As reported through the DTG website, GfK have analysed the growth in the sale of STBs in the UK. I have access only to the summary on the DTG site, but there is one glitch with the analysis as reported – it supposes that there will be a further growth in the low cost STB market driven by the popularity of LCDs being used in secondary rooms.
I find this not something that holds true however, since in the UK the low cost STB market is Freeview driven and all but the very lowest cost LCD screens already have the Digital Tuner capability. It is more likely in my (pit of the stomach) view that the growth in the STB market will flatten as new TVs come to market with inbuilt digital tuners without the need for all the box and wire addons of the separate STB. The growth area for boxes can only be through the further market penetration of disk based boxes, and by the near term introduction of MPEG4 DVB-T2 based boxes to make use of the newer HD services now in preparation.
