Even with the rapid rise in new and exciting technological devices, one thing's for sure: People love watching TV. It doesn't matter when or where -- or on what device.

The companies that provide the infrastructure for viewing content across a large and growing variety of devices are frequently overlooked. Harmonic (Nasdaq: HLIT), a market leader in video-on-demand services, is one such company.

Harmonic has many opportunities to expand its market share, especially with the proliferation of video on demand and high-definition TV. Yet the biggest opportunity for Harmonic is in the expansion of pay-TV services in international markets. The emergence of the global middle class is leading the demand for pay-TV services, which has compelled providers to expand their content offerings.



Harmonic sells high-performance video infrastructure products that enable content providers to efficiently create and deliver a full range of video services to consumer devices, including TVs, PCs, tablets and smartphones. Its revenues are generated from selling video processing solutions to various media companies and providers, including broadcasters (HBO, NBC, ESPN), satellite providers (Dish (Nasdaq: DISH), DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV)), telcos (SingTel, Vodafone (Nasdaq: VOD)), cable providers (Charter (Nasdaq: CHTR), Cox, Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA)) and new media (Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN)).

International satellite, cable and telco providers are increasing their capital spending to expand their video offerings. In the grand scheme of things, there are thousands of media and broadcast companies around the world, many outside the U.S. Most need to upgrade their infrastructure -- particularly to HD -- and that's where Harmonic comes into play.

Harmonic counts three of the top five broadcasters in the U.S. as customers. In terms of providers, Comcast, the largest cable company, already accounts for 16% of total revenue. Its competitors Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), Cox, Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) and Charter are all Harmonic customers.

Harmonic is also tapping the $2 billion market of so-called converged cable access platforms, which seeks to put all services -- video, data and so on -- on the same IP platform. Harmonic's first product in the space, the NSG Pro, is nearly set for release, and the company already has its first multi-million-dollar order.

Harmonic has a pristine balance sheet, with $169 million in cash, or $1.68 a share, a