STB growth strong

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IMS Research forecasts that the worldwide market for digital set-top boxes will reach 90.3 million unit shipments in 2009, up from approximately 50.8 million units shipped in 2004. All digital platforms are expected to grow, with IP and terrestrial seeing the biggest increase in set-top box shipments over the next five years.

In their recent study, Worldwide Market for Digital Set-top Boxes and iDTVs, IMS Research saw that the market continued to grow healthily in 2004,following a fall in digital set-top box shipments in 2002 and a strong market recovery in 2003. “Digital television services are being vastlydeployed on a worldwide basis,” commented IMS. “Not only are we seeing new digital platforms throughout regions like Europe and Asia Pacific, but existing operators are expanding theirdigital services to include HD, DVR and interactive features, thus requiring deployment of more advanced set-top boxes.”