DStv satellite provider sale greenlit in South Africa

South Africa’s Competition Commission has approved the R54-billion deal through which Luxembourg-based satellite telecommunications network provider SES plans to acquire DStv satellite provider Intelsat.

The Commission approved the transaction without conditions. It believes the deal is unlikely to lessen or prevent competition in any market.

It noted that SES controls one firm incorporated in South Africa, SES ASTRA Africa.

Firms controlled by SES, which are incorporated outside South Africa but generate revenue within the country, are New Skies Satellites and MX1.

Intelsat controls one firm incorporated in South Africa, namely, Intelsat Africa.

Firms controlled by Intelsat that are incorporated outside South Africa and generated revenues in the country are Intelsat Ventures in Luxembourg, and Intelsat Global Sales & Marketing in the UK.

SES wants to acquire 100% of Intelsat for a cash price of $3.1 billion (R54 billion) and certain contingent value rights.

“The transaction will be financed from existing cash and equivalents and the issuance of new debt, including hybrid bonds,” the companies stated.

“Additionally, SES will issue contingent value rights in respect of a portion of any potential future monetisation of the combined collective usage rights for up to 100 MHz of C-band spectrum.”

The companies believe the combination of SES and Intelsat will result in a more robust multi-orbit operator with more coverage, improved resiliency, and greater resources.

“SES expects to deliver synergies with a total net present value of €2.4 billion, representing an annual run rate of €370 million of which approximately 70% is anticipated to be executed within 3 years after closing the transaction,” SES added.

Intelsat operates a fleet of more than 50 geostationary earth orbit satellites that use the C-, Ku-, and Ka-band frequencies. MultiChoice-owned DStv uses the Intelsat-20 satellite for its satellite transmissions.

In June 2022, a MyBroadband experiment showed that DStv customers could add more than 100 free channels broadcast by the Intelsat-20 satellite to their decoder by making a few tweaks to the decoder’s settings.

Most of the free channels were religious. However, we found several others, including stations played in specific retailer chains like PEP, Game, and Clicks, a sports channel called Sports Connect, a crime story channel, and a kid’s channel.

We could also see all the Openview HD channels but couldn’t tune in because doing so would require the decryption key from an Openview decoder.

However, when MyBroadband attempted to recreate the experiment in July 2024, we found that DStv had removed the satellite settings menu option that previously allowed us to receive the broadcasts.

We also tried to find a way to add the channels via other settings changes without success.

We tested the tweak on the original DStv Explora and the Explora Model 3A decoders, both of which have the hardware required to receive the channels.

MultiChoice told MyBroadband that it had implemented a software update for all DStv decoders in 2023, which removed channels not included in the pay-TV broadcaster’s packages.

It said the change forms part of its measures to protect its content from piracy and to prevent unauthorised access to decoders.