SALTAIRE, England, March 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Pace plc today announces that it has signed a deal to expand its two year partnership with NET, the largest multi-service cable company in Latin America. Under the deal, Pace will develop new platforms to enable NET to deploy advanced digital services to its customers. Pace has also reached a significant milestone by shipping one million of its SD Zapper set-top boxes to NET.

With their extended partnership, NET will work with Pace, the leading developer of digital TV technologies for the payTV industry, to roll-out three new platforms for 2011. These will include the SD set-top box, a high definition (HD) interactive set-top box and a HD PVR. These platforms will support NET's transition to complete digitised television services for its subscribers through an HD interactive set-top box. The Pace design means that users can quickly and easily upgrade to PVR capabilities by simply inserting a hard disk drive into their existing device.

Mathias Hautefort, President Pace Europe, commented that: "As a pioneer in the fast-developing Latin American market, Pace has been able to work with operators such as NET to define the development of payTV in the region. This expanded partnership with NET is a major success for Pace. We are delighted at their decision to work with us to develop and deploy digital services across Brazil via devices that put end users' need for simplicity and user-friendliness at their core."

Jose Felix, President of NET Servicos, added: "There is an increasing demand for HD television in Brazil and we needed a solution that would match this and support future customer requirements to scale-up as new services come to market. We selected Pace to support our project as Pace has a proven track record of delivering industry leading technology solutions and expertise in our market - both essential to positioning ourselves at the forefront of innovation."

The solution integrates the Nagra Conditional Access system, OpenTV Middleware and Teleidea EPG application. The HD set-top box family is fully interactive and means NET's subscribers can enjoy state-of-the-art payTV applications such as Video on Demand, HD 3D and interactive games.