Digital Boxes to Boom As Competition Looms

Boston
-Buoyed by OpenCable and consumer-electronics store acceptance, the U.S. digital cable set-top market is expected to grow 100 percent in 2001, predicted
TechTrends Inc.

That's good news for just about every set-top box vendor save Scientific-Atlanta Inc. and Motorola Broadband Communications Sector, who combine for a 92 percent market share in North America, the research firm said. Recent MSO set-top deployment agreements with Panasonic Consumer Electronics, Philips Consumer Electronics Co., Pioneer Electronics Corp. and Sony Corp. will "challenge the market dominance" of S-A and Motorola Broadband next year and cause their share to slip to 70 percent, TechTrends said.