Pace promises PVR unit within First Quarter
1/9/2001
Jan. 09, 2001 (CableFAX's Pay-TV Today, Vol. 2, No. 5 via COMTEX) -- A hard disk-based set-top box should be available in the First Quarter of this year - but at a price, Pace CEO Malcolm Miller said at the company's six- month financial presentation.
The X-TV personal video recorder (PVR) system adopted by Sky, and developed with NDS, is on schedule. The poor sales so far experienced by Tivo do not bother Miller, he told Pay-TV Today. He said viewers would want everything in the one box.
Miller confirmed that there would be no subsidy from BSkyB when the box is introduced. Pay-TV Today estimates that once satellite receiver technology is combined with the PVR elements the consumer will be looking at a cost of around GBP500 (E786.05).
Pace was able to post financials that, according to Miller, were the "best for three years". Turnover in the six months to December 2, 2000 increased by 31 per cent to GBP205.8 million and pre-tax profits of GBP17.9 million.
While the UK remains the dominant market for the company, currently standing at 87 per cent, the United States is clearly a growth area. 750,000 boxes ship to Time Warner in the spring, more to Comcast in the autumn. The United States has also compensated in part for disappointing sales into continental Europe as a result of the strength of sterling against the Euro. Although European sales have increased there have been no shipments to Canal+ in the last six months.
Significantly, cable now represents 60 per cent of Pace's sales of set- top boxes, or home gateways as the company prefers. According to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, sales to Telewest in a three month snapshot last year were August 28,000, September 50,000 and October 70,000. Morgan Stanley suggests that the delays experienced between Pace and Telewest last autumn owed more to Telewest's underestimate of demand than to the problems in sourcing Flash memory.
That said Pace is carrying an above average component supply and says it has a higher number of near-complete component kits. (JC/CF)
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