depends on the station....most that want ot be encrypted are. In some cases like religious networks they are FTA because of cable headends. Also when Equity was in business that is why they were all FTA. The stations were low powered and the only way to get a bunch of eyeballs on the stations was to be on cable. Since the LP stations didnt have much signal, they used the satellite feed for cable companies to grab the signal. Some of the cable companies were very small so that would cost a lot for scrambling receivers for them

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Winegard 76cm dish, SG2100 motor, Sadoun dual KU LNB/DirecTv dual..... Fortec 6 foot dish with GeoSatPro dual C-Band LNB aimed at 99W... Primestar 84e aimed at 105W.... WSIDigital 4 foot dish with Sadoun dual LNB aimed at 111.1W with 2nd LNB for 107.3W.... GeoSatPro 36" dish, SG2100 motor, Sadoun dual LNB
Coolsat 5000 on motorized....AZBox HD Elite on 99,motorized,105....Viacast DSR1500 on 99....Coolsat 5000 on 2nd motorized.... Shaw Direct DSR505 receiver on 107.3/111.1.... Pansat 1500 to aim dishes.... few receivers not set up yet
Other 6 foot Fortec dish with GeoSatPro dual C-Band LNB "ghetto moved" to various C-Band satellites

Got ya. More viewers.

So now there is no one out there like Equity since they went belly up.