Strong Demand For PVR And HD Boxes Boosts The Cable
Set Top Box Market
After suffering through a down year in 2003,
the market for cable set top boxes is bouncing back in 2004, according to
In-Stat/MDR (http://www.instat.com). The
high-tech market research firm reports that total worldwide digital cable set
top box unit shipments this year are projected to reach 10.87 million, an
increase of 11% over 2003. North American cable TV operators, who have been
continually increasing their orders for both Personal Video Recorder
(PVR)-enabled boxes and high-definition (HD)-enabled boxes, are fueling the
majority of this growth.
Worldwide demand for digital cable set top boxes is
expected to remain steady during the next five years, as rising demand for
digital cable set top boxes in a few select Asian and European countries makes
up for moderating demand in the all-important North American market, especially
during the 2006 - 2008 time period.
Motorola Broadband remains the leading manufacturer
of digital cable set top boxes, although its market share lead over second-place
Scientific-Atlanta has slipped during the past two years. However, the famous
"duopoly" continues to dominate the cable set top box market: Through the first
six months of 2004, the two companies accounted for 85% of all worldwide digital
cable set top box unit shipments.
In-Stat/MDR has also found
that:
- * One in every five digital cable set top box
unit shipments this year has been a PVR-enabled box. The popularity of
products like Scientific-Atlanta's Explorer 8000 has propelled PVR-enabled
cable set top box unit shipments to record levels in 2004. - * HD-enabled cable set top boxes are also in
high-demand, and manufacturers are on track to ship over 2 million HD cable
set top boxes this year. In comparison, cable set top box manufacturers
shipped just 750,000 HD boxes in 2003. - * The market for digital cable set top boxes in
China, which is the largest cable market in the world with 100 million cable
TV subscribers, is finally beginning to show signs of life. During the first
half of 2004, cable set top box manufacturers shipped an estimated 235,000
digital cable set top boxes to cable TV operators throughout the
country.
Source: Music Industry News
