Hi. I'm new to IPTV, I'v just ordered a MAG 254 box. The scene seems to be rife with pay servers charging a subscription in return for channels. I am familiar with how this works having come from the Linux Sat receiver scene (all be it a few years ago and the technology has no doubt moved on a lot!).
What I'm wondering is if what these paid services offer is actually available for free and if they are in fact a bit of a rip off? I.e. do they just collect the 'channels' from various different sources for free and package them up together and charge for it, or do they, themselves pay for 100's of TV subscriptions and stream their own stuff?

In essence I want to know if they are worth the money or whether you can get the same stuff with the same or similar reliability/quality/selection for free (if you know where to look......)

Thanks very much :-)