Pay-television provider StarSat has gone off-air, apparently because of technical problems. Viewers say the signal stopped transmitting on Monday afternoon.

StarSat subscribers have called TechCentral, complaining that they have not been able to contact the company through its call centre or through e-mail.

In a terse statement sent to TechCentral, StarSat says simply that it is “experiencing technical issues”.

In an SMS sent to clients, it says: “StarSat apologises for signal loss due to a technical problem from our supplier. Our technical team is urgently working on the problem.”

Starsat is owned by On Digital Media and is controlled by Chinese satellite television provider StarTimes. It was previously known as TopTV. It was the only one of five subscription satellite services licensed by communications regulator Icasa late last decade to launch commercial services in competition with pay-TV incumbent MultiChoice.

StarSat satellite services are provided by European satellite operator SES, headquartered in Luxembourg.

The supreme court of appeal last month dismissed StarSat’s leave to appeal a high court judgment that communications regulator Icasa had erred in granting it a licence to broadcast pornography. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media