Market research firm Infonetics has released excerpts from two recent video reports; one tracking equipment sold to telco IPTV, cable video, and satellite video providers, and a second tracking IP, cable, satellite, and hybrid STBs and OTT media servers.

“Thanks to a 7 per cent increase in encoder spending by North American cable and satellite operators, the global video infrastructure market saw a return to growth in the second quarter,” notes Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research. “The market continues to be driven by cable and satellite operators upgrading their encoding infrastructure to support more high-definition channels and unicast video-on-demand content.”

Heynen adds: “Meanwhile, satellite set-top boxes surged in Q2, with global shipments up 20 per cent and revenue up 19 per cent sequentially. The biggest growth is coming from the Asia Pacific region, particularly China, but growth is also strong in Latin America and North America, where DirecTV and Dish Network are seeing sustained subscriber growth and renewed interest in higher-function STBs like Dish’s Hopper.”

Highlights from the reports include:
– The global set-top box market, including cable, satellite, IP and hybrid IP/DTT, totaled $3.6 billion in 2Q12, up 4 per cent sequentially
– While revenue was up for satellite set-top boxes in 2Q12, it was down for both IP and cable boxes
– 40 per cent of all STBs shipped in 2Q12 had high-definition (HD) capabilities and 22 per cent had DVR functionality
– Apple TV is the most prominent over-the-top media server platform in North America and, increasingly, the world
– After 2 consecutive quarters of growth, cable STB revenue in North America declined 10 per cent
– Despite a 2 per cent drop in revenue from the previous quarter, Cisco took the worldwide set-top box revenue share lead from perennial #1 Motorola

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