MUMBAI: The worldwide retail value of all Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) Set Top Boxes (STBs) will blast off next year. It will power drive up to more than $ 10 billion during 2009.

These figures are contained in a report by technology market research firm In-Stat. In a surprising twist, Australia currently leads the world for consumption of High Definition TV (HDTV) Digital Terrestrial Set Top boxes, with the US running in second place.

Europe has been the unit shipment and market value leader for several years, and is poised to become the long-term dominating force if the 2006 World Cup soccer matches drive strong uptake for new Digital Terrestrial products. Japan and China are emerging markets for DTT STBs that support High Definition.

In-Stat analyst Gerry Kaufhold says, “The big trend going forward will be the emergence of DTT Set Top Boxes with built in Personal Video Recorder (PVR) functionality, because these add convenience to end users who need to navigate ever-expanding programming choices”.

In-Stat also found that greater number of countries are turning on local Digital Terrestrial TV broadcasts. This trend is beginning to accelerate. In the US, US Digital TV (USDTV) is tying together the bit streams of up to six local Digital Terrestrial TV stations, and offering a low-cost alternative to Cable TV services.

The next phase of development is focussed on advanced set top boxes that support new video Coder/Decoders (Codecs) and include hard disk drives and support for PVRs. China is expected to turn on their local Digital Terrestrial TV services during 2007, and this will drive large unit shipments of entry-level HDTV set top boxes in 2008 and 2009.