A jump in cable and satellite set-top box shipments in Asia-Pacific markets is being driven by cable digitization in India and China, as well as China’s rollout of digital satellite boxes to its rural households. “Digital transitions are bringing consumers access to hundreds of international channels and a few HD services for the first time. Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe’s growth in set-top box units will outstrip those of the rest of the world in the next 5 years,” according to Sam Rosen, practice director of TV & video at ABI Research.
Operators in these developing markets are for very low costs boxes. Set-top box manufacturers are looking to decrease BOM costs by using in-house CAS solutions and low cost SoCs optimized with lower-powered CPUs that support HD video, but only simpler graphical user interfaces. “China has a robust ecosystem of set-top box manufacturers, coupled with CAS vendors China Digital TV and Sumavision” according to Sam Rosen. “Meanwhile, India is struggling to enable an ecosystem of local manufacturers, as well as to get adequate supply of boxes to meet an unrealistic digitization timeframe.”
These findings are part of ABI Research’s Set-Top Box Research Service, which includes additional Competitive Analyses, Vendor Matrices, Market Data, and Insights.