StarSat


StarSat is a South African direct broadcast satellite television service that began broadcasting on 1 May 2010. StarSat is operated by On Digital Media, who were granted a pay-TV license by ICASA in September 2007. On Digital Media is currently 20% owned by Luxembourgish satellite operator SES and 20% owned by Chinese company StarTimes. StarSat's service is aimed at the LSM 6-9 demographic, targeting middle class viewers.

History

On Digital Media Ltd launched TopTV on 1 May 2010.
On 30 April 2013, shareholders of On Digital Media voted to approve China-based company StarTimes taking over a 20% share of ODM. By doing so, StarTimes effectively acquired a 65% economic interest in ODM. The vote also included adoption of a business rescue plan.
TopTV was officially rebranded as StarSat on 31 October 2013. The new packages and channels associated with the new brand were made available on 1 December 2013.

Broadcast and Reception

StarSat services are broadcast via satellite, using the SES-5 satellite at the 5° east orbital position, and 3 of the six 36 MHz transponders in the "Sub Saharan Africa Ku-band" beam providing coverage of the whole sub-Saharan Africa region. Transmissions are in the DVB-S2 MPEG-4 digital TV format with reception using a simple set-top box and with the Combo3 PVR decoder launched in 2011.
Conax is used as conditional access system.