The worldwide set-top market is projected to reach $25.45 billion by 2022, according to Grand View Research.
How can this be, when last year, another research company, IHS Group, reported a slowdown of pay-TV STB sales for 2014, with the market decelerating from $15.9 billion to $15.3 billion? In fact, IHS reported that the global pay-TV set-top market peaked in 2015.
It's all in the semantics of a global pay-TV market that is quickly changing its definition of what a set-top is.
Grand View Research, however, is counting over-the-top devices like Google Chromecast and Roku in its tally. Given that the two device makers have shipped around 55 million "set-tops" so far, Grand View's count is a little different than what IHS came up with.
"Recent administrative regulations pertaining to digitization in countries such as India are further expected to impel industry growth as these protocols can provide monetary relief to viewers, and in some cases, funding for broadcasters to enable a digital switch over to take place by a given deadline," Grand View says in its report.
In its list of the biggest set-top makers globally, the research group includes Amazon, which makes the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick OTT devices. Digital terrestrial set-tops (DTT) accounted for about 25 percent of Grand View's tally
In terms of pay-TV set-top makers, Arris is the biggest manufacturer, having just swallowed No. 2 manufacturer Pace for $2.1 billion. Arris is followed by Technicolor, which purchased Cisco's CPE division last year. Humax, Samsung, Echostar, Sagemcom, Skyworth and Huawei rank closely behind.
For more:
- read this Grand View research press release
- read this Advanced Television story
Related articles:
Pay-TV set-top revenues shrank last year for first time since 2002, IHS says
IHS: Global set-top revenue hit all-time high in 2013, will peak in 2015
Set-top box manufacturers Arris, Cisco, EchoStar struggle to keep up with changing market