FAQ - FTA Satellite Channels

FAQ > FTA Satellite > Channels

What kind of channels can I receive on FTA?
Hundreds of news, sports, network, movie, specialty educational and ethnic channels from around the world are available on Free To Air satellite television. In addition to television, numerous radio stations are also available as well. For your convenience , Dr. Sat maintains a current list of available FTA channels.

Are there any FTA channels on Dish Network or Bell TV?
Almost all of the channels provided by these providers are not FTA. The channels are encrypted and require an authorized receiver and monthly subscription. Although a handful of channels are unencrypted, these are available on on other satellites as FTA channels.

Why should I get a FTA system?
Depending on the type of channels that you watch, FTA satellite television could either replace or complement your existing TV services. FTA may be of interest to you if you like to watch:

  • Ethnic programming: Numerous ethic channels are available on FTA. However, certain communities such as spanish, portuguese or arabic have 50 or more channels available while other communities such as italian only have a few channels available so it is important to check first if the channels you want are available.
  • Educational programming: A fair amount of educational channels are available on FTA including several PBS affiliates, Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN), Biography and Create TV. In addition, a few universities such as the University of Regina, the University of California and the University of Washington are offering some of their televised courses over FTA satellite.
  • News programming: Several news channels from around the world are available on FTA satellite including Al Jazeera English, Russia Today - English, Russia Today - Spanish, CCTV News China - English, MSNBC, CNBC, ABC News Now, Press TV, France 24 English, France 24 French, Bloomberg TV, CNC World China - English, News 1 Thailand, IRINN Iran, Pentagon Channel USA, Texas Cable News and BBC News.
  • Sports programming: In addition to FTA sports channels such as @Sports and Sportstime Ohio, FTA satellite allows you to receive backhaul feeds of various sporting events: Some of these sporting events might not even be available on Canadian cable or subscription satellite providers which makes FTA satellite of particular appeal for the true sports enthusiast.

    • What are wild feeds?
    Wild feeds are temporary channels used to broadcast from a remote location to a studio for editing and broadcast. Common examples are local news correspondents sending reports and sporting events fed back to a studio without graphics or commericals. Broadcasters of sporting events often use satellite as a means of transmitting their live broadcast from the stadium back to their studios where commercials are inserted and their signal is broadcast to various providers for their subscribers. This means that these feeds often have no commercials so it is just like being at the game. Because there's usually no good way to know when they'll be on, feeds are not listed with our standard channel listings.

    How can I find wild feeds?
    The best way to find wild feeds is by using the blind scan feature on your FTA receiver. This searches all satellite frequencies and adds any new active transponders to the list which are then scanned for channels. You may also add and scan the transponder manually if you know the tuning information ahead of time. Online communities such our own sponsored FTA forum on SatelliteHome.ca have members post tuning information online for any wild feeds they find when doing a blind scan so that other members can quickly tune into an event by manually adding and scanning a specific transponder.

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