Infonetics: Strong Growth Expected in Hybrid Set Tops

Market research firm Infonetics Research has released excerpts from its first quarter 2011 (1Q11) Cable, Satellite, IPTV, and OTT Set-Top Boxes and Subscribers market share and forecast report.

"Despite a quarter-over-quarter decline in the global set-top box market, all major segments are up from this time a year ago in both revenue and shipments, indicating that the pay-TV market is rebounding after two years of significant declines. In 1Q11, evidence continued to mount that operators are in the early stages of implementing hybrid IP networks that offer the best of both OTT (over-the-top) and on-demand services combined with linear broadcast. As such, the hybrid segment of the market will experience the strongest growth over the next few years," said Teresa Mastrangelo, directing analyst for video at Infonetics Research, in a statement.

Set-Top Box Market Highlights Include:

• The global set-top box market declined 10.2 percent in 1Q11 to $3.1 billion, primarily attributed to normal seasonal trends;
• The cable set-top segment continues to contract as subscriber growth remains limited across the lucrative North America and EMEA markets and demand slows for advanced services; as such, the cable set-top segment experienced the strongest sequential revenue declines, down 12.9 percent in 1Q11;
• Lower than expected demand for IPTV services in EMEA during 1Q11 resulted in strong declines in shipments into this region, causing an 11.7 percent drop in global IP set-top revenue;
• Demand for OTT media services remained strong in 1Q11, but challenges lie ahead for this category;
• During 1Q11, hybrid set-tops represented 8 percent of revenue and 7 percent of shipments;
• Netgem leads in hybrid IP/OTA set-tops, Motorola leads in hybrid IP/QAM set-tops, and ADB leads in hybrid IP/DVB-S set-tops;
• Motorola and Pace continue to battle it out for overall set-top market leadership, with Motorola leading in revenue and Pace leading in unit shipments;
• Cisco is the market share leader in both revenue and shipments in the IP set-top market;
• Echostar leads in worldwide satellite set-top revenue, in a tight race with Technicolor.