Ireland’s move to Saorview saw almost 1 in 25 households adopt a set-top-box by 24 October 2012. According to research firm GfK, set-top-box volumes sales increased by 1800% compared to 2011 while volume sales of television sets have been growing by 80% year-on-year (YOY).
The switchover encouraged a substantial uplift in sales of TVs with smaller screens. These cheaper sets meant that the 19-25" segments only accounted for 22.2% of the market value in October 2012. However, they accounted for 43% of the total market volume. As the switchover date of 24 October loomed, volume sales of television sets peaked in weeks 42 and 43 by 129% YOY.
The gravitation towards lower priced products is similarly apparent in the retail set-top-box market. The growth is largely coming from the basic sub-€100 boxes. This is extremely limiting on products with extra features and functionality, such as hard drive storage, which fell to less than 1% of the market volume in September, or Internet connectivity, which fell to 7% volume share.
Colm Mallon, GfK territory manager Ireland, said: "It is likely that once the influx of basic products has finished with Switchover, shares of these features will increase as price erosion continues to take effect, and consumer familiarity with these more advanced products improves."
TechCentral Reporters
Ltd
