STBs to see record shipment in 2013
New research from IHS has forecast that set-top box shipments will reach record highs over the next few years.
According to the latest Set-Top Box Market Monitor report from IHS Global, shipments of STBs used for cable, satellite, terrestrial and Internet protocol television (IPTV) digital TV services are expected to climb to 269 million units this year, up 8% from 250 million in 2012.
IHS predicts that shipments will grow another 6% to 286 million in 2014 and then peak at 290 million in 2015. Once we reach 2015, STB shipments will begin to decline – decreasing by 5% in 2016 and another 2% in 2017.
“STBs are facing a mounting challenge to their role as the dominant pay TV video consumption device because of operators’ growing emphasis on supporting multiscreen devices,” said Daniel Simmons, senior principal analyst for TV technology at IHS.
“However, operators are continuing to deploy STBs in order to manage the compatibility between their delivery networks and the consumer electronics devices that consumers are increasingly using to view content now.
“As pay-TV operators rush to accommodate changes in delivery platforms and in video formats – including the adoption of high definition – STB shipments will continue to rise, hitting record levels for the next few years.”
According to IHS, reports of the STB’s decline have been fuelled by the increasing integration of multiscreen devices. However, IHS claims that the ‘multiscreen phenomenon’ will instead help to boost the STB market during the next few years, as operators offer multimedia home gateway STBs that can deliver services to PCs, smartphones, tablets and other devices, supporting the operator as an app model.
“The global transition from analog to digital TV will be almost complete by 2016, leading to a contraction in the overall number of STBs shipped,” Simmons said.
“As this deadline approaches, the best-positioned vendors will be those that have developed the most technologically advanced STBs that will allow them to drive value in the developed markets, as well as those that can extract maximum margin from the emerging markets.”