As Expected, StarSat Shuts Down In South Africa After Operating Illegally For Over A Year

Last month, it was reported that StarSat which serves as DStv's only competitor in South Africa was suppose to shut down by mid September. Since then, they continued to maintain an active presence in the market by selling their decoders, employing staff and promoting their bulk of entertainment to the media.

At the time, StarSat had stated they had no intention of closing their doors in South Africa as they look to take on ICASA in the hopes to stay on air. They left several consumers and staff members in the dark about their closure and also the fact they were distributing their services illegally not even channel providers Disney and BBC were aware of this.

In recent developments, it was confirmed that both ICASA and SAPS had ordered the shut down of StarSat services in South Africa imagine the feds are now on their tail. The only thing StarSat consumers can see now is a message on screen alerting them of "connection failure or bad whether".

Like I said a month ago, those using StarSat should get their affairs in order and opt for DStv or an Openview if they wish to enjoy a similar offering. Them operating illegally for this long would have dire consequences and there's consumers that probably paid in advance and you wonder if they'll get reimbursed.

StarSat was gloating for a month that they were dealing with financial constraints with part of it stemming from COVID-19 and if they wanted to take legal action or try to retain their services where else would they get these funds. Now over 500000 consumers are now going to be wondering aimlessly with jobs lost. 

The next step in this scenario would be if StarSat's license holder On Digital Media were to apply for a new license and this time on legal grounds they're going back to square one. DStv is already experiencing a decline in consumers due to the current economic climate and also the rise in internet usage.

Now with StarSat being off air, consumers are likely to dump their decoders and explore other means but should they come back these consumers would have moved on. This whole process they are engaging in will take up a lot of time something the "fans" and members of StarSat can't afford at the moment.

StarSat could as well just end up in the same nutshell as Telkom Media or Cell C's Black with On Digital Media that will likely disband. As for StarTimes, they could as well focus on the other pay-tv services in Africa leaving MultiChoice as the only pay-tv provider in South Africa.