TopTV changes to StarSat – what’s gone and what’s new and for how much
So, the message arrived on my TopTV decoder this evening telling of the channel changes and the new pricing. For December, we will get the new bouquet for the same pricing as for the �old� TopTV offering but from 1 Jan 2014 the pricing will change.
So, what will be added and removed from my package you might ask?
Well, a visit to the new TopTV web site redirects you to the new StarSat web site, so it�s a bit difficult to compare :(
So, I dug up my old calculator and started modifying it to see what�s new and what�s been removed.
To summarize (and what they don�t tell you on the new StarSat web site):
These are the channels that will not be on StarSat any more:
1KZN, Classica, Discovery Science, Fashion, Fuel TV, Magic TV, Natura, and Zee Cinema
These are the new channels to be added to the StartSat offering (a lot of Chinese stuff in these):
Animaux, Bollywood HD, CCTV9, CCTV News, Chinese 2, CNC, e Kasi, e Movies, eAfrica, Entertainment Stars, Extreme Sports Channel, Extremely Nigerian, Fox crime, Kung Fu 3, KZN TV, Nat Geo Gold, NBA TV, NBA TV HD, Novela E1, OH Africa, Science Channel, Smile of a Child, Star Africa 2, Star Bollywood, Star E1, Star Movies 1, Star Music, Star Novela E3, Times Now, Tshwane TV, Zing.
My main concerns and the reason why I�m probably going to say goodbye to TopTV/StarSat is that the 3 channels that we watch the most on our R169 pm bouquet (previously called Variety+Entertainment+Knowledge) are not available on the �Smart� offering for R149: Discovery Science and Natura (which � it seems - have both gone completely from StarSat) and ID Investigation Discovery (which is available on the �Super� bouquet for R199 pm).
I don�t want to be forced into spending the extra R30 per month for those 2 channels and I may as well see what the DSTV people are offering for R199.
Here�s the detail of my comparison of the old TopTV with the new StarSat bouquets: 
Luckily the old TopTV web site is still online on the www.ondigitalmedia.co.za site if you want to do your own comparisons.
The DSTV site for comparing what your R169 or R199 per month can buy you is here: http://selfservice.dstv.com/get-dstv/compare-packages
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