StarSat will drop its two Afrikaans channels from the platform on 30 September 2022, the owners of MyTV and OnseTV have announced.
“StarSat, the South African branch of StarTimes Media, has ended Afrikaans on the StarSat decoder after 13 years of broadcast,” said MyTV CEO Jaco Ferreira.
On Digital Media launched TopTV in South Africa on 1 May 2010.
It was South Africa’s first noteworthy DStv contender since MultiChoice launched its satellite pay-TV service.
Ferreira says that ASTV was accepted as the only Afrikaans channel on TopTV in October 2009. It operated out of Rustenburg and was later rebranded MyTV.
On Digital Media soon ran into financial troubles and Chinese pay-TV player StarTimes bought the company out of business rescue in 2013.
OnseTV started broadcasting on 29 September 2017 on StarSat channel 462.
“Because OnseTV management works daily with a wide variety of people in the industry, it was clear from the start that there were no focused channel to cater for the largest Afrikaans-speaking community in South Africa,” Ferreira said.
“It was decided to create a TV channel, specifically for the brown Afrikaans community.”
Ferreira said OnseTV has been broadcasting with great success for the past five years.
“The response from our immediate communities of colour has been and continues to be incredible,” Ferreira said.
Despite this, StarSat informed OnseTV and MyTV that their contracts would not be renewed. The channel operator said it received no reason for this decision.
“OnseTV have become an entertainment home for the brown community. To fully live out their culture and language and thus bridging cultural gaps,” Ferreira stated.
“The untapped talent and talented people present in this community, previously and presently dismissed from mainstream media, are still looking for well-deserved recognition. Something OnseTV gave them for the past five years.”
Ferreira said E-tv’s owners approached him in 2013 and struck a deal to broadcast ASTV on Openview HD.
“After this contract expired, ASTV’s broadcast on OVHD stopped. But ASTV still continued broadcasting on the StarSat decoder,” Ferreira said.
“InPasTV (a Christian channel) was also accepted by StarSat together with OnseTV but was later removed.”
Ferreira said they bid StarSat farewell with a heavy heart.
“We are very grateful for the 13 years we have been able to broadcast on this platform, and we will be forever grateful for the time we were able to spend with the StarSat team,” said Ferreira.
MyTV and OnseTV are now streaming online for free.
“Perhaps we have outgrown our teenage shoes, and it is time to venture into the ‘grown-up world,’” the channels said.
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