Why The STB Market Isn’t Dead

"Contrary to popular opinion, the set-top-box market is alive and well," says Julien Blin, directing analyst/Consumer Electronics and Mobile Broadband at Infonetics Research. "STB revenue grew almost 10 percent in 2012, a considerable rebound from a year ago, and will remain healthy in the near term as operators in China, India and Latin America add digital services." Blin adds that video gateways and media players will be “the real standouts” as North American and European cable and satellite providers transition from digital STBs. The group says the global STB market totaled $4.6 billion in 4Q12, up 3 percent sequentially, and it could grow to $26 billion by 2017. Sales of OTT media servers spiked 25 percent last year, with much of the growth coming from Apple TV. Cisco, Motorola and Pace are the top vendor performers, with Samsung entering the market as well.