Four months later On Digital Media has failed to refund dumped StarSat subscribers after pay-TV implosion

by Thinus Ferreira

Despondent and angry former StarSat subscribers have been unable to get the refunds they're due, four months after the collapse of the pay-TV service that abruptly ceased broadcasting in October after its equipment was seized by authorities.

Since July 2023, StarTimes SA and On Digital Media (ODM) kept running the unlicensed StarSat for more than a year after it failed to renew its pay-TV licence and had made changes to the foreign ownership shareholding of the pay-TV operator. ODM refused to reveal its latest shareholding.

StarSat was the only commercial traditional pay-TV operator competing with MultiChoice's DStv in the South African market.

After repeated warnings since March 2024 for StarSat to shut down by September of last year, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) raided StarSat's head office in Midrand in October 2024 and removed equipment which took StarSat off air.

Before this, the Chinese-run StarSat SA and ODM didn't want to tell StarSat subscribers that it was operating without a valid licence, had been ordered to shut down and that it was threatened with a raid - opting to keep subscribers in the dark and continuing to take monthly subscription fees and selling to and signing up new subscribers.

Bewildered subscribers were devastated when they suddenly lost their signals on 2 October, when the South African police and Icasa took servers, cabling and other equipment while StarSat staff huddled in prayer circles.

Jan-Hendrik Harmse, StarSat marketing manager, on that day told SABC News the company would be going to the courts immediately to get its equipment back.

At the time, ODM and StarTimes Media in a statement claimed it would "resolve this issue swiftly and restore services". It also claimed it would continue to keep all stakeholders, including customers, employees and the media, informed as the situation progresses". 

In the past four months none of this happened.

Besides the claim in October of going to court for the seized equipment, the company also claimed that it was involved in another separate legal battle with Icasa.

Earlier in 2024 the company went to court to try and get an urgent interdict against Icasa's shutdown order.

The Gauteng High Court dismissed the urgent application.

ODM then claimed that besides going to court for its seized equipment, "A review order is pending to address the substantive legal issues between the two parties once the court date is set".

Icasa said in 2024 it wasn't aware of any further legal action from the company.

ODM appointed Eclipse Communications to do crisis communications following the raid and shutdown of StarSat but Eclipse told TVwithThinus last week in response to a media query it no longer represents the company.

Subscribers who wanted refunds were told to email emailing wecare@starsat.co.za but haven't had any response for months. 

Former StarSat subscribers say calls to the StarSat call centre number are also not being answered and their questions across social media are ignored.

Since the shutdown in October the StarSat website and its FAQ page have not been changed or updated to reflect that it's not providing a service anymore.

Last week Tarren-Kelly Hendricks, writing on StarSat's Facebook page, summed up the sentiment of thousands of former StarSat subscribers, writing "StarSat can you please reimburse me now. It's been months without any subscription, I can't afford to lose my money. Please just pay back my money for the month of October".

Shereena MacNabe said "Since your last communication with us on 8 October 2024, four months later and you just went mute on us. As if we don't exist anymore."

Last week after trying and giving up with the call centre number, TVwithThinus called the ODM office number 011 582 9802 with a media query,  asking about customers unable to get refunds. 

Jan-Hendrik Harmse said "someone" would call back, but nobody did. He was also emailed a media query a week ago.

Jan-Hendrik Harmse was asked why subscribers have not received their entitled refunds after four months, are not being helped to get their money back, why former subscribers are not getting replies to emails, calls, and on questions through social media channels.

The company was also asked what exactly the steps and process are for StarSat subscribers to get back the money they have paid for a service they haven't received and why the StarSat website doesn't mention that the service isn't running.

There was no response from the company.

ALSO READ: StarSat denies it will be shutting down in September after South Africa's broadcasting regulator Icasa revokes On Digital Media's pay-TV licence

ALSO READ: South Africa's broadcasting regulator warns that StarSat which failed to renew its pay-TV licence in time is operating illegally and should have shut down 18 September

ALSO READ: Half a million StarSat subscribers could be cut as On Digital Media that no longer has a licence defies South Africa's broadcasting regulator Icasa and says it 'will remain operational'

ALSO READ: Icasa and the police shuts down unlicensed On Digital Media's StarSat in raid on Midrand offices as staff huddle in prayer circles

ALSO READ: Unlicensed StarSat kept shutdown order secret for 6 months, says ‘recent order came as unexpected surprise’

ALSO READ: Unlicensed StarSat claims its not illegal, refuses to reveal shareholding

ALSO READ: Angry StarSat subscribers demand and are entitled to refunds

ALSO READ: South Africa's broadcast regulator Icasa says it is unaware of StarSat court action after its shutdown raid while angry subscribers demand refunds

StarSat raises prices after VAT increase, says it's 'something we must do in order to continue to provide you with the quality you've come to know'.

