MUMBAI: Web-enabled TV sets in China will exceed 15 million units by 2014, according to a forecast by In-Stat.
This is indicative of a significant growth. China’s web TV market kicked off in 2009, with over two million web TV set shipments and about one-fourth million web TV set-top box (STB) shipments.
The fast development of the web TV market is driven by competition between the giant domestic TV vendors and the low incremental cost for web TV functionality, helping drive wider user acceptance.
The web TV STB market does face challenges associated with its limited sales channel and high retail pricing. Some telecom operators are deploying web TV STBs coupled with subscriptions to their high bandwidth Internet access, but they do so while keeping a low profile due to regulation concerns.
With the triple-play policy being pushed by the Chinese government, more licensed content providers for web TV sets will emerge. Web TV is becoming standard on large screen LED and LCD TV sets.
- The penetration rate of web TV is likely to increase from eight to 50 per cent in next five years.
- Users are willing to pay for web TV content, if the content is in HD quality and up-to-date.
- Cable STBs with VoIP functions have already emerged in China.
- In the US market, over 137 million web-enabled CE devices will ship in 2014.
- Hybrid web-to-TV set top boxes (STB) are emerging as a vital tool to enable broadcasters and operators to provision over-the-top video offerings.
