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US equipment vendor Cisco has affirmed its commitment to continue producing set-top boxes, following reports in the New York Post that it is looking to offload its Scientific-Atlanta unit.

John Earnhardt, Director of Corporate Communications at Cisco, stated on the company's blog: "Every few months there seems to be a rumour or speculative comment about our commitment to our set-top box business. Let me be as clear as I can: we love set-top boxes."

Mr. Earnhardt goes on to point to comments made by Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers at the beginning of this month during the company's Q2 Fy12 earnings statement: “In terms of set-top boxes, we are very much committed to this marketplace. Our SP [Service Provider] customers asked us to partner with them as they move from traditional set-top boxes to IP set-top boxes to the cloud, our Videoscape solution.”

Cisco revealed last year that it was closing one of its key set-top box manufacturing plants in Mexico to Foxconn Technology Group, and slashing approximately 6,500 jobs from its global headcount, as part of efforts to cut its annual operating expenses by approximately US$ 1bn.

Editor's view: While these comments do ostensibly reinforce Cisco's commitment to its set-top box business (and customers), it is telling that the company's Chairman and CEO himself backs the move from "traditional" set-top boxes to a cloud-based Videoscape solution.

There may be love for the set-top business at Cisco, and commitment, but the long-term aim seems to be focused more on streaming video to a new wave of connected devices.

The pay-TV industry as a whole appears uncertain of where set-top boxes fit into this vision however: all we can say at present is that they look likely to merge with home gateways that are capable of streaming encrypted IP video around the home to any video-capable device.

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