Abstract. Our object of study is the asymptotic behavior of the sequence of polynomials orthogonal with respect to the discrete Sobolev inner productwhere E is a rectifiabl Jordan curve or arc in the complex planeA is an M × M Hermitian matrix, Ml 1 + · · · + l m + m, |dξ | denotes the arc length measure, ρ is a nonnegative function on E, and z i ∈ , i = 1, 2, . . . , m, where is the exterior region to E.