The Indian set-top box (STB) market has been increasing at a steady pace over the past few years, according to ABI Research, with a strong surge of consumers moving to satellite platforms during 2011, representing 80 per cent of the Indian market.

Despite the large cable TV subscriber base in India, the firm anticipates that satellite TV growth will slow somewhat from the 10 million consumers that added services last year.

The cable TV digitization, mandated by the government, will spur set-top box shipment increases in India for the next several years," says Sam Rosen, principal analyst. 19.3 million set-top boxes will be shipped in India during 2012.

The government's cable TV digitization policy now specifies that cable TV digitization will occur in four phases by December 2014. Therefore, cable STB deployments will surge from 2012 as larger operators begin their digital STB deployments. The cable digitization process will progress far slower than the government mandate specifies - otherwise, consumers will be forced to abandon cable in favor of satellite as cable operators struggle to procure the set-top boxes.

Nearly 70% of set-top boxes installed in Indian households are imported from foreign manufacturers, especially from China. In 2011, Huawei was the top STB vendor in India with 24% market share, followed by Pace with 12% market share