Global set-top box revenue drops 9%

Pace DPX5000 set-top box

Worldwide set-top box revenue dropped 9% year-on-year in the second quarter to US$4.3 billion (€3.15 billion) following shipment declines in Western Europe and North America, according to Infonetics Research. 

The market research firm said that set-top revenue from OTT media servers and IP, cable, satellite and DTT boxes was also down 3% in Q2 compared with the first quarter of 2013, with growth in Asia Pacific and Latin America not tipped to offset shipment declines until 2014.

Cable set-top revenue alone declined by 14% sequentially in Q2, even though shipments remained flat. This reflected an increasingly heavy mix of single-tuner standard-definition boxes for emerging markets, Infonetics said.

“There are real unit shipment declines occurring in North America and Western Europe that won’t be offset by growth in Asia Pacific and Latin America until 2014,” said Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research.

“We’re seeing the market bifurcate along geographic lines. We have a post-STB market, which includes North America and Western Europe, where operators are having a difficult time adding new pay TV subscribers and are responding by transitioning to video gateways. And then there’s the emerging STB market in China, India, and Latin America, where digitisation projects are underway.”

According to the research, Pace took the biggest share of global STB revenue in 2Q13, overtaking Cisco, whose revenue fell sharply quarter-over-quarter. Arris came in third and was boosted by its Motorola Home acquisition earlier this year.