Survey Sez 08/02/12

In a sneak peek at its newest survey results that won’t be released until Sept. 7, the International Association of Broadcasting Manufacturers says “the state of the technology supply market is in flux,” and there is a “slowdown in growth and supplier confidence.” Its poll found that the overall market for broadcast- and media-technology products and services is growing at just over 2 percent per year, and overall market profitability continues to decline — down 8 percent compared with numbers a year ago. “In fact, fewer than 70 percent of the companies in the IABM Industry Index are currently making profits, with the average profit-to-sales ratio at 13 percent,” the group adds. “Aggregate profits in North American companies are declining more slowly than those in European companies”…“In a change from the 2011 edition of our IP set-top box survey, Cisco is now perceived as the overall top IP set-top box supplier by operators, while Motorola was top dog last year,” says Jeff Heynen, directing analyst/Broadband Access and Video at Infonetics Research. “This is consistent with our STB marketshare reporting, where Cisco has led in global IP STB revenue share for four straight quarters. Clearly Cisco’s efforts over the past year to expand its IP STB lineup and customer base, and the major contracts it has scored with AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and Telus are paying off.” More STB findings: The top three critical IP STB applications are video on demand (VOD), electronic program guide (EPG),and whole-home DVR; and Ethernet is the leading technology for connecting STBs to home networks and sharing media with other devices, followed by 802.11n, and universal plug and play (UPnP).