The Asia-Pacific region will lead set-top box growth for the next five years, with shipments approaching 50% of the set-top boxes sold worldwide in 2013-2015 before falling off slightly.
According to ABI Research, established players delivering cable boxes to China, including Jiuzhou and Coship, stand to gain in market share as unit shipments and ASP increase in Asia. Huawei (through Huawei Devices) is also engaging service providers in the region, and ABI Research expects they will see success in this market.
“This trend, in which Asia-Pacific countries see continued strong STB adoption, is driven by the completion of digital transitions in North America and Western Europe, coupled with the digitization of cable systems in China occurring through 2015-2016. Subscriber growth in India is strong, but no clear timeline for digitization is being pursued, which is hampering digital set-top box growth in the subcontinent,” said ABI Research practice director Jason Blackwell.
Worldwide, video operators’ desire to offer more channels and high definition channels has been evident. Worldwide, cable services remain the most popular pay-TV platform although they continue to lose market share, primarily to Telco TV (IPTV) platforms, with Satellite (DBS) and Terrestrial (DTT) platforms gaining customers but maintaining their market shares.