Advanced Television

Pace tops up ARPU service offerings

January 10, 2011

by Chris Forrester

In a series of major interviews with UK newspapers January 10, Pace CEO Neil Gaydon has revealed that he talked last week at CES with more than 100 companies about providing additional non-TV services to consumers. Pace’s recent acquisition of US-based broadband technology company 2Wire for £308 million is opening up new opportunities for bolting on additional services for consumers and permitting pay-TV providers to earn extra ARPU incomes.

The live monitoring of a home’s security system, as well as health and energy monitoring, are just some of the options on offer. Gaydon told the Daily Telegraph that Pace is already working with American phone giant AT&T to provide home CCTV cameras, which consumers can watch live from their mobile phone when away from home.

Pace’s existing 160-client base includes BT, and US cable giants Comcast and Cablevision. Pace is now the world’s largest supplier of set-top boxes, and this year expects revenues to grow to $2.5 billion from just $250 million in 2006. In the same period Pace has seen its market share of the set-top box business rocket from about 3.3 per cent to 20 per cent of the US market, 50 per cent of South America’s market and 30 per cent in Europe.

Gaydon told The Times that he firmly believes in the future for set-top boxes, or else the consumer risks descending into chaos. “There will always be a device to manage content in the home. Customers don’t want a free-for-all,” he predicted.

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