Fallen DStv rival has high hopes
Pay-TV satellite broadcaster StarSat was shut down in early October 2024 when the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) raided its headquarters and confiscated its broadcasting equipment.
StarSat told MyBroadband that its legal action against Icasa, which it says it launched following the wrongful removal of its equipment, is ongoing. However, it said it can’t comment on the details of the legal proceedings.
The broadcaster said it is working to find a solution that will allow it to broadcast in South Africa again.
“StarSat is still actively working on solutions to restore services. This is taking longer than anticipated, but we are not giving up,” said StarSat.
It added that it’s only a matter of time before StarSat starts broadcasting in South Africa again.
“We’d like to thank our customers for being so patient with us and we’d like to assure them that we continue doing all we can to restore services as soon as possible,” it said.
The raid on StarSat’s headquarters led to technicians disconnecting various broadcasting equipment, including instruments the company said were used to broadcast to other African countries.
“They started unplugging things. They started just ripping out all the equipment we need to broadcast, not just to South Africa, but to the rest of Africa as well,” said StarSat marketing manager Jan Hendrik Harmse.
“As we speak, our customers have nothing showing on their screen, and many other countries in Africa are also black on screen.”
Harmse said Icasa didn’t bring the right technicians to know what should and should not be removed. The removal of broadcasting equipment for other countries prompted StarSat to launch legal action against the regulator.
“We have no idea what the damage is. We only hope that we can resolve this with the courts because we have approached them,” he said.
Harmse said StarSat had applied to the court for an urgent interdict. However, even if granted, it will still need to assess damage and reconnect its equipment before it can resume broadcasts.
However, later in October, Icasa spokesperson Zanele Ntuli said the watchdog wasn’t aware of any further legal action from the pay-TV operator and DStv rival, nor its parent company On Digital Media.
Following StarSat’s failure to renew its broadcasting licence within the specified timeframe, Icasa instructed the pay-TV operator to shut down its operations on 18 September 2024.
StarSat’s licence had expired in July 2023, and it only submitted its renewal application in November of that same year.
According to the Electronic Communications Act, broadcasters must submit these applications “no earlier than twelve months and no later than twelve months prior to the expiry of the licence”.
Icasa said it doesn’t have the legislative or regulatory mandate to consider renewal applications for licences that have already expired.
Harmse acknowledged that StarSat was late to submit its application. However, he said they had faced various challenges leading up to the application and regularly engaged with Icasa.
“We did have a deadline to meet, but because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we couldn’t get the right investors in, there were shareholder agreements that still needed to be finalised, and we kept communicating the issue to them,” he said.
“We kept saying it will be late if you want all the paperwork at the same time. So, we did submit late, but we submitted everything we needed to.”
Harmse said that, according to the regulations, StarSat checked off all boxes and should be allowed to operate in South Africa, but he said Icasa doesn’t want to hear it out.
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