Cisco, NDS, Google and Motorola play musical chairs

By
Tom Morrod

March 29, 2012

Cisco's recent announcement to acquire pay-TV technology and solutions vendor NDS for $5bn has come as a surprise to many. Amongst persistent rumours that Cisco is looking to offload and exit the pay-TV set-top box business the move may even seem contradictory. However, it might not be as strange as at first glance; Cisco has pushed hard to establish its multiscreen solution, Videoscape, and NDS provides key components to support this. But it does raise questions regarding the future of pay-TV, the need for set-top boxes versus the need for software platforms to terminate a pay-TV platform at any one of a number of devices. As Google look set to sell off Motorola's set-top box business, the industry may be on the cusp of a significant shake-up of pay-TV technology vendors.

Tables and charts included:

US pay-TV 2012: active multiscreen devices by type

Pages: 7

Tables & charts: 1

Tags:

Countries: USA Israel
Companies: Cisco Foxconn Google Motorola NDS Pace Samsung Technicolor

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