Sales of DTH set top boxes fell 45% in the quarter-ended June 2013 compared to the March quarter, while those of cable set top boxes rose 12%, according a quarterly tracker from 6Wresearch, a firm tracking the IT and communications market.
Spurred by regulation that requires all cable operators to shift to a digital, addressible mode of delivering content by 2015, set top boxes are selling in large quantities.
In the June quarter, a total of 5.6 million digital set top boxes were sold, with out 80% belonging to the DVB-Cable type. The total number was 5% ahead of the March quarter. In all, India is estimated to have about 200-300 million TVs, the vast majority of which do not have set top boxes installed.
The quarter also saw a steep decline of 60% in domestic production of set top boxes compared to the preceeding three months.
More than 80% of Set Top Boxes fall under the price range of INR 2000 for both the quarters.
Skyworth was the market leader with a market share of 38% followed by Cisco and Skynet. Shipments for market leader Skyworth showed a remarkable increase of around 71% in CY Q2 2013 as compared to CY Q1 2013.
For CY Q2 2013, Skynet with the market share of 10%, replaced Coship as the third largest player as compared to CY Q1 2013. Skyworth, Cisco and Skynet together aggregate 59% of the total market share in terms of Total Unit Shipments for India Set Top Box Market.
Skynet skyrocketed with the phenomenal growth of 283% for CY Q2 2013. However, Cisco experienced a decline of 10%.