Pace becomes world’s second largest STB supplier

Pace has moved into second place in the league table of leading set-top box suppliers. Independent research by Screen Digest has seen the Saltaire-based company overtake Technicolor, the former Thomson set-top division, to sit behind world leader Motorola.

The figures were published ahead of Pace’s annual results that will be released to the market on Tuesday.

“Growth across the overall set-top box market for pay TV has been driven by two factors: higher volume in emerging markets; and a tendency toward more complex product, explained Screen Digest technology analyst Tom Morrod. “Positioning with key operators in growth regions and a strong portfolio of HD and PVR devices are both key to success in the future market. In a large part we see traditional vendors leveraging this kind of expertise to reduce the fragmentation of the set-top box industry and expand market share.”

Pace CEO Neil Gaydon said he was delighted to receive the recognition: “What’s more important to us, however, is to be the best. No other manufacturer has the same breadth of product, engineering expertise and customer base as Pace. We intend to build upon our leadership position in 2010 and beyond by developing ever more innovative products, deepening our existing customer relationships and pursuing opportunities in current and new territories.”

Pace has been helped in its growth by the December 2007 purchase of Phillips’ Set-Top Boxes and Connectivity Solutions businesses, bringing with it lucrative contracts from the Canal+ Group and BT Vision into what is now Pace France. In addition Pace has delivered product for BSkyB and Viasat.

Among a number of company firsts are the first ever H.264 DVB-S2 high definition set-top box; Europe’s first pay-TV PVR, the integration of DOCSIS into a cable set-top box and the world’s first Home Content Sharing solution based on a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, using MoCA 1.1 to distribute content around the home.

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