As premium, personalised video services prove more and more attractive to the American media consumer, Pace Micro Technology proved in its fiscal 2007 earnings that it has made significant in-roads to the North American market.

The balance of Pace's global shipments has shifted over the past year with more than 50 per cent of the company’s revenues now coming from the North American market. According to Pace, North America is now the world's largest market for digital television technology. In its fiscal 2007, Pace started product shipments to United States-based service provider giants DirecTV and Comcast, which are now two of the world's largest payTV operators.

For the full-year ended June 2, Pace Micro recorded revenues of £386.5m, that more than doubled its fiscal 2006 sales of £178.1m. Volume shipments of set-top boxes increased 77 per cent year-over-year to 3.9 million, Pace Micro said, noting that shipments into the Americas increased six-fold year-over-year to 1.2 million units.

The company made a profit of £6.1m for the year, up from the £15.6m loss Pace posted in 2006.

The growth enjoyed by Pace is expected to be shared by semiconductor suppliers for the digital TV (DTV) industry, as well. Market research firm iSuppli Corp. has predicted that the global DTV semiconductor market's revenue will rise to $15.5bn in 2011, expanding from $7.2bn in 2006.