Why do we have to pay Monthly fee for satellite Dish TV service?

does anyone know why we pay monthly payment for satellite Dish? I was in Italy last week, and people buy satellite dish and connect without paying any monthly fee, they receive over 900 ch. for free. do we have this here in US?|||YES


We do have it here , but it's not the same as in Europe .





Europeans get more free channels but they have to pay fees too if they want premium channels , Example SKY Italia.





The satellite receivers are called FTA Free To Air Receivers , and can be used on clear unencrypted broadcasts , this receiver will work worldwide but since Europe uses PAL and we in the U.S.A. use NTSC , you must buy the proper receiver .





Forget about getting MTV or HBO for free , 99% of the channels available for free are not your typical cable programming , Religious , Ethnic (Foreign) , Sports Feeds , and big networks is what you'll find.





You will need a MOTOR for your dish unless you plan on pointing at one satellite .|||SKY Italia is definitely not free. People may be using illegal receivers, but maybe it is a clever trick to entice people to satellite programming and then, when they are hooked, make all these receivers obsolete, unless they pay for monthly fees.


US has gone well beyond this phase, so everyone pays already to either Dish or DirectTV. It requires a lot of investment to support satellite programming and nobody will do it for free - at least not for long. Like the US, Europe is going through a transition from analog TV to digital, so lots of people are fighting for future market share.|||You can get some channels FTA on satellite, but not most broadcast or cable channels.





The reason primarily is because for broadcasting channels, affiliates are very protective of their markets, so require is so that people in their market cannot receive other market stations, and that because the satellite companies are redistributing their signals, so are entitled to compensation for that. The subscription feed for locals covers the cost of receiving and uplinking, and pays the stations their due compensation for carriage.





For cable, it comes down to terrestrial cable (a pay to view medium) being there first, and the channels being cable stations first, Cable demanded satellite be also pay, at least for the premium content. It would be no good for the cable providers if everybody could get cable programming free on satellite.


Also, like with broadcasters, DBS providers have to expend resources and pay carriage fees to uplink cable programming, since they are probably uplinking a cable feed again, costs which they need to recover. Also, satellite is a convenience service, which you pay for the convenience of not dealing with the variety of C-band, and the large dish needed.





Lastly is the studios and sports leagues, which like network affiliates, like to protect their regions. Without encryption, the foreign licensees of content could lose viewers (read subscribers and advertising viewers) to free US satellite.





As for most of the rest of the world, satellite was there essentially first, so the satcasters dictated the rules to the cable companies basically. Most, or some countries have a Television license fee, which comes with certain entitlements. A lot of the broadcast stations are either regional or national in nature, and don't need or care for market protection as US broadcasting stations want.


Cable channels might be international also.





And there is satellite piracy also. You can do that most places in the world. Sure it is illegal, but it is happening.