Californian market analyst firm In-Stat said it expects dramatic growth for digital Direct Broadcast Satellite DBS set-top boxes due to burgeoning global demand. In-Stat expects the worldwide market for DBS set-top boxes to grow from $3.2bn in 1997 to over $4bn in 1999 to 2000. During 2001, price reductions will reduce revenues to around $3.5bn. Gerry Kaufhold, senior analyst at In-Stat’s Multimedia Service group commented that while the dollar value for DBS set-top boxes appears to be flat, it is disguising a hidden trend in the market. Large, expensive systems which ship in the hundreds of thousands of units each year are being replaced by small, low-cost dish systems which will ship in millions of units per year.
