Huawei Leads 19 Million Indian Set-Top Box Market with 24% Share

SINGAPORE — The Indian set-top box (STB) market has been increasing at a steady pace over the past few years. A strong surge of consumers moved to satellite platforms during 2011, representing 80% of the Indian market. Despite the large cable TV subscriber base in India, satellite TV growth will slow somewhat from the 10 million consumers that added services last year.

“The cable TV digitization, mandated by the government, will spur set-top box shipment increases in India for the next several years,” says Sam Rosen, principal analyst. 19.3 million set-top boxes will be shipped in India during 2012.

The government’s cable TV digitization policy now specifies that cable TV digitization will occur in four phases by December 2014. Therefore, cable STB deployments will surge from 2012 as larger operators begin their digital STB deployments. The cable digitization process will progress far slower than the government mandate specifies – otherwise, consumers will be forced to abandon cable in favor of satellite as cable operators struggle to procure the set-top boxes.

High definition (HD) STB adoption in India currently accounts for only 11% of overall shipments. “The increasing adoption of HDTV sets and cable TV digitization is expected to bring more HD channels and HD services in India,” comments research analyst Khin Sandi Lynn. HD STB adoption in India will accelerate in the coming years.

Nearly 70% of set-top boxes installed in Indian households are imported from foreign manufacturers, especially from China. In 2011, Huawei was the top STB vendor in India with 24% market share, followed by Pace plc with 12% market share. ChangHong, Cisco Systems, and Skyworth are also selling set-top boxes in India. Domestic STB production is likely to increase in the years to come with some overseas manufacturing set-top box factories in India, as well as Indian companies focused on building low-cost set-top boxes.

ABI Research’s new study, “Indian Set-Top Box Market,” details the status of the current Indian set-top box market. This report covers satellite, cable, DTT, and the IPTV set-top box market and market share of major set-top box manufacturers. The report provides market forecasts to 2017.

The report forms part of ABI Research’s Asia Intelligence and TV and Video Research Services.