Since StarSat's inception into the market, they've managed to accumulate over half a million subscribers in South Africa alone which is baffling considering how long Openview had been operational in the market. They also have over 6000 workers whose jobs are as well at stake as they roam around their offices aimlessly.
StarSat is insuring consumers that they won't shut down by all means and it's comes as somewhat of a shock that they've been operating without a license for this long. But there's no guarantees that they'll be able to keep up with their word as ICASA could as well look to have their signals getting shut off making it difficult for them to offer their services.
Although employees may say they will continue to sell and distribute StarSat in South Africa what could happen overtime is that Warner Bros. Discovery, The Walt Disney Company and various other parties may look to having their channels revoked or at least for the audiences in South Africa leaving only the local channels curated by the company.
To put matters into simple terms, don't risk what little you have left on these guys as there's no guarantee how long they could remain active and if ESPN and National Geographic will remain intact during this period. Have a Plan B which could be Openview or DStv just until the dust settles between ICASA and StarSat.
Should it shut down it will have a difficult time trying to recover that lost income and consumer base even the workforce would be constraint as the pay-tv market has been under siege in recent years. So much so that they might as well look into closing their services or deem themselves unfit for the South African market.
In the end, the one who would be most affected is the license holder On Digital Media as StarTimes has a local following in other parts of Africa which amounts to over 10 million subscribers.
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