IMS claims that a high watermark has been reached for the worldwide digital terrestrial TV (DTT). The analyst predicts that worldwide DTT set-top box shipments will peak in 2012 at 20.5 million.

It reckons 25 per cent of the STBs in 2012 will be shipped into Western European countries that have switch-off by the European Commission’s deadline of the end  of the year.

“It is extremely unlikely that we will ever see shipment numbers like we saw in 2009 when the US completed ASO,” commented John Kendall, author of the report. “More than 35 million DTT set-top boxes shipped into the US that year, however, increasing technological advancements will mitigate such a large market offering in the future,” Kendall added.
While it believes that demand for DTT HD 1-way set-top boxes is still expected to remain the market leader throughout the forecast, IMS also expects HD-DVR set-top box shipments to grow significantly over the next five years.

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