Telecom Lead India: India is struggling to enable an
ecosystem of local manufacturers, as well as to get adequate supply of boxes to
meet an unrealistic digitization timeframe.
A jump in cable and satellite set-top box shipments in
Asia-Pacific markets is being driven by cable digitization in India and China,
as well as China’s rollout of digital satellite boxes to its rural households.
Digital transitions are bringing consumers access to
hundreds of international channels and a few HD services for the first time.
Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe’s growth in set-top box units will outstrip
those of the rest of the world in the next 5 years,” said Sam Rosen, practice
director of TV & video at ABI Research.
Operators in these developing markets are for very low
costs boxes. Set-top box manufacturers are looking to decrease BOM costs by
using in-house CAS solutions and low cost SoCs optimized with lower-powered
CPUs that support HD video, but only simpler graphical user interfaces.
China has a robust ecosystem of set-top box
manufacturers, coupled with CAS vendors China Digital TV and Sumavision.
