The October 2nd raid by South Africa communications regulator Icasa on satellite broadcaster StarSat was deliberately damaging said StarSat officials. Senior technical staff were at the broadcaster’s Johannesburg head office and tried to tell Icasa and the police during the raid which equipment operated their systems. But, says StarSat, this advice was ignored and cables […]

South African telecoms regulator Icasa has raided the offices of StarSat and closed the pay-TV broadcaster down. On October 2nd, aided by police, Icasa staff removed computers and cables at StarSat’s head office in Johannesburg. StarSat marketing manager Jan Harmse told local journalists that the raid came as a shock despite Icasa ordering StarSat to […]

On Digital Media (ODM), licensed in 2007, and now trading as StarSat, has been ordered to close by South Africa’s telecommunications regulator Icasa. StarSat – as ODM – was formed to provide an alternative to MultiChoice and its domination of the pay-TV scene with DStv and popular sport channels. ODM initially traded as TopTV, but […]

A Mozambique-based company, Starsat Africa, has reportedly been supplying Starlink equipment into South Africa. These ‘grey market’ cross-border supplies and active in South Africa have now been disconnected. The reason, says SpaceX, is for unauthorised reselling but might have more to do with not upsetting South Africa’s licensing authorities. Mozambique has licensed Starlink. The official […]

Broadcasts of RT, the former Russia Today, have been pulled over Africa. While the channel went dark on South Africa’s DStv pay-TV bouquet in March last year, there were still transmissions on StarSat and StarTimes for many African countries. These have now ended with SES blacking out the channel. SES in the past has said […]

Nearly 17 million pay TV subscribers will be added in Africa between 2020 and 2026 to take the total to 51 million, according to the Africa Pay TV Forecasts report from analyst firm Digital TV Research. Nigeria will be close to 11 million, with South Africa bringing in another 9 million. “Multichoice had 15.51 million […]