South Africa pay-TV broadcaster OnDigital Media, parent of StarSat, is no more. Fifteen years after being licensed, the company has been placed into liquidation.

“OnDigital Media, the independent broadcasting licence holder that processed StarSat’s payments, has been liquidated,” Jan Hendrick Harmse, marketing manager at StarSat. This means that subscribers who pre-paid their annual viewing fees are likely to lose their cash. StarSat stopped broadcasting in October 2024.

Icasa had brought StarSat’s operations to a grinding halt in October when the communications regulator, working with the police, conducted a raid on StarSat’s Midrand offices. During the raid, Icasa confiscated equipment critical to StarSat’s broadcasting operations, cutting off paying customers in South Africa and 23 other African markets where StarSat shareholder StarTimes operates pay-television services that compete with MultiChoice Group.

The raid by Icasa came after the regulator ordered StarSat to shut down its operations due to OnDigital Media’s failure to renew its broadcasting licence timeously as required under the Electronic Communications Act.

“Despite numerous reminders, ODM submitted its licence renewal application after the expiry date on 10 November 2023. The authority does not have the legislative or regulatory mandate to consider a renewal application for a licence that has already expired,” Icasa said in October.

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Tags: south africa, StarSat