STB shipments to SAARC region grew 52% in 2015

BANGALORE — Set-Top-Box shipments into the SAARC region has witnessed robust year on year growth of 52% during 2015, according to a new report by Dataxis. In 2015, 22.3 million STBs were shipped in the SAARC region with an estimated value of USD494 million, compared to a 14 million STBs worth USD349 million in 2014.

Shipments of set-top boxes (STBs) to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries hit 11.3 million in Q4-2015.

India leads the quarter ending 31 December, accounting for about 97% of the total shipments to region – comprising Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In Q4-2015, India saw the highest shipments of over 6 million cable STBs, due to cable TV digitisation in India.

Technicolor shipped close to 2.38 million STBs to India in Q4-2015, followed by Skyworth with 2.19 million shipments. Majority of Technicolor STBs were shipped to DTH operators.

“With a mere three HD pay TV channels in 2010, this number has boomed to greater than 60 channels in 2015. As demand for HD content continues to grow in India, the average selling price of HD STB has dropped to USD 34 in 2015, compared to USD 40 in 2014”. says Anusha S, research analyst at Dataxis.

The demand for HD services are higher amongst DTH subscribers, which in turn has boosted the operators ARPU. HD STB shipments was 32% of total STB shipments in 2015, up from 14% in 2014. Uptake of HD services amongst cable subscribers is yet to make a mark as cable TV operators are focusing on meeting the digitization mandate by installing SD STB.

Vendors analysed in the research are Indigenous Manufacturers like Trend Technologies, Hero -My Box Technologies, Logic Eastern, Indieon, Riddsys, Simmtronics, One-Eight Technologies, Spectra Innovations, Willet Communications, Modern Communication and Broadcast Systems.

International vendors: Changhong, Huawei Technologies, Skyworth, EchoStar, Pace, Technicolor, Cisco Systems, Humax Electronics and Homecast.