Pace accelerates as international strategy pays off

PACE, the UK television set-top box developer, gave its investors an upbeat view of its prospects in the light of a three-year contract with US broadcasting giant Comcast.

Believed to be worth between $375m and $550m (£214m–£315m), the Comcast deal is the biggest payback yet for Pace’s strategy of broadening its customer base.

The Yorkshire company is attempting to end its traditional reliance on the near-saturated home market and concentrate on international pay-TV operators.

In this the US is seen as the biggest prize of all, estimated to be worth 40 per cent of the global pay-TV market.

To back this strategy, Pace has invested heavily in R&D to develop a range of more complex products in areas such as personal video recorders (PVRs) and high-definition TV.

In a bid to stay ahead of consumer demand the company has also unveiled a pay-TV iPod-style device, dubbed PVR2GO. This will allow pay-TV subscribers with personal video recorders to download programmes, then watch them later on the mobile unit. The firm could offer PVR2GO commercially by the middle of next year.