1 in 25 Irish households invest in a set-top box during October

Ireland’s move to Saorview saw almost 1 in 25 households buying a set-top-box in October 2012. According to GfK, set-top-box volumes sales have increased by 1800 percent*, while volume sales of television sets have been growing by 80 percent year-on-year (YOY). This uplift in sales has provided a welcome boost to the market.

The Switchover, whose advent prevented a large number of second sets receiving broadcasts, encouraged a substantial uplift in smaller sized screens. Television sets outside of the main living room tend to be smaller with more basic features, and it is the replacement of these sets, along with the replacement of older technology, that is driving the substantial growth seen in the smaller screen sizes. These cheaper sets meant that the 19 to 25 inch segments only accounted for 22.2 percent of the market value in October 2012. However, they accounted for 43 percent of the total market volume. As the switchover date of October 24 loomed, volume sales of television sets peaked in weeks 42 and 43 by 129 percent YOY.

The gravitation towards lower priced products is similarly apparent in the retail set-top-box market. The growth is largely coming from the basic sub-€100 boxes. This is extremely limiting on products with extra features and functionality, such as hard-drive storage, which fell to less than 1% of the market volume in September, or Internet connectivity, which fell to 7% volume share.

Colm Mallon, GfK Territory Manager Ireland, comments: ‘It is likely that once the influx of basic products has finished with Switchover, shares of these features will increase as price erosion continues to take effect, and consumer-familiarity with these more advanced products improves.’

* Retail sales of set-top-boxes, excluding direct sales from service providers. 1800% figure should be understood in the context that the digital set-top-box market only emerged in early 2011.