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.

StarSat responds about dropping more TV channels, signal loss, FOX Life EPG problems and an open week it couldn't bother to promote at all.

With an unending stream of complaints about StarSat in South Africa, On Digital Media (ODM) and StarTimes South Africa answered media questions about the really appalling service levels, bad signal quality and channels once again being culled without people or the media being told about it.

StarSat subscribers are furious about the removal of the ZING and Zee Tamil channels and told TVwithThinus they're not getting any answers to their questions about it.

StarSat subscribers are irritated that the StarSat electronic programme guide (EPG) for certain channels, like FOX Life from FOX Networks Group Africa isn't working and is out of sync. Again, StarSat subscribers are not getting answers.

StarSat also had an unencoded Open Week in South Africa, similar and at the same time as StarTimes elsewhere in Africa. Shockingly, StarSat couldn't bother to publicise or promote this in South Africa to the press at all. StarSat - in its answer - also doesn't know whether it even had it on its own website.

StarSat subscribers are also angry over ongoing signal losses, signal quality and not getting channels even when they're paid up with nothing that should be wrong with their subscription.

Below is the questions TVwithThinus asked StarSat a week ago, and the answers, unaltered, it took StarSat a week to provide:

1. Has the ZING channel been removed from StarSat, several subscribers can't find it. If it has been removed, why did StarSat end the channel, and why wasn't subscribers told? Will the channel be replaced?
The ZING channel was removed  in November 2016 and will be replaced at  the beginning of December by a number of new high quality Indian channels.  Subscribers were informed of ZING being removed from the StarSat platform via SMS, Bmail and an email.  

2. Has the Zee Tamil channel been removed from StarSat? If it has been removed, why did StarSat end the channel? Why did StarSat not tell subscribers?

Zee Tamil  channel was removed in November 2016  and will be replaced at the beginning of December by a number of new high quality Indian channels.  Subscribers were informed of Zee being removed via SMS, Bmail and an email.  

3. A large number of subscribers are angry about signal issues, saying channels freeze, that they can't get signal(s). Why is this happening (yet again) and how is StarSat fixing this and why does it keep on occurring?

The issue of customers not receiving signal can be due to many reasons and since we don’t have detail of the error message; our response will address a number of potential issues. 

The first reason could be due to rain fade, for instance during severe thunderstorms the signal is affected.  

It could also be due to problems with the installation, the customer should contact the StarSat Call Centre so that the problem can be identified and resolved.

3. StarSat subscribers are angry that the EPG doesn't correspond to what is being shown, for instance the FOX Life EPG doesn't correspond with the channel. Why is this?

 StarSat had technical challenges on FOX Life EPG which the EPG provider has now resolved.  We do apologise for any inconvenience caused.

4.Was there an open week weekend for StarSat where people could view the offering unencoded? If yes, why did StarSat not tell anybody?

Yes, StarSat special package subscribers as well as those subs who had disconnected were offered 10 free channels to view during Open week from 12 - 20 November 2016.  

Subscribers and disconnected subs received an alert to the Open Week offering via SMS and email.  (was there any info on the website?)

StarSat subscribers loses another 2 TV channels; Spark and Qyou both dumped and not immediately replaced over 'poor performance'.

StarSat subscribers are losing another 2 TV channels with Spark (StarSat 225) and Qyou (StarSat 165) that's suddenly getting dumped and not replaced on 30 June.

That's in addition to StarSat losing the NBA channels that's going dark as well tomorrow on its platform.

Once again, On Digital Media (ODM) and StarTimes Media South Africa couldn't bother to tell the media about changes to its channels and channel line-up.

Spark and Qyou will fold over "poor performance".

ODM replaced its floundering self-compiled Top Explore channel with Spark in July 2013, but now its going dark after just three years with no new factual entertainment channel replacement for StarSat subscribers.

StarSat added the internet video, linear TV channel Qyou from October 2014 and it is gone after a year and 9 months.

In response to a media enquiry, StarSat says "StarSat can confirm that as of 30 June Spark and Qyou channels will no longer be available on its platform. The decision to close Spark and Qyou was taken due to poor performance of both channels."

"StarSat would like to reassure its valued subscribers that while these two channels will no longer be available on its platform, it does create an opportunity for the company to acquire other high quality and entertaining channels for its valued subscribers".