Telecom Lead India: Chinese telecom equipment maker
Huawei is leading the set-top box (STB) market in India with 24 percent share
in 2011. Huawei is ahead of and Pace and Cisco.
Pace is the second largest STB vendor with 12 percent
market share.
Chang Hong, Cisco, and Skyworth are also selling set-top
boxes in India.
ABI Research predicts that around 19.3 million set-top
boxes will be shipped in India during 2012.
Nearly 70 percent of set-top boxes installed in Indian
households are imported from foreign manufacturers, especially from China.
Domestic STB production is likely to increase future 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 said the Indian STB market has been
increasing at a steady pace over the past few years. Consumers have moved to
satellite platforms during 2011, representing 80 percent 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, according to ABI Research.
“The cable TV digitization, mandated by the
government, will spur set-top box shipment increases in India for the next
several years,” said Sam Rosen, principal analyst.
The government’s cable TV digitization policy now
specifies that cable TV digitization will occur in four phases by December
2014. 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 percent 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. HD STB adoption in India will accelerate in the coming
years.
