Just how free are they? I got the painful memories of the current service providers (read Dstv and Zuku) proclaiming the local mux would be truly fta upon expiry of subscription at the time of their launch, only to renege on the same a few months down the line. StarSat seems to claim the same, but I read a hidden persuader in this; a mere marketing gimmick that they would sooner dispense with hiding behind some obscure clause in the legalese that is the contract skewed in their favour(Probably only leaving you with the not so beloved KBC).
If it were within my power, then the conundrum that is the digital migration in this country would have been sorted in one fell swoop by the government leasing space on one sat (preferably SES 5) and demanding that the current broadcasters upload content fta on it. It would save us the hassle of buying an stb only to be told Gotv or startimes is yet to reach this town etc etc.
The case is more concrete if you bring in regional integration into the flux. It would offer expanded market to products if for example by housing all the local tv stations in subsaharan Africa on one bird, an Ethiopian working in Botwana say can watch ETV as would a Kenyan living in Cameroon keep up with 'Churchill Live' on NTV. Frankly this terrestrial broadcasting, digital or otherwise, is very limited in reach. Perhaps our friends in the MENA region thought well ahead of us with Nilesat.