The pay-TV operator StarSat has increased its monthly subscription fees from April due to the VAT hike, saying it is "something we must do in order to continue to provide you with the quality you've come to know and expect".
While StarSat didn't do an annual price hike to its subscription fees like MultiChoice did for South African DStv subscribers from April, StarSat did raise subscription fees slightly due to VAT.
MultiChoice hiked DStv prices but didn't add the increased VAT rate from 14% to 15%, saying that MultiChoice will absorb the 1% increase in VAT to "assist our customers by not increasing our prices further".
StarTimes Media SA and On Digital Media (ODM) running StarSat says it's hiking StarSat subscription fees "due to the announced increase on the VAT tariff from 1 April 2018, as well as upgrades to our bouquets and services, we are going to be raising our subscription prices slightly on all our packages" and that "we hope we have been successful in providing you with excellent customer service and programming".
StarSat Super now cost R209 per month for 80 TV channels and 25 audio channels with a Film Box and Fashion Box channels that will be added "soon".
StarSat Special now cost R109 per month for 50 TV channels and 25 audio channels, with the JimJam (StarSat 303) kids channel and National Geographic (StarSat 220) channel that will be added.
StarSat Indian with Indian content will now cost R109 per month for this add-on package of 9 TV channels.
StarSat French with 12 additional TV channels will now cost R129 per month for the French content if its bolted onto an existing "main" StarSat subscription, or can be taken as a stand-alone package but then costing R248 per month.
StarSat Chinese now costs R209 per month for 17 additional TV channels of Chinese content (that is also available as a stand-alone subscription).
StarSat Sports+ costs R99 per month for 2 additional high definition (HD) sports channels that is currently available at no cost to all paying StarSat subscribers as a promotion for a limited period.
