DStv has one serious satellite TV competitor left in South Africa

The fall of DStv rival StarSat means just one serious competitor to the MultiChoice pay-TV platform remains in South Africa — eMedia’s Openview.

On Thursday, 27 February 2025, StarSat marketing manager Jan Hendrik Harmse told MyBroadband that OnDigital Media, the pay-TV broadcaster’s licence holder, had been liquidated.

“OnDigital Media, the independent broadcasting licence holder that processed payments of StarSat, has been liquidated,” he said.

The pay-TV broadcaster stopped broadcasting locally after the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) raided its Midrand headquarters in October 2024, disconnecting its broadcast signals in the process.

The raid came after OnDigital Media failed to renew StarSat’s broadcast licence on time, and the broadcaster refused to adhere to Icasa’s instruction to shut down by 18 September 2024.

Harmse’s feedback came after customers voiced their frustration over StarSat’s lack of input regarding its service return and refunds for those who had paid their subscription fee in October 2024.

The broadcaster last updated customers on 8 October 2024, saying it would continue to work on returning its broadcast signals in South Africa. It also temporarily suspended all payments following the disconnection.

“Customers who have paid will not lose their money and will be rewarded with bonuses once the signal is restored,” it said.

However, a lack of updates led many frustrated customers to complain on StarSat’s social media pages, with many saying their emailed requests for refunds have gone unanswered.

Calls to the customer support centre have also gone unanswered.

“StarSat SA can you please reimburse me now? It’s been months without any subscriptions. I can’t afford to lose my money. Please just pay back my money for the month of October,” one user complained on Facebook.

“Since your last communication with us on 8 October 2024, it’s now 4 months later, and you just went mute on us as if we don’t exist anymore,” another commented.

One formidable rival left

StarSat was the only satellite pay-TV competitor to DStv with a similar subscription model, where customers pay the monthly subscription for a package they choose to continue watching.

The only serious competitor remaining is eMedia’s OpenView, which operates on a different model. It charges customers hardware and installation costs, after which its programming is free to view.

The eMedia-owned satellite TV broadcaster has made some big moves recently, including the launch of its long-awaited new decoder in July 2024.

It described the new decoder’s launch as the “dawn of a new era in home entertainment for South Africa”.

The Openview OV512, priced at R799, is available through the Openview website or by calling the broadcaster’s customer service centre.

It offers new features like a built-in Wi-Fi received that Openview says users can use to access additional “premium content”, including international and local content.

The new decoder’s remote features a “+MORE” button to access on-demand content in HD quality.

It also enables users to pause, rewind, and fast-forward on-demand content.

The eMedia-owned satellite TV service grew its customer base significantly during the year ended 30 June 2024.

By the end of March 2024, the number of activated Openview decoders had reached 3,428,523. This represents an increase of 262,062 decoders in one year or just less than 22,000 activations per month.

This was on top of already significant growth during the period from 2019 to 2024, in which the eMedia-owned broadcaster activated roughly 2.81 million decoders.