by Thinus Ferreira
StarSat which has been broadcasting unlicensed for over a year and
failed to renew its licence, on Tuesday claimed that it is not operating illegally, with the
Chinese-run pay-TV provider that said it would continue to defy South Africa's
broadcasting regulator and stay on the air.
This comes as On Digital Media (ODM) that runs StarSat refuses to
divulge its local and foreign shareholding, with an insider saying StarSat's
claims of 500 000 subscribers and 600 workers are bogus.
South Africa's, the Independent Communications Authority of South
Africa (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
continue to supply their channel collections to the illegal pay-TV operator.
Icasa didn't respond to a media query earlier this
week, asking whether it told channel distributors to stop providing their
content to StarSat since it is unlicensed and was told to shut down.
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."
