Friday, March 14, 2014: Shenzhen Coship Electronics Co Ltd, which is a China-based cable television and broadband equipment maker, plans to build a set-top box (STB) manufacturing facility in India, around the metro cities. The proposed STB manufacturing project is likely to employ nearly 1,000 workers.
According to Indian Television report, Vipan Kumar Sharma, the country manager India at Coship, said, “We are planning to set up a set-top box manufacturing facility with a capacity to make 250,000 units a month in India, to start with and the scale up the operations on the back of demand,” at the Cable TV Show 2014 (an exhibition of cable television industry) in Kolkata.
Currently, the company is evaluating the benefits and policies of the Indian government. Sharma said that the company may venture in and around places near Delhi, Chennai, or Pune. Coship has a technical office already set up in Chennai and a commercial office in Delhi.
Since 2007, Shenzhen Coship Electronics has supplied 10 million STBs in India. It further plans to export another 5 million by the end of 2014, to India. The company’s clientele includes Siticable, Kerala Communicators Cable Limited (KCCL) and Sun Direct DTH, while it is in-talks with Videocon d2h, as well.
The proper estimate for setting up the STB manufacturing facility has not been revealed but as per average costing, the production of one STB is approximately $22. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry (IBM) has estimated that 75 million STBs will be required in India, for “installation in the third and fourth phases of digitisation.” The last date for the third phase is 30 September and fourth phase is 31 December, 2014.
