Indian Telecom industry is witnessing a paradigm shift with a sharp increase in the DTH Subscribers and the local cable operators shifting towards Digital set top box. The Digital set top box manufacturers are in fact reeling under the demand after Government gave directives to digitize the Analog network which included the vast cable TV platform.
The Set Top Box market is expected to gross $1877.3 million by 2017 pegging the CAGR at 26% from 2012-2017. Electronics Set Top Box market remains one of the highly paced industry in India with the STBs registering an annual shipment of a whopping 18.48 million units. Brand wise Technicolor took the lead followed by Skyworth and Cisco. This growth is propelled by the fact that consumers are moving towards high end HD television which beckons better Video Quality and playback. The DTH operators are attempting to achieve a higher rural penetration with affordable regional packages.
The market has very few players and most of them are foreign OEMs. The reason why local ecosystems are not blooming is the slim profit margins and cut throat competition. Government has setup some sops like the homegrown CAS (Conditional Access System) and has spiked the import duty.
The Indian Market is still dominated by the Standard Definition STB but recently the number of HD STB is climbing steeply and as of today constitutes a considerable chunk at 38%.
The Trending Technology Carousel includes 4K STB, WiFI STBs, Operating System based STBs (like Google Chromecast). Simmtronics Semiconductors which manufactures Mobiles and Tablets along with being a OEM Hardware Supplier for many brands has plans to invest $5 Million and Setup its STB manufacturing unit in India. The entire market will be divided with once the STBs with Internet sharing arrive, these STBs also have a potential to dent the market share of Apple Tv and Google Chromecast.
