Free-to-air

Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription, other ongoing cost, or one-off fee (e.g., pay-per-view). In the traditional sense, this is carried on terrestrial radio signals and received with an antenna. FTA also refers to channels and broadcasters providing content for which no subscription is expected, even though they may be delivered to the viewer/listener by another carrier for which a subscription is required, e.g., cable television, the Internet, or satellite. These carriers may be mandated (or OPT) in some geographies to deliver FTA channels even if a premium subscription is not present (providing the necessary equipment is still available), especially where FTA channels are expected to be used for emergency broadcasts, similar to the 1-1-2 (112) emergency service provided by mobile phone operators and manufacturers. On the other side, free-to-view (FTV) is generally available without subscription, but it is digitally encoded and may be restricted geographically. Free-to-air is often used for international broadcasting, making it something of a video equivalent to shortwave radio. Most FTA retailers list free-to-air channel guides and content available in North America for free-to-air use. Although commonly described as free, the cost of free-to-air services is met through various means: Tax funding Enforced levy of a licence fee for transmission and production costs (e.g., the BBC) Voluntary donation for local transmission and production costs (e.g., PBS) Commercial advertising for transmission and production costs and surplus revenues returned to the government (e.g., CBC Television/Télévision de Radio-Canada in Canada, SBS in Australia and TVNZ in New Zealand) Commercial sponsorship 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 rely heavily on sponsorship, similar to Philippine broadcasters like ABS-CBN, TV5 and GMA) Up until 2012, Israel had several free-to-air channels.