by Thinus Ferreira
South Africa's broadcasting regulator
on Wednesday morning cut off the signal of the unlicensed On Digital Media's StarSat in a raid on its Midrand office complex in Johannesburg after a defiant
ODM continued broadcasting and refused to shut down.
StarSat staff stood around, huddled in prayer circles.
Thousands of StarSat subscribers who
were warned not to pay for another month, after the Independent Communications
Authority of South Africa (Icasa) warned the public that StarSat was meant to
shut down on 18 September, suddenly lost signal and got an "E001: There is
no signal! This may be due to bad weather or a faulty connection in the
installation" on-screen message from their decoders.
On Wednesday morning ODM didn't respond other than to say on
social media "We are aware of the connection issue and we will provide
further feedback".
It didn't tell subscribers that Icasa
had shut it down when the regulator's officials arrived at its offices in
Halfway Gardens, ripped equipment out and carried it away.
Icasa officials ripped out servers, cables and other broadcasting equipment since 9:00 on Wednesday morning.
Icasa's StarSat raid and shutdown was televised live on SABC News.
Jan-Hendrik Harmse, StarSat marketing manager, told SABC News that Icasa arrived on Wednesday morning with a search and seizure order.
"Icasa started unplugging things. They started just ripping out all the equipment we need to broadcast. But not just to South Africa, but to the rest of Africa as well. So as we speak, our customers have nothing showing on their screens."
"If we have to go to the courts we are going to go to the courts," he said.
On Wednesday afternoon a StarSat's customer call centre operator, when asked if StarSat had been raided and shut down, said "No, that is not the case".
StarSat which has been broadcasting unlicensed for over a year and failed to renew its licence, claims it is not
operating illegally, with the Chinese-run pay-TV provider that says it will
continue to defy South Africa's broadcasting regulator and stay on the air.
ODM didn't immediately respond to a
media query about Icasa’s shutdown of StarSat. Icasa also didn't respond yet to
a media query seeking comment on its shutdown raid.
Icasa warned ODM multiple times in 2023 to renew its broadcasting licence in time, which the Midrand-based satellite
pay-TV operator ignored and failed to do.
ODM's 15-year
broadcasting licence expired on 8 July last year and simply kept broadcasting
without telling StarSat subscribers, installer agents, its staff, or local and
international TV channel providers that it is operating without any valid
licence.
By March this year Icasa told ODM it must shut down by 18 September and in advance of the
shuttering date tell all its stakeholders, subscribers and channel providers
that 18 September will be its last day on air.
The date came and went
with ODM, the only traditional satellite pay-TV competitor to MultiChoice's
DStv, defying Icasa's shutdown order and vowing to keep broadcasting despite
losing an urgent court interdict against its shutdown order in the Gauteng High
Court.
On Tuesday, at a
hastily-arranged press conference, Pule Mabe who is now StarSat's head of
strategy and public affairs and previously was national spokesperson for the
ANC political party, claimed that "StarSat is not operating illegally".
During its business
rescue under which the financially imploded TopTV became StarSat, China's
StarTimes acquired a 20% share in StarSat, the maximum allowed by a foreign
company in a local media business. On Tuesday ODM refused to provide the
current shareholding structure and composition of StarSat.
"We are trying to
recover on the two years that we have lost. During that period, our own
shareholding at the level of StarSat got to be tampered with," Pule Mabe
said.
He said StarSat is
going to do roadshows over the next weeks with mobile operators "depending
on where we get the right and best offer for our customers to launch fully our
over-the-top (OTT) platform so that our people know that they do not only have
to rely on satellite dishes for them to watch content".
After StarSat claimed
it has 500 000 subscribers and 600 workers who will lose their jobs if the
unlicensed StarSat is forced to shut down, an insider told News24 that these
numbers are very likely overstated.
Meanwhile, TV channel
operators and distributors including the SABC, e.tv, Warner Bros. Discovery
(WBD), ZEE, The Walt Disney Company, AMC Networks International, the BBC,
Bloomberg, NBCUniversal, Sky News, Trace Africa and others have not pulled
their channels from StarSat and continued to supply their channel collections to
the illegal pay-TV operator.
Justine Limpitlaw, an
expert in electronic communications law, told SABC News that "until a
court sets aside Icasa's decision, Icasa is the regulator under the
constitution".
"StarSat simply
didn't apply in time and Icasa has therefore said to it you need to wind down
your operations."
On Wednesday afternoon StarSat in a statement confirmed "that today Icasa, accompanied by the South African Police Service entered its Midrand offices and disconnected services".
"During this process, not only were ODM's services impacted but also those of StarTimes Media's pan-African broadcast. As the service provider to ODM and a subsidiary of the larger StarTimes Group, StarTimes Media holds a valid individual electronics communication network service (ECNS) licence for transmissions across Africa."
"While we acknowledge Icasa's mandate to shut down ODM's South African services, we are appalled by the manner in which Icasa disregarded ODM's reasonable initial request for a discussion regarding which equipment should be removed, should the execution order be carried out."
"Instead, Icasa opted to remove all equipment, including that belonging to StarTimes Media, which has adversely affected its pan-African broadcast services. This disconnection is highly concerning as it affects legitimate operations under this licence."
"While ODM acknowledges an ongoing dispute, it strongly contests the disconnection of a valid
StarTimes Media connection, which it believes to be unlawful."
"ODM is exploring all legal avenues to resolve this issue swiftly and restore services. The company's legal representatives have urgently approached the courts and will continue to keep all stakeholders, including customers, employees, and the media, informed as the situation progresses."