At the end of 2013 ODM promised that it would "have over 100 channels on air by 1 January 2014". StarSat currently has 99.
ODM was to add three of e.tv's four new e.tv+ TV channels - eKasi+, eMovies+ and eAfrica+ to StarSat following the bailout of China's StarTimes which came to ODM's rescue with a capital injection to save the South African satellite pay-TV operator.
Out of the set of new e.tv channels, only eToonz+ was not to be added.
eKasi+, eMovies+, eAfrica+ and eToonz+ are the new e.tv branded, linear TV channel extensions available on Platco Digital's free-to-air satellite TV platform, OpenView HD (OVHD). Platco Digital is a Sabido subsidiary.
In December 2013 StarSat removed the three e.tv channels from its marketing materials and channels listing on its website where it was already included, but said negotiations for the channels are still underway.
StarSat said that "the ODM content team is still in negotiations" and that the company removed the channels until a contract is finalised.
StarSat will however now no longer be getting or adding these channels. It's not clear why negotiations failed.
Following requests from StarSat subscribers asking about the e.tv+ channels, a StarSat spokesperson told TV with Thinus in response to a media enquiry that StarSat "did issue a Facebook post some time ago to say that StarSat will not be getting these channels for now, and we apologise in this regard".
