ABI: Global Digital Set-Top Market to Hit 226 Million Shipments in 2015

The worldwide market for digital 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, according to a new report from ABI Research, entitled “Set Top Box Market Data." 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 percent 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 and, to a lesser extent, India,” said ABI Research senior analyst Sam Rosen, in a statement. “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 of broadcasts.”

DTT box shipments are predicted to grow at 8.4 percent CAGR from 2010 to 2015.