Parks Associates has new research predicting that worldwide set-top box shipments will reach 200 million annually by 2013. Service providers upgrading STB to digital and to hybrid capabilities supporting online video and other options will drive the market growth, the research firm said.

The results of the Parks Associates study seem to challenge the expectations of Screen Digest, which produced research earlier this year that suggested STB shipments could peak in 2012 at around 127 million units. But, the latest numbers also might reflect changing attitudes in the market among both service providers and consumers about how access to Internet video will be provided in the future, and to what devices it will be delivered.