StarSat (formerly TopTV until 31 October 2013) was a South African direct broadcast satellite television service that began broadcasting on 1 May 2010. StarSat was operated by On Digital Media, who were granted a pay-TV license by ICASA in September 2007. On Digital Media is currently 20% owned by Luxembourgish satellite operator SES and 20% owned by Chinese company StarTimes. StarSat's service was aimed at the LSM 6-9 demographic, targeting middle class viewers.
History
On Digital Media (Pty) Ltd launched TopTV on 1 May 2010.
On 30 April 2013, shareholders of On Digital Media voted to approve China-based company StarTimes taking over a 20% share of ODM. By doing so, StarTimes effectively acquired a 65% economic interest in ODM. The vote also included adoption of a business rescue plan.
TopTV was officially rebranded as StarSat on 31 October 2013. The new packages and channels associated with the new brand were made available on 1 December 2013.
When Starsat's broadcasting licence expired on 8 July 2024, with Starsat having failed to submit an application to renew its licence, the regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) gave StarSat until 18 September to shut its services down and to advise its customers and suppliers accordingly.
On 2 October 2024, when Starsat ignored this deadline, ICASA and law enforcement officials raided the StarSat premises and confiscated the broadcaster's broadcasting equipment.
The matters remains unresolved, with the broadcaster having promised to challenge the action in court, but ICASA spokesperson Zanele Ntuli stating that the regulator was unaware of official filings.
Broadcast and reception StarSat services were broadcast via satellite, using the SES-5 satellite at the 5° east orbital position, and 3 of the six 36 MHz transponders in the "Sub Saharan Africa Ku-band" beam providing coverage of the whole sub-Saharan Africa region. Transmissions were in the DVB-S2 MPEG-4 digital TV format with reception using a simple set-top box and with the Combo3 PVR decoder launched in 2011.
Conax was used as conditional access system.
Channels Channels from the Satellite DTH consisted of seven packages Smart and Super and Special and Global and French and Indian and Chinese.
Channel NameChannel NumberST GUIDE FRENCH002ST GUIDE ENGLISH99ST MOVIES PLUS100ST MOVIES101ST NOLLYWOOD PLUS102ST RISE120ST NOVELA E W127ST NOVELA E127ST NOVELA E PLUS128ST ZONE129ST SINO DRAMA130ST KUNGFU155ST REMBO PLUS166ST NOLLYWOOD131ST SPORTS FOCUS240ST SPORTS ARENA241ST SPORTS LIFE243ST BETA SPORTS244ST WORLD FOOTBALL245ST SPORTS PREMIUM246 ST ADEPA247ST KIDS300ST TOONS310ST KIDS PLUS311ST RnB321ST KASI MUSIC322ST NAIJA324ST GOSPEL360ST SWAHILI400ST BONGO401ST SWAHILI PLUS402ST DADIN KOWA404ST YORÙBÁ412ST GANZA460ST REMBO484ST MAKULA492ST MAKULA KIKA493ST AM'MOBI527ST AFRIK612ST NOVELA F PLUS615ST NOLLYWOOD F616ST NOVELA F617ST CHINESE HOMELAND800 ST NOVELA P881ST MANIA957
See also Astra 4A broadcasting satellite Astra 5°E orbital position SES satellite operator Astra satellite family MX1
References
External links
On Digital Media website StarTimes website