STB market stalls out as mature markets drop
Michelle Clancy | 01-11-2013
Worldwide set-top box revenue totalled $4.3 billion in the second quarter of 2013, down 3% from the previous quarter and down 9% from the year-ago Q2.
The analysis, from market research firm Infonetics Research, covers IPTV, cable and satellite/DTT set-top boxes (STBs) and over-the-top (OTT) media servers. It found that cable STB revenue was hit hard, and declined 14% sequentially while unit shipments were flat, reflecting an increasingly heavier mix of single-tuner standard-definition boxes for emerging markets.
"The STB market is in the midst of a series of significant technology shifts, and these changes are resulting in ebbs and flows in shipments on a global basis, with individual markets swinging each quarter's performance," noted Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay-T V at
Infonetics Research. "There are real unit shipment declines occurring in North America and Western Europe that won't be offset by growth in Asia Pacific and Latin America until 2014."
Emerging and mature markets are developing starkly different trajectories. "We're seeing the market bifurcate along geographic lines," said Heynen. "We have a post-STB market, which includes North America and Western Europe, where operators are having a difficult time adding new pay-TV subscribers and are responding by transitioning to video gateways. And then there's the emerging STB market in China, India and Latin America, where digitisation projects are underway."
Overall, Pace was the global STB revenue share leader in 2Q13, overtaking Cisco, whose revenue fell sharply quarter-over-quarter. Arris meanwhile soared into the No 3 spot, bolstered by its acquisition of the Motorola Home division earlier this year.
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