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Asia-Pac Leads Satellite Set-Top Box Growth

Due to remarkable shipment growth in the Asia-Pacific region -- and particularly India -- the worldwide satellite set top box (STB) market grew in 2008, according to the latest market study from In-Stat.

However, outside of Asia-Pacific and Latin America, regional markets remain sluggish or even negative. Another important trend is the rise of High Definition (HD) Digital Video Recorders (DVRs).

"In-Stat expects HD DVRs to overtake shipments of Standard Definition (SD) DVR boxes in 2009, with some providers no longer offering SD DVR boxes," says Michelle Abraham, In-Stat analyst.

More providers will stop offering them in the future, with some going so far as to eliminate all SD boxes from their product lineup in a few years.

In-Stat's market study found the following:

- The worldwide satellite set top box market grew by 6 percent in 2008, bolstered by triple-digit growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

- Thomson was the largest provider of satellite set top boxes in 2008. Other STB providers include Coship, EchoStar, Homecast, Humax, KAONMedia, Pace, Samsung, TechniSat, and Altech UEC.

- The semiconductor Bill of Materials (BOM) for Satellite STBs ranges dramatically from under $25 to well over $100 depending on advanced features, hard drive size and the number of supported video streams.

- Key semiconductor suppliers include ALi, Broadcom, NEC, NXP, STMicroelectronics and Zoran.

- Network connections are becoming increasingly important to support whole-home DVR services, over the top (OTT) video to the TV, place-shifting, and remote DVR scheduling.

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