Fox International Channels (FIC) which supplies the FOX Crime TV channel to both MultiChoice's DStv and On Digital Media's (ODM) StarSat says it is "extremely disappointed" after the second unexpected and unannounced blackout of FOX Crime on StarSat's pay-TV platform in South Africa for which StarSat has not yet given a reason.
Although FOX Crime continued to be broadcast as usual on DStv, FOX Crime went dark for all StarSat subscribers in South Africa on Wednesday evening for a second time in less than a month.
FOX Crime was restored a day later on Thursday, but StarSat which didn't warn subscribers or keep them in the loop regarding the down channel, has not yet said what the reason for the problem is.
FOX Crime on StarSat experienced a channel blackout on 13 March and blamed "a temporary technical problem at the uplink site".
Since China's StarTimes came onboard as an investor in StarSat, StarSat continues to suffer month-to-month from broadcast quality problems which include bad video and audio on several channels.
"We have been made aware that FOX Crime was off air on StarSat on Wednesday evening," Alessandro Tucci, the senior vice president and general manager of Fox International Channels Africa (FIC Africa) tells TV with Thinus in response to a media enquiry.
"This was due to a technical problem experienced by the platform that delivers these channels to viewers".
"That, unfortunately, places it out of our direct control as the channel distributor," says Alessandro Tucci.
"We are in the business of delivering quality channel brands to our viewers and are extremely disappointed by the continued intrusions to viewing," says Alessandro Tucci.
"We apologise to all our viewers for the breaks in transmission and will work with StarSat in order to avoid this problem from happening again."
