In this three part series we assess the future of the set top box and put to rest (maybe for good) the endless argument over whether it is going to disappear entirely. In this first part we set the scene by examining how we arrived at today’s situation where there are so many variants of digital boxes serving pay TV, while also bringing in online content. We trace the range of functions that have evolved and take these as a cue to assess where the box is going by examining next week which of these tasks are ripe for migration to the cloud and which will be better executed in some home based device. A key point we will identify…