IHS: OTT STBs to Beat IPTV STBs

Global shipments of over-the-top (OTT) STBs sold at retail (including the Apple TV, Chromecast and Roku boxes) will beat those of IPTV STBs offered by telcos for pay TV services in 2015, IHS reports.

According to the analyst 2015 OTT STB shipments will reach 31 million units, while the IPTV STB forests clocks at 30m.

IHS STBs

“It was assumed that smart TVs, Blu-ray disc players and gaming consoles would eventually take the place of STB devices," IHS says. "However, while consumer adoption of smart devices has grown considerably, OTT STBs have still managed to flourish.”

Meanwhile pay TV operators also offer OTT services (such as catch-up TV, larger VoD libraries and content discovery features) to their internet-connectable STBs. Some operators, including the likes of Belgacom, Dish Networks and Virgin Media, even add Netflix and other OTT video provider services.

As a result IHS predicts connectable pay TV STBs (including IPTV, cable TV and DTT satellite STBs) will still outpace OTT STBs, with shipments growing to 169m by 2018, up from OTT STB shipments reaching 38m.

“Pay TV operators have a strong incentive to be the primary content aggregator in the household,” the analyst concludes. “Given the rate at which pay TV operators are integrating OTT services alongside traditional pay TV features on their STBS, it’s likely that pay TV STBs will prove to be a bigger threat than smart TVs to the retail OTT STB market.”

Go Retail OTT STBs Will Overtake Telco IPTV STB Shipments in 2015 (IHS)