Have you ever tried to tune in directly to the satellites to catch the broadcasts of new shows to the affiliates (before they're aired)?

Yes, these are called Wildfeeds and Backhauls, and there is a complete sub-culture built up around tracking and cataloging these shows.

The only thing is that the networks deliberately do their backhauls at odd hours. Anything I want to see, I would have to set up the VCR to tape it because I'd either be at work or asleep at the time they're uploaded. But I've done that a few times and it works.

I also once taped a wildfeed broadcast bounced over from Isreal for a friend this way. It was a temple dedication ceremony.

Also, on my 4DTV system, you can occasionally find some digital channels which are normally supposed to be encrypted, but are actually being shown "in the clear" on channels which aren't mapped into the main menus. If you know how to poke around in the system's service menus, you can map these "unlisted" channels and view them. Rather slick actually.