NEW DELHI: StarSat, the successor to South Africa’s pay TV operator ODM, is dumping its controversial adult TV channels.

The channels have been on air since November 2013 and have been hugely contentious with various legal battles between civic community groups and the broadcaster, and between South Africa’s ICASA broadcasting regulator.

ODM, in a statement from executive consultant Eddie Mbalo, said the company is disappointed with the Supreme Court of Appeal’s decision to refuse ODM the right to appeal the Western Cape High Court’s initial decision to bar the channels.

Nevertheless, ODM “as a way of showing respect for the decisions of South Africa’s courts,” has decided to terminate the broadcasting of the adult content channels, it said.