in order to receive sat. tv you have to have a dish antennae, and a receiver and an account which costs from 20 - 100 per month depending on your program package.

Link t.v., like NPR and PBS, is a listener-and-watcher supported program, and they solicit donations on the air, but their programs are available to all regular sat. t.v. customers, free-of-charge.

i presume that dish network also offers their alternative programming to all customers. so there has to be some incentive to encourage the sattelite providers to include these innovative and sometimes radical programs. At one time, broadcasters were compelled to include "PEG" programs as a public service--political, educational, gov't. these requirements are no longer enforced as well as they used to be.

the sat cimpanies pride themselves in prov8iding sports coverage, and many high definition programs, but they need to be reminded about grass-roots programs and alternative viewpoints.