Long list of operators and a diverse supply chain make India a challenging market for STB chip companies. Broadcom believes that it has developed the right kind of portfolio to sustain its growth in the Indian Pay TV market.
The U.S-based chip company says that it has invested in chip solutions for not only terrestrial and satellite cable TV, but also IPTV and OTT products to suit the price-sensitive and demanding nature of the Indian Pay TV segment.
“India is very important to us so we have not only put features in this [hardware and software reference designs for select cases] that are hugely applicable to India,” Rajiv Kapur, Broadcom India MD, told NexTVIndia.
According to a recent list released by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 38.78 million urban TV households will be covered under the Phase III of digital addressable system. The digitisation programme makes India one of the largest markets in the world for set-top boxes. The country is even witnessing emergence of video OTT players such as Hotstar and Hooq, raising demands for high efficiency video delivery solutions.
India is a challenging environment for a semiconductor company. The country has a long list of operators and a diverse supply chain. Direct- to- Home segment alone has seven major companies competing for subscribers. Despite the challenges, the company has found stronghold in the DTH space.
“One of the primary challenges specific to the Indian Pay TV market is that it is highly fragmented geographically. On the technology side, we see operators, OEMs and chip makers needing to find the right balance of features and the price points required for the market in India,” he told NexTVIndia.
Tata Sky and Videocon recently partnered with Broadcom to launch 4K STBs in India. Broadcom says that it is in active discussion with other DTH operators for 4K STB solutions. Cable multi-system operators are still working basic digitisation and so, are “a little behind on the 4k discussions relative to the satellite operators,” Kapur told NexTVIndia.
4K TV is still in infancy stage, however, Broadcom believes that the market will gain traction in the future.
“As for other regions in the world, 4k TV will first be adopted by advanced users who can purchase the latest TVs; this naturally leads to opportunities for operators to offer services to those customers. In India, the 4k trend may initially begin as a smaller portion of the market, building on deployments globally, with early adopters naturally leading the way,” Kapur told NexTVIndia.
India and China are front-runners in STB space in Asia, however, Vietnam is now emerging as a strong player in the region.
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