Analyst firm In-Stat has estimated that the market for IP/DSL set-top boxes will exceed seven million units and more than $700 million in annual revenue in 2008, reflecting increased demand for advanced applications and video delivered over IP.

"With a rapidly growing subscriber base and increasing demand in Brazil for advanced features like IP video to compliment our satellite TV service, we have seized an opportunity to deliver a truly simple and exciting experience of both technologies to our customers," said Ricardo Miranda, president, Sky Brazil. "Philips and NextVision delivered a flexible platform that will enable us to offer the Brazilian consumers access to all of the content they want both now and in the future in a complete, cost effective set-top box."

"While the availability and growth of IP video is an important development for the industry, the key innovation in the set-top box space is enabling consumers to experience all of the content they want to enjoy, whether it’s delivered over the air, via satellite, cable or IP, together through a single interface," said Mark Samuel, general manager, Telco & Operator STB, Philips Semiconductors. "Access to content regardless of its source is paramount, and the STB810 solution we’ve developed with NextVision for Sky Brazil is a long term platform that can support all the types of content consumers want in the highest quality possible," explained Samuel.

NextVision’s Regina software platform is written in the highly portable .NET framework for greater flexibility, with rapid, easy customization and branding by service providers. Other key advantages of the NextVision Regina platform include: both a TV and a PC interface; a Web browser interface for establishing customer accounts and user authentication; subscriber-level transaction capturing; support for streaming or downloadable video-on-demand; IP based content protection with encryption to eliminate the need for Conditional Access systems; and full DVR functionality.

"In delivering advanced television services, it is important to ensure that the user experience of both new and existing content is entirely indistinguishable," said Marcos Galassi, president, NextVision. "As more and more digital and interactive features are integrated into the television, the ability of software to tie these capabilities together in a consistent, intuitive way for consumers is integral to driving actual adoption of new services. In this climate, the close collaboration between Philips Semiconductors and NextVision has been instrumental."