see a channel or two with an MPEG-2fta receiver. You will never see Time Warner cable programming, i.e. CNN, HBO in fta mode in the U.S.. CNN, and other international news channels, are available to viewers around the world in free to air mode, but not to the U.S..
In the U.S. there are a number of channels that are available via MPEG-2 FTA receivers that have indicated that they plan to remain in the clear or are believed to intending to stay clear. These include Saudi TV, Abu Dhabi, Thai TV, Kuwait TV, Syria TV, Taiwan, Iran, and as we go to press, Bloomberg TV all on Telstar 5, ku, which can be received on a .7 meter dish. The list changes now and then but these and more can be seen today.
GE-1 is the home of a bouquet of channels from Paxton Communication's PAX TV. PanAmSat 9 at 58 degrees west is home to the RTP, EWTN, CCTV China, NHK, Deutche Wella, an Arab bouquet in PAL, and a channel from Colombia. Some of the channels from the middle east have scrambled but their feeds to Australia remain in the clear. These feeds use the PAL format but a receiver like the BEC will convert the picture to NTSC, the North American format. MPEG2 FTA feeds are numerous and more and more are being added every day. The economics of compression, allowing more than one service on each frequency dictate that we will see more. Every time another satellite fails, and they are failing, we see the prices of transponder time go up. A couple of thousand dollars an hour for a better bird are not unusual for part time use.
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