There are a whole bunch of satellite channels you can watch out there that you don't need to pay for (Free to Air). There are converters and satellite dishes available (you simply buy and install them, since the dish or receiver isn't the bait to get you to subscribe to a system). There's a lot of religious junk out there, but you can get various news feeds and PBS also.

SatelliteWiz.com lists channels, receivers, and satellites. This isn't an endorsement of the company, but it does seem to offer useful information without the pop-ups I found at a couple of other places.

SRS