What are your favorite free over-the-air broadcast channels?

Sorry for my ignorance (I'm Spanish and live in Spain) but why do you have to pay for PBS? How much a year? Does it have advertising? HD? What kind of program does it air?
In Spain we have Televisión Española which is public, doesn't have ads for the last 8 years or so and we don't have to pay anything for it? It has 5 channels, 4 of them in HD and one 4K test channel. The downside is that since it went add-free quality has gone downhill. I haven't watched Televisión Española in years. I mostly watch the news and political debate programs and Televisión Española has always been overmanipulated by the goverment of the moment, something that of course is ilegal and all goverments have denied. The worts of all is that if one watches the news on Televisión Española one ends up thinking that living in Spain is like living in Wonderland, and that is not the case.

 

Kiko, We support the PBS Network through our taxes. They also encourage you to give them donations to meet operating expenses and constantly improve itself. The programming is, as I said, educational, public affairs and other programming they feel is in the public interest to have access to, that a traditional for-profit network would not provide because it's not profitable. For instance, you could make money covering school football games if they can sell ads to it. But if the same school were to stage a spelling bee (in other words, a cerebral contest highlighting good educational habits) that same station showing the football game would not offer it. But a PBS station would. A PBS station will fund documentary programming, programs for peope interested in the higher arts, or children's shows that are to help the development of children, as oppose to selling them toys ("Mommy! Buy me that!"). You can get some idea of the programming the PBS network offers their affiliate stations at PBS.org to see their variety.

I had a conversation last night with a young Japanese woman about her views on their "state-run" television, and she seemed to share your viewpoint of your government-run broadcasting. (I'll "lecture" here) State-run television isn't the same as state-owned television. There is still somebody in charge, but they may not agree with every viewpoint the government has. Indeed, various parties of our governmental system have sought to de-fund our PBS now and then, because doing so would shut off parts of our population to information and opinions that go against the wishes of some in our government. The public reacts negatively to this every time, but those elements of our system will still try again and again, to "read the temperature of the room", as if maybe they can get away with it next time. I'd like to say we're too smart for that, but in days like these when there is a constant crisis leading to a scandal followed by a distraction morphing into a blunder as our government appears to be experiencing lately, it's hard to stay vigilant and keep all your eyes on all the balls. It takes diligence, focus, and an unlimited supply of passion. And were we not blessed with this public resource shining lights where light needs to be shined, that would just become more and more difficult. The government having sole access to your reality is putting a lot of faith in a system that clearly has not earned it.

So, not only do I freely give to my public broadcasting organizations, I proudly take the deduction which lessens my tax liability. It's like setting aside some of your taxes to undo in some small way, all the things we do not approve of our government spending our taxes on.