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A True Legacy Market |
NEWS |
Broadcast equipment is one of the true legacy businesses in electronics. Dating from the early 1920s, it has been consistent with its presence over many years. Originally based on vacuum tubes, it slowly transitioned to semiconductors. Today, almost all broadcast transmitters are solid-state but there is still some very high-power equipment that uses the older technology.
Broadcast serves a number of different segments that are almost household words today. These include AM, FM, analog TV, digital TV, and digital broadcasting.
Why This Market Waxes and Wanes |
IMPACT |
Broadcast is a market place that can have frantic activity and then lapse into inactivity for long periods of time. There are principally two reasons as to why this happens:
These two factors will occasionally coincide, and the situation is truly one of feast or famine.
Where We Are Today |
COMMENTARY |
For RF power semiconductors, the broadcast segment historically has been in the US$30 million to US$40 million range, but a look at the market today suggests that the present indicators point to a total actual market (TAM) of about half that. The two market driving factors in the previous section are occurring at the same time today.
There are no major new technology introductions, and the transmitters on the air today are mostly of relatively recent vintage. There are some minor sub-segments of digital television that are rolling out but they pale into insignificance as compared to the gigantic DTV deployment of the last two decades.
There is another convolution that is happening today, as well. The way many devices are purchased has moved from a direct vendor, to a manufacturer path, to one using distributors of electronic parts. AM, FM, and to some extent, analog TV, use parts that are very similar to those used in the industrial, scientific, and medical sector (ISM). This makes the true tracking of RF power devices from a market segment perspective a bit opaque.
The somewhat depressed state of this business could last for another decade or so, but it will continue to be there.