The worldwide market fordigital Set Top Boxes—including hard-to-track free-to-air (FTA) satellite (DBS) boxes—will grow from 205 million in 2010 to 226 million in 2015. Shipments in North America and Western Europe are falling following largely successful digital transitions, while Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe all see significant growth. Set-top boxes in China will grow at nearly 10 per cent per year (CAGR).
 
“Cable boxes decline in the short term due to cable’s failure to compete in the North American markets; however they grow in the long term due to significant numbers of new subscribers in China Manufacturing and, to a lesser extent, India,” says ABI Research senior analyst Sam Rosen. “Digital terrestrial (DTT) boxes see the largest platform growth worldwide as countries in Asia-Pacific and Latin America move through their digital transitions and toward analog shutoff (ASO) of broadcasts.”
 
DTT box shipments will grow at 8.4 per cent CAGR from 2010 to 2015. “Standard Definition DVRs will become a thing of the past in North America and Western Europe, although they will continue to play a minor role in Asia and Eastern Europe.”
 
ABI Research’s “Set Top Box Market Data” study (http://www.abiresearch.com/research/1003753) covers STB shipments for digital cable, digital satellite (pay services and free-to-air), IPTV and digital terrestrial TV (pay services and free-to-air). It segments TV household data by platform, unit shipment forecasts, and the market value of set-top boxes worldwide. It describes technology transitions, including high definition, broadcast standard (ATSC, DTMB, DVT-T, ISDB-T) and personal video recorders (PVR / DVR).
 
This report is included in ABI Research’s TV, Digital Picture Frames and Video Research Service.