New data from ABI Research has revealed that Asia-Pacific’s share of the market will approach 50% of all sold worldwide in 2013-2015.
The research firm says that the key driver for the trend will be the completion of digital transitions in North America and Western Europe, coupled with the digitisation of cable systems in China occurring through 2015-2016. Even though subscriber growth in India is also likely to be strong, a lack of a clear timeline for digitisation could hamper digital STB growth in the longer term.
According to the Set-Top Box Market Data report, cable TV services remained the most popular pay-TV platform although they continue to lose market share, primarily to IPTV, satellite TV (DBS) and DTT platforms are gaining customers through market growth, but maintaining steady market shares.
Yet overall ABI believes that worldwide, video operators’ desire to offer more channels and high definition channels was evident. “2011 reflects the first full year where boxes capable of decoding MPEG-4 (H.264 AVC) will exceed legacy boxes capable of decoding only MPEG-2,” explained senior analyst Sam Rosen. “MPEG-4 is required for high-definition video, and can help fit more digital standard definition channels into the same bandwidth, compared to the MPEG-2 codec.”
Read more: Asia-Pac to drive STB growth for the next five years | News | Rapid TV News http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/2011021010283/asia-pac-to-drive-stb-growth-for-the-next-five-years.html#ixzz1Dc6C1jfs