Innovations in Hybrid STBs Will Fuel the Global In-built Set-top Boxes Market Until 2020, Says Technavio

LONDON — According to the latest market research report by Technavio, the global in-built set-top boxes market sales will likely surpass 179 million units by 2020.

In this report, Technavio covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the global in-built set-top boxes market for 2016-2020. The market size has been calculated based on the revenue generated from unit sales of STBs equipped with digital video recording (DVR) technology.

“Hybrid STBs are a combination of satellite, cable, and IPTV STBs. These STBs support a satellite input, a regular cable input, and signals transmitted over the Internet. The technology is versatile as it allows Internet access, over-the-top (OTT) services, and also offers pay-on-demand (POD) content on the same device. This research forecast states, as of 2015, 29.62 million units of inbuilt hybrid STBs were shipped, and the market is expected to reach close to 53.51 million units in sales by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 12.56%,” said Soumya Mutsuddi, one of Technavio’s lead industry analysts for consumer electronics.

“To tap the growing market, vendors are introducing innovative services, including on-demand, push-VoD, and specialized Internet services for increasing the average revenue per unit (ARPU). These services range from free-to-air to pay-TV on digital video broadcasting (DVB) component along with value-added services on its IP component. This trend is likely to significantly improve profit margins of the leading vendors over the forecast period,” added Soumya.

Geographic segmentation of global inbuilt storage STBs market 2015

• APAC			45.24%
• EMEA			29.52%
• Americas		25.24%

APAC: largest region for the global inbuilt storage STBs market

APAC is the largest market for STBs, and it accounts for more than 50% of the total global TV shipments. Technavio researchers estimate, as of 2015, 73.38 million units of inbuilt storage STBs were shipped in the region. The market has grown significantly, as many countries like China and India have mandated digitization of TVs. China achieved 100% digitization in 2015, and similarly India is also anticipated to achieve the same by the end of 2016.

Although the penetration of HD STBs is slow in this region, rapid digitization will continue to propel market growth. China emerged as the largest market in the region, and its support for HD terrestrial broadcasts was relatively higher in 2015, which indicates growth for digital terrestrial television (DTT) and other platforms over the forecast period.

EMEA: second largest region for the global inbuilt storage STBs market

The markets in Western Europe is saturated due to technological obsolescence, while Eastern Europe and the Middle East are experiencing rapid growth.

The Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, which experienced lowest digital penetration in 2015, is expected to move towards digitization of television during the forecast period. Although the adoption of advanced STBs like IPTV and hybrids are anticipated to be gradual in the MEA, government mandate on digitization in the region is expected to drive the overall market growth over the next four years. Apart from high picture quality, digitization also provides traceability and transparency of money transfer, which governments seek to promote.

Global inbuilt storage STBs market in Americas

The market in Americas is driven by high purchasing power of consumers but requires further advances in technology to propel its growth. Satellite STBs are declining rapidly in North America, and this trend will continue throughout the forecast period as an increasing number of households continue to switch to IPTVs and hybrid STBs.

The adoption of UHD STBs is also anticipated to increase, and Technavio estimates the market to grow substantially during the forecast period. This growth is anticipated thanks to increased digitization in Latin American countries. The Brazilian government’s announcement of purchasing 14 million STBs in 2015 is indicative of the positive trend in the region that fosters growth of STBs. The market research study also states, with increasing TV penetration, advanced STB products in will find rapid acceptance in Latin America until 2020.