

The Demise of the Set-Top Box Makers - jtoeman
http://buysidenotes.com/2014/05/15/the-demise-of-the-set-top-box-makers/

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bobdvb
I’ve only been in the STB business for seven years now but I’ve worked with
people who are much more experienced than me. The death of the set-top box is
predicted annually and I am afraid you have joined that long pantheon of
people who have prematurely declared it deceased. I will now let you know why
I am quite sure you are mistaken:

1) Set-top boxes aren’t a technological solution, they are a business
solution. I know of one company who did actually eliminate them, but I am not
aware of any other company who has followed their lead. The real essence of
set-top box is about maintaining customer ownership. If the pay TV companies,
and remember that a large portion of the market globally is satellite not
cable, want to own their customer they have to own the access to content.
Content access involves managing the user experience that the consumer sees,
managing the programme guide, managing the channel numbers is an especially
valuable business and managing interactivity.

2) Samsung has been in the set-top box business for a long time and they
aren’t a dominant player in the sector. People see Samsung’s consumer
electronics business and they see one big player, when in reality it is a
conglomerate business with different leaders fighting for their
budgets/resources/customers. The TV business has nothing to do with the set-
top box business, nothing at all, they are completely different business units
with different agendas and different tools. Samsung’s entry in to RDK is about
as significant as that of Humax.

3) CableCARD: This is an predominantly American phenomena, in Europe there is
the CI(+) CAM, but most Pay TV operators won’t allow it to be used because of
the perceived security risks. The other interesting feedback I have from
people who deal with the US market is that CableCARD is a PITA, so support is
always going to be an issue.

4) All operators complain about the capital cost of set-top boxes, an asset
that sits in the field and causes them support issues, but none of them want
to dispose of them entirely. This is why the predominant trend in set-top
boxes is towards thin clients with cloud services. Unfortunately copyright
players have made the introduction of services in this area difficult. Add to
that the USA’s fragmented local content offering the regional deployment of
cloud services isn’t trivial.

Overall your post is very US centric and in my many years of travelling the
globe working in television the one thing that I see as being constant: the
USA is not typical of any other TV market. The USA has its own technology, its
own legal problems and its own logistical problems.

While there might be an increase in cord cutting/shaving around the world the
risk to cable operators is mainly for those that don’t adapt to the needs of
the consumer. Those companies deserve to suffer, because nature as well as
economics always shows us that those who don’t adapt die.

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JimmaDaRustla
Sadly, this is not the case in Canada. My mind was blown when my American
friend showed me a digital capture card that used a "card".

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dylz
A non-easily-dismissable (only tiny x; clicking outside, hitting escape does
not close it) giant fullscreen modal asking for email address ten seconds
after I start reading? Fuck right off.

Pops up again scrolling further too. Wtf?

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JimmaDaRustla
I didn't see this.

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dylz
Found it, updated adblock rulesets.

The plugin is called OPTIN-MONSTER.
[http://optinmonster.com/](http://optinmonster.com/)

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JimmaDaRustla
Oh right, I have adblock running. Good call.

