Pace Micro to Supply "Next-Generation" Set-Top Boxes to DirecTV

UK-based set-top box manufacturer, Pace Micro Technology, has received a major boost to its efforts to penetrate the US digital television market, in the form of a deal with News Corp.-owned satellite TV provider, DirecTV. The company says that the deal, whose financial terms have not been disclosed, will see it supplying DirecTV with "next-generation" set-top boxes during calendar year 2006. The deal also appears set to contribute substantially to Pace's bottom line: in the tersely worded press release in which the company announced the deal, it stated that its partnership with DirecTV will "materially help underpin Pace's existing expectations, for this financial year and the next financial year." Earlier this week, [itvt] caught up with Bruce Gureck, VP of marketing and product management for Pace Micro Americas, to find out more about the DirecTV agreement. While he cautioned that was not at liberty to provide many details about the deal, he told us that it will see Pace providing DirecTV with "a range of products," one of which will incorporate a hard drive. We asked him what had led to DirecTV's decision to choose Pace: "While it was a very competitive process," he said, "you could see it as an extension of our existing News Corp. business--a vote of confidence by News Corp. in our long-term relationship with them, and an extension of that relationship into the American market. We have proved ourselves on their Sky Italia, Foxtel and BSkyB platforms," he explained.

The agreement with DirecTV is the second major deal that Pace has scored with a US operator this year: in May it announced that it had signed a new, multi-year agreement with the US's largest cable MSO, Comcast. That agreement will see Comcast committing to purchase a variety of Pace set-tops (including its high-end Tahoe HD DVR) over a three-year period: the MSO is expected to pay it anywhere between $375 million and $550 million for the boxes, depending on the type ordered. The Comcast deal also includes a development agreement, under which Pace and Comcast will jointly fund non-exclusive future technology development, using Pace's development staff, and calls for Comcast to license Pace's EngineWare software platform and related set-top box technology for an undisclosed fee for use in the North American cable market. (Note: according to Gureck, Pace has now deployed close to a million set-tops in North America.)

In other Pace Micro news: the company has revealed the line-up of new products that it will be showcasing at the IBC show in Amsterdam in September. The line-up includes the DS810 HD set-top box, the Tahoe HD-DVR, a new, portable DVR dubbed PVR2GO, and the IP215, which the company bills as the world's first H.264 hardware decode set-top box.

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