Verified 13 September 2026

StarTimes antenna or dish, and why your price list may not match

By David Wachira · StarTimes Kenya hub · paybillke is an independent guide and is not affiliated with StarTimes Kenya.

StarTimes sells two services. The antenna service uses a small aerial and carries the terrestrial line-up. The dish service uses a satellite dish and carries more channels. Your decoder decides which packages you can buy, and the two have different names and different prices, which is why a price list you find online may not match what you are quoted.

How to tell which one you have

Look at what is on your wall or roof. A small flat or stick aerial means you are on the antenna service. A dish means you are on satellite. If you are unsure, the decoder model and the packages offered to you when you try to subscribe will tell you, because the system will only show the line-up your equipment can receive.

Why the price lists you find disagree

Most third-party pages list one set of prices without saying which service it belongs to, so a reader on the antenna service reads dish prices, or the reverse, and concludes the page is wrong. Sometimes it is; often it is describing the other product. Before you trust any StarTimes price, including one you find here, check whether it is the antenna or the dish list and confirm it on StarTimes’ own site.

Why we are not printing a price table

We could not confirm current StarTimes prices against StarTimes’ own site, and we do not publish prices on secondary sourcing alone. That is not caution for its own sake. Another pay-TV record on this site carried a price ladder from the wrong country for months because several sources agreed with each other and nobody checked the one that owned the number. A blank is recoverable; a confident wrong figure is not.

What does not change

Whichever service you are on, the payment instruction is identical: paybill 585858, your smartcard number as the account, the exact amount for your package. That part is stable and is the thing most people actually came to find.

About this page

paybillke is an independent payments directory. We are not StarTimes and we cannot see or change your account. The paybill here was checked on 13 September 2026. We deliberately publish no price table: confirm current package prices on startimes.co.ke or with a StarTimes agent, because prices differ between the antenna and dish services and change without notice.

Frequently asked

Does StarTimes have one paybill for both services?

Yes. Antenna and dish both use 585858 with your smartcard number as the account.

How do I know if I am on antenna or dish?

A small aerial means antenna, a satellite dish means dish. The packages offered when you subscribe will also only show what your equipment can receive.

Why do StarTimes price lists differ?

Most do not say whether they are quoting the antenna or the dish line-up. The two have different names and prices.

How much is StarTimes?

We do not publish a price table because we could not confirm current figures against StarTimes’ own site. Check startimes.co.ke or a StarTimes agent.

Can I switch between antenna and dish?

It requires different equipment, so it is a hardware change rather than a package change. Ask a StarTimes agent what the switch costs.