The Direct-to-home( DTH) industry growth

channels, Video on demand and Digital

in India has surpassed all expectations by

Video Recording( DVR) have helped in

growing at an unprecedented pace,

increasing the demand for Set Top Boxes

recently. The market has outpaced the

( STBs).

analogue cables market in the country due to a soaring number of televisions in households, introduction of high definition

( HD) services and various government interventions. This recent momentum has made way for a possibility that Indian DTH industry may supersede other global DTH markets in terms of the number of subscribers in near future. On the backdrop of all the above factors, the

Indian DTH market is expected to grow with a CAGR of around 16 % during the forecast period of 2016 to 2020.

According to the“ Indian DTH Market

Outlook 2020”, report, rising competition amongst various players in Indian DTH market has led to a fall in installation prices and availability of a wide range of channel subscription options for users.

The decline in Set-Top Box( STB) prices has also made DTH services more viable for the Indian users. Besides, the mandated introduction of digitization of distribution has proved promising in bringing a large number of urban households within the ambit of digital domain.

At present, DTH subscribers are the major customers of STBs in India, however with the government directives to digitize entire pay TV network including cable TV platform( which is majorly analog based); the market for India STBs has gained a significant momentum. By another market report on STB the sale of Set Top Boxes is growing at a rapid pace in India with a compounded annual growth rate of 22.3 per cent. Indian Set Top Box( STB) market is expected to reach $ 1,877.3 million by

2017, at a CAGR of 26.0 % from 2012-

2017. In the past few years there has been a phenomenal shift from analogue cable signals to digital transmission using Set

Top Box( STB) as the underlying

Technology. The increase in digital TV homes has further boosted the growth of

Set Top Boxes( STBs). With the increasing number of television households in India, there is a great potential for Set Top Box industry in India not only for the foreign manufacturers but also for the local Indian manufacturers. Benefits like clarity of digital picture, the availability of more

Import of STBs in India

The Indian STB manufacturing market is affected by numerous Korean and Chinese vendors which offer STBs at very cheap rates. This onslaught is the reason that indigenous manufacturing is not picking up pace. Major companies are: Humax,

Korean STB, Gospell, ALI, ABV,

Changhong, Huawei and ZTE. India’ s Set-top Box Market: Poised for a

Shakeup

India is well known as a huge market for set-top boxes( STB). In addition to a thriving direct-to-home satellite business, the country is nearing the end of the digitization of its cable TV system— an effort which saw a massive upgrade of cable boxes across the country. DTC estimates that over 195 million set-top boxes shipped in 2015 and 194 million in

2016 worldwide. But India’ s sizeable STB market may be on the brink of a significant change. The first, and less significant, change would impact domestic

STB production. In a report to the Indian

Parliament, the Standing Committee on

Information Technology( SCIT) claimed that while the 19 Indian firms manufacturing STBs had the capacity to meet domestic demand, they were being undercut by foreign, mostly China-based, rivals. Indeed, an estimated four out of every five STBs sold in India originate abroad, leaving India’ s domestic manufacturers out of the lion’ s share of a

$ 750 million annual market for TV access devices.

According to SCIT, one reason why Indian producers were failing to keep up was a lack of government support. While Indian regulators have taken some steps to boost domestic business under the“ Make in

India” campaign, such as reducing the

Value Added Tax on Indian-made STBs,

China was supporting its own STB industry by providing generous loans to

Indian STB importers. Indian banks, on the other hand, were not offering generous terms to the country’ s own manufacturers.

As a result, Chinese vendors were able to grab the lion’ s share of the volume generated by India’ s digitization.