Skip to main content

Ups and Downs of TV Set-Top-Box Demand

The global transition to digital broadcast television service, and the growing adoption of Internet video by consumers, is creating huge roller-coaster like demand swings for the CE device manufacturers.

In-Stat reported that worldwide Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) Set Top Box (STB) shipments fell by nearly 35 percent in Q2 compared to Q1. The shift was driven primarily by falling shipments in the North American market following the analog broadcast TV shut-off.

Plummeting unit shipments in North America were partially offset by growth in the Asian DTT market, which actually grew 50 percent to over 1.2 million units.

The satellite set top box market increased unit shipments to 20.3 million units in Q2 2009, making it the largest set top box market among Cable, Satellite, IP and DTT set top boxes.

While IPTV set top boxes saw a slight sequential drop in unit shipments from Q1 to Q2, growth in High-definition IPTV set top boxes was strong. The percentage of HD IPTV set top boxes increased by 9 percentage points compared to Q1 2009.

Overall, for the year 2009, In-Stat expects unit shipments across the set top box markets to be flat compared with 2008. Total revenue will decline by about 1 percent to just below $17 billion in 2009.

The new In-Stat Set Top Box Database tracks set top box (STB) unit shipments, revenues and average selling prices (ASPs) on a quarterly basis. Operator segmentation includes Cable, Satellite, Telco IPTV, and Digital Terrestrial TV.

Popular posts from this blog

The Billions Bet on Tentative AI Demand

Gartner's latest worldwide IT spending forecast exposes a trend every CIO has already felt in budget negotiations. Total spending will climb 14.2 percent in 2026, reaching $6.37 trillion. It seems that the IT infrastructure market is simply having a strong year. However, the more useful insight is how unevenly that growth is distributed. The Headline Number vs. The Real Story Data center systems and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) are absorbing capital at a pace several multiples faster than devices, communications services, and traditional IT services. This is not incremental growth spread across a healthy portfolio. It is a wholesale reallocation of enterprise technology budgets toward AI infrastructure, made on the expectation that demand for AI workloads will justify the outlay before that demand has been fully proven. Where the Money is Going Data center systems are forecast to grow 62.5 percent in 2026, that's up from 51.6 percent growth in 2025, reaching $822 billion....