How Many FTAers are there?

Status
Please reply by conversation.

bpalone

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Apr 1, 2014
631
424
44N 105W
I've seen this mentioned a few times in different places and was just wondering how many FTAers there really are. Now, I'm talking about North America, not worldwide. I imagine it like trying to determine the number of Windows or Linux installations. In other words pure speculation, but I would think that maybe we could come up with some consensus among this group.

So.. what do you think, just a couple thousand or maybe as many as 100,000?
 
The majority of KU FTA viewers in North America are for the ethnic and religious channels on 97w. That number was estimated to be 5-7 million a few years ago. I would guess that those numbers will have significantly dropped with the availability of these services on IPTV.

The number of true FTA hobbyists (not using FTA gear for theft of service against Dish Network and Bell) is very small and I might guess that it is even below what Michael suggested.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mr Tony
Please don't ask the question about how many FTA folks spend more time tinkering with their setups, rather than actually watching something FTA lol
 
The majority of KU FTA viewers in North America are for the ethnic and religious channels on 97w. That number was estimated to be 5-7 million a few years ago. I would guess that those numbers will have significantly dropped with the availability of these services on IPTV.
I've noticed that when I got my roku. Most of the religious stations that are on KU (and some on C-Band) are on Roku and they are adding new ones each week.

Most are direct streams....some like Shepherd's Chapel are just the daily sermons and not a stream
 
Ice, AMG and Ebru, Weather Nation are on Roku as I'm sure you know. I spend as much time watching the Roku as I did FTA five years ago....a lot of time lol
 
I would guess that those numbers will have significantly dropped with the availability of these services on IPTV.
Did a quick run through of "Spiritual" stations on Roku and using my sometimes foggy memory here is what I came up with

Ones on FTA
TBN (all 5 nets)
Daystar
K-Love (C-Band IIRC)
EWTN (C-Band)
SonLife
3ABN
GodTV
Word Channel
Hope Channel
Amazing Facts TV
Amazing Discoveries
Air1 (C-Band)
TCT (C-Band)
NRB (C-Band)
Jewish Broadcasting Service (formerly Shalom TV)
Divine TV
Bible Discovery TV
Cornerstone TV
CTV (Coptic)
Shepherd's Chapel (C-Band)....note on roku its just the daily readings, not the full stream
University Network (Doc Scott)
LLBN Networks
World Harvest TV (C-Band)
Jewish Life TV (C-Band)
God's Learning Channel (C-Band)
GBN (Gospel Broadcasting Network) (was on 72W a few years ago)
Almavision
GEB (Golden Eagles) (C-Band)
MTA (Muslim stations that are on 87W)
CYC-Christian Youth Channel
FFE (Family Friendly Entertainment) (C-Band maybe??)
Living Faith
Bible Explorations
The Walk (C-Band)

Ones I **THINK** are or were on FTA
Superchannel Orlando (WACX)
Shalom Television
Impact Network
Salt & Light
 
I'm a watcher. I am all about keeping my monthly costs as low as possible. I think cable and satellite are RIP off's. Ps, thank. I did not know Ebru was available on Roku.
 
That is a good question.I have a few friends with various nationalities and have actually did an install for one of my friends wife for what is FTA on Galaxy 19 Ku.She is Thai and it has been many yrs but seems as tho she lost her ch`s or they became scrambled and then went to service by way of the computer iptv.

So many variables to this question.With the advancement of more and more by way of the computer and the demise of Cband users..Couple this with many people are limited to dish size because of HOA or living in an apartment then my guess is very small.I would not know how to put a number on the amount of households but I would say it is real low.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mr Tony
And there are some of us that don't have internet that is capable of sustaining streams. Tinkering for me is half the fun. Math, angles and electronic gadgets are fun and interesting for us nerds. The wilderness is also HOA free. Pay TV died for me when TLC and Discovery took out the learning and went full on "Idiocracy". The costs I am saving pay for the hobby many times over.
Sea Patrol or Honeybooboo? That is the question.
 
FTAers + Tv watcher's through FTA receivers: Too many:onstrike
Real "FTAers" : a Few..:wave
pd: real "FTAers" does not have too much time to watch TV.....like me ..:hatsofflol
 
And there are some of us that don't have internet that is capable of sustaining streams.
I agree. When I lived in my house the BEST speed I could get was 1.5MB from the Telco (at the time Qwest). When I moved into the apartment a mile down the road I could get 40MB (I settled on 12MB). Now I have it through the cable company because the Telco again could only give me 1.5MB

Honestly now that its been 2 years since I last had FTA (11/29/12...moved out of my house on 12/1) I thought about it. How much do I really miss it? And the answer is "not that much". Reason I say that is I mainly had FTA for sports. The weird games that you couldn't get on the main stations. But now there are other ways.
-North Dakota State football games were on FTA...now they still are but most are on ESPN3. Can watch them that way
-North Dakota Hockey. When they were on the Fighting Sioux Sports Network (which was just a feed) each year they would publish the coordinates. For a few years they (the Sioux) actually sold a system to get the games. It was a Satworks 3618, a 30" dish and LNB. I know folks in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis) who had the system JUST for that. The only channels logged in were the FSSN and whatever "strong" transponder was on that satellite to fine tune the dish. When the season was over the receiver got unplugged til October. A couple years ago they signed with Midco (the cable company) and they scrambled the feed. That was due to other cable companies just taking the game and showing it on their cable system on a public access channel.
-Montana & Montana State football games. The games were on local CBS & ABC stations across the state. Montana games the coordinates were published each week. MSU games used the same coordinates each week. I do miss those games as most are not on the internet (the non Root Sports games are on the internet)

I do miss a couple things
-college hockey games. I am a college hockey nut who loved starting at 6 seeing a game on the east coast, then around 7 flip to a WCHA game, 7:30 a UND game, maybe 8 or 8:30 a game from Colorado and ending it with the 10:00 start in Alaska. Loved my C-Band dish for those games in Alaska
-But the one thing I do miss are those really oddball sporting events. Not necessarily the sport but the station producing it. I always got a laugh at the 2 "homer hillbillies" (thats what they called themselves) doing local high school or Eastern Kentucky college games for WYMT 57 Hazard. Just listening to them was hilarious as the game usually was 2nd. They would just tell stories. Or seeing some D3 football game produced what could only be described as "below public access"
-I also do miss scanning and all of a sudden finding a game that "holy crap you didnt know was televised"

Since I was mainly KU (yeah I had the C-Band dish but it was "fixed") during the spring through early fall was mainly watching RTV (when it was actually good) or some of the stuff on 97W. I do like PBS but they usually carried the same programs across all of them. I loved the days when we had Equity Broadcasting, KUIL (when they were Fox) and even the Puerto Rico/USVI nets on KU. I've discussed that at length. Thats why alot of us had fixed dishes at 123W back then :)
 
I am 90% hobbist and 10% watcher. I am though, one of those pesimists that think pure FTA is in one of its worst crisis ever and is getting worse. Please, someome tell me I am wrong :)
 
Status
Please reply by conversation.
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)