Shipments of digital terrestrial and satellite set-top boxes to China, India, and the United States accounted for more than 60% of total worldwide STB shipments in 2008, and are expected to reach 70% of worldwide shipments in 2009. Rapid expansion of the Chinese and Indian DTH platforms and analog terrestrial switch-off in the US are pushing sales of FTA satellite equipment and digital-to-analog converter boxes.

German payTV operator Sky has selected Pace HD technology for its set-top box deployments in Germany and Austria. This deployment of Pace set-top boxes, rolling out from August 2009, will support Sky’s HD expansion plans across its territories.

Pace has been a set-top box technology partner of Sky, formerly Premiere, for a number of years and the new DS830 gives Sky the full flexibility to roll-out HD services with support for both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.

Thomson has started deliveries of a new version of its hybrid terrestrial/IPTV/satellite HD set-top box to Orange for its television service. The set-top box will support both free-to-air and subscription television services, as well as interactive and on-demand content.

With this new HD device, subscribers can use Orange Television's catch-up TV service and its extensive library of video on demand content, including those available in high definition, through a seamless interface.

TelstraClear has contracted two leading developers to deliver a next generation PVR for its cable television customers. IPTV solutions provider Digisoft and content security specialist Verimatrix will jointly develop a hybrid HD DVB-C set-top box with PVR, IPTV and supporting services that will be unmatched in New Zealand.

Humax has selected the ANT Galio Platform upon which to build a range of satellite, IPTV and Hybrid set-top boxes. ANT, the provider of software and services for the delivery of digital TV, will deliver long term compatibility to the industry's fast evolving standards. The new Humax product range, based on ANT Galio Platform, is due to launch by the end of the year in reaction to market demand and will provide consumers with a range of new TV services and an enhanced end-user experience.

Dell’Oro Group reports that the number of DVR-equipped, pay-TV set-top box unit shipments contracted 20 percent year-over-year in the first quarter this year and accounted for one-third of the total set-top box shipped during the quarter.

Motorola deliveres 150,000 IPTV set tops to Portugal Telecom for its triple play service meo. At 31st of December of 2008, the operator had 312,000 customers for its meo service, and with the latest shipments of set tops, Motorola becomes the preferred supplier of this service.

SecureMedia and TVBLOB announce that TVBLOB's TV-centric development platform and hybrid internet set-top boxes ("BLOBbox"), that bring the power of the Web directly to TV is protected by SecureMedia's Encryptonite ONET System CA/DRM. Leveraging TVBLOB's free SDK from the BLOBforge, content owners anywhere can now realize new, 'over-the-top' television services and business models on the BLOBbox using standard Web technologies, while ensuring the highest levels of digital protection for content distributed in both linear and non-linear means including VOD, podcasts and HTTP streaming.

CaptiveWorks have successfully implemented the Octoshape solution onto one of their set-top-boxes. CaptiveWorks' main focus is on providing leading edge technology coupled with unmatched satisfaction to their customers for a greater online experience.

Octoshape is proud to have been part of the development process and excited about the release of this innovative product. The Octoshape streaming solution is already recognized globally for high quality, reliability and scale. Major broadcasters around the globe already use the solution for high profile streaming, including events such as the inauguration of Barack Obama, the Olympics, and the Eurovision Song Contest.

TANDBERG Television announces the start of a new chapter in video compression, once again setting the standard for best quality encoding. The video compression market leader will launch its latest innovation, the EN8100 MPEG-2 SD encoder, at NAB 2009 (booth SU5108). The new system delivers a host of performance and operational benefits for DTH satellite, cable and terrestrial operators, as well as for content aggregators and distributors

Sigma Designs highly integrated SMP8654 media processors will be used to power Celrun’s TD-1100 STB which has been selected by telecom provider LG Dacom to be deployed throughout Korea. As part of this collaboration, Sigma’s chips have been integrated into Celrun’s TD-1100 set-top box and will support real-time IPTV streaming along with VOD services.

Optibase and Amino Communications announce they have partnered to integrate the Optibase EZ TV System with Amino AmiNET STB. With the newly enhanced EZ TV STB Module, users can access the system’s live or on-demand content on standard-definition or high-definition TVs and plasma screens in addition to PCs and Mac systems.

Amino has signed a global co-operation agreement with ZTE. Amino will provide the full range of its award-winning AmiNET STBs to ZTE, which has over 20 IPTV deployments globally. With a system capacity of more than 1.5 million user licenses and over a million active STBs, ZTE’s IPTV market share is the largest in Asia. Deployments include Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, the largest state-owned telecoms operator in India, and PCCW, a major telecom operator in Hong Kong.

Amino Communications has purchased the MiriATE testing solution from Mirifice, underlining its ongoing commitment to providing outstanding set-top box performance and reliability.

The MiriATE product will be integrated into Amino’s existing facilities to provide accurate and repeatable results from sophisticated automated tests.

Broadcom announced the expansion of its IP STB family with a range of highly integrated, system-on-a-chip solutions. These new offerings will enable manufacturers to rapidly design and deploy next generation performance- and feature-optimized hybrid cable, terrestrial and DSL IP STB products for the connected digital home. These new products, which offer a streamlined feature set targeting single, multi-format HD decode, including support for China's audio/video standard, will be demonstrated at this week's China Content Broadcasting Network Conference in Booth #3501.