Set-top box vendors have traditionally weighted their efforts more heavily towards specific sectors of cable, satellite or IPTV services, but today’s video operators are busy expanding their video offerings over multiple networks.
The move towards more video over multiple networks means the set-top box and gateway vendor sector is headed for consolidation, according to a report by ABI Research. The top five set-top box and gateway vendors are Arris, Cisco, Technicolor, Pace and Echostar.
“This mature, yet fragmented market, in which the top five vendors account for about 37 percent of revenues, is ripe for further consolidation. We continue to believe that integration of historically separate cable and IPTV providers with satellite set-top OEMs would bear fruit in the increasingly hybrid set-top box world generated with acquisitions such as AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV,” according to ABI Research practice director Sam Rosen.
With a cable and IPTV focus, Arris kept the top spot last year in the global set-top box market with $2.1 million in revenues and about 18.5 million units to stay ahead of Pace. Pace, which ABI Research said was “over-weighted on satellite and with smaller cable and IPTV segments,” was second in revenues but fell behind Technicolor on volume.
“Pace performed a significant feat increasing revenues slightly with 10 percent lower volumes by focusing primarily on the high-end gateway market. This position, along with its focus on services, seems to be yielding fruit,” said Rosen.
The set-top box divisions of Chinese consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers Skyworth and ChangHong were expected to gain significantly, but largely remained flat as free-to-air markets didn’t expand significantly.