On Digital Media's (ODM's) new pay-TV offering, StarSat (formerly TopTV), has suffered a host of technical and operational challenges in its first month of operation - a situation caused by the migration process, according to the operator.
Following a flood of complaints around poor customer service, blocked channels and faulty TV signal, StarSat has issued an apology to its subscribers, and says "the majority of these technical issues have been resolved".
The migration process - pinned as the origin of most of the problems - involved a shift from a single transponder to multiple transponders, says StarSat. "Although [this was] intended to enhance viewer experiences with the addition of more channels, [it] has regretfully resulted in subscribers not receiving certain channels, signal delays, as well as technical dropout."
The pay-TV operator says subscribers still experiencing difficulty in accessing some or all channels should contact its call centre on 086 086 STAR/7827 or SMS their contact and ID numbers to 40003. "StarSat will cover all costs relating to a technician's visit - should this be deemed necessary."
Turning the page
The result of a partnership between Chinese digital pay-TV provider StarTimes and ODM, StarSat became available to consumers on 1 December, via the company's fully HD decoder.
This came after a protracted business rescue process, which ODM entered into almost a year prior, after having struggled to win market share and turn profit in a market dominated by MultiChoice's DStv offering. TopTV launched in May 2010.
ODM says, since adopting the business rescue plan, StarSat has overhauled its product offering. "This includes packages, pricing structures, channels and content, networks, sales and distribution, and customer service and billing."
In November, ODM said it hoped to have more than 100 channels on StarSat by the beginning of January, as new channels were phased in and added to subscriber packages.
According to its Web site, StarSat currently offers 96 channels, spread across 10 different genres - including movies, documentaries, news, sport, music, kids, religious, local, Indian and Chinese.
Yesterday, StarSat said it had launched a range of new content sourced from third parties - as well as own-branded channels - and that it hoped to add more in future "based on customer feedback".
The operator says ongoing upgrades to the network have also been taking place. "The platform now supports full HD broadcast."
In a Facebook statement, StarSat thanked customers for their support during its "transitional period".
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