Set-Top Box Market to Approach $30 Billion By 2024

According to Grand View Research, Inc. data the world Set Top Box (STB) market is forecasted to reach $29.78 billion by 2024.

The main growth drivers are digitalization of cable and analog TV which demand from users special equipment to play them.

Another factor is increase of consumers buying capacity and, as a result, of their demand to more sophisticated entertainment services. It’s a good news for STB market as they are an important link between digital services providers and their clients.

The most up-and-coming trend is making set-top boxes mobile-controlled by adopting Google, Firefox or Roku interfaces. The most up-to-date devices play a role of content hubs – sources of content that may play it on TVs, mobile devices or computers.

Other tendencies described in the report are:

• DTT set top boxes are forecasted to gain up to 25% of the market revenue. So it’s a good news for manufacturers of set-top boxes with DVB-T/T2 support
• 4K resolution is also a must-have feature. The global market for 4K STB was valued over USD 350 million in 2015 and it was only a beginning of its rapid growth.
• The Asia Pacific region will preserve the biggest market share over the forecast period. The most affluent factors of the region domination are government and high interest to hi-tech amongst consumers.
• STB Manufacturers and operators will feel regulatory and standard groups pressure. DVB-CI+ in Europe and CableCARD in North America demand enabling the third-party STB vendors to allow the certain product enter the market.

Taking into an account all these trends, restrains and growth drivers, upcoming years will be golden for set-top boxes manufacturers and suppliers. Operators market will also benefit a lot by attracting new subscribers with new features and opportunities.

For users watching TV may become more interactive and personalized. And image quality will also grow with technological advancement.

As for broadcasting technology, the most promising is IPTV which has faced substantial growth since the last few years. Add to that the fact that upgrading IPTV set top boxes with interactive features is much easier than cable or satellite alternatives and you’ll get quite an obvious competitive benefit.