 However, the FTV service viewing card is usually a means to restrict access to the service to a specific geographic area or to pay for the delivery of the platform as a whole and not to authorise viewing of individual channels or packages of channels, and may be made available for a regular fee, a one-off payment or even for free.HD+, in particular, has come in for criticism for describing itself as Free-to-view and joining the Free TV Alliance because of the service fee charged for its viewing cards.However, that all the HD+ channels are also available free to Sky Deutschland HD subscribers underlines that the HD+ service fee is for the provision of the platform, as explained in 2009 by Ferdinand Kayser, then president and CEO of SES Astra, "The fact that a free TV channel, financed by advertising or public fees, is encrypted, does not mean that it becomes a pay-TV channel.