Germany approves HbbTV removal by platform operators

German platform operators don’t have to distribute TV channels’ HbbTV services on their networks as they are not considered to be part of the programme content. This decision was made by the German media authorities’ licencing and supervision commission ZAK at its latest assembly in Saarbrücken.

In a formal process lodged at the media authorities, public broadcaster ARD complained that cable operator Kabel Deutschland filters out the HbbTV signal ahead of cable carriage of several ARD channels. This would infringe the signal integrity stipulated in the German broadcast law.

The HbbTV signal activates the red button on the corresponding TV channel. This enables viewers, for example, to access add-on services through the remote control such as the channel’s catch-up service.

According to ZAK, the HbbTV signal is, however, neither technically nor with regards to content part of the transport stream of the broadcast signal. The term “programme” in the broadcast law only covers the actual broadcast content – video and sound -, but not further services just accompanying the programmes, argue the media regulators.

ZAK also didn’t agree with ARD’s position that the stipulation of signal integrity would resemble a complete disapproval of technical modifications of the signals. In the view of the media authorities, modifications of the broadcast signals performed to achieve compliance with the corresponding platform standard must be possible.

The media authorities also didn’t agree with ARD’s accusation that there has been an unjustified breach of equal treatment regarding the data rate provided to TV channels on cable. The data rates correspond with the platform standard, argues ZAK. If commercial channels are distributed in higher picture quality, then this would be based on contractual agreements, thus, ARD would not be able to refer to this.

The background of the conflict is the long-standing dispute between the public broadcasters and the large cable operators regarding cable carriage conditions.

Turkey's TRT launches HbbTV services with Sofia Digital

Turkish public broadcaster TRT has launched hybrid services with Sofia Backstage HbbTV platform

The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) has started hybrid TV services on their HD channels utilizing HbbTV technology by Sofia Digital. The “TRT ARTI” (ie. “TRT Plus” in English) services are available via TRT’s HDTV channels broadcasted via Turksat satellite, covering Turkey and most of the European countries for all HbbTV enabled DVB-S2 receivers.

TRT ARTI services are available via a “red button” and offer a wide variety of applications:

• Service menu offering the access to all available applications
• Rich Electronic program guide (EPG) with trailer videos and direct integration to catch-up viewing
• Digital teletext services including News, weather and finance information
• On-demand video services to offer video content from TRT online video services
• During 2015 the services will be expanded with more applications

The hybrid platform and applications have been developed by Sofia Digital in collaboration with the local partner company Yol Digital. Technical solution Sofia Digital Backstage supports latest HbbTV 1.5 specification though the services are available also on selected HbbTV 1.0 receivers.

Chief Engineer Mr. Ruhi Tas working as the project manager for TRT HbbTV project comments: “Sofia Backstage HbbTV platform has been working reliably and enabled deployment of completely new integrated services based on the TRT’s online interfaces”. He adds “Since the launch TRT ARTI service has gain already more than 300.000 active users, which is a good number of connected TV viewers without any marketing efforts.”

Mr. Ari Pöyhtäri, CEO of Sofia Digital says: “TRT HbbTV project is an excellent case showing how broadcasters can bring new digital applications and Internet video services to regular TV channels without massive new investments, utilizing the deployed connected TV receivers already out in the market.”

Mr. Mehmet Can Hakli, HbbTV Product Manager of YolDigital, adds “Turkish TV viewers are avid followers of new media services which helps media companies to take bold steps to adopt new technologies. Usage statistics show that HbbTV enabled devices are well spread in the market and TV users are very comfortable to adapt to the HbbTV technology. TRT ARTI project is first-to-market in Turkey and its success will inspire new stakeholders and markets to adopt HbbTV services.”

HbbTV 2.0 specification released

The HbbTV Association has announced the release of version 2.0 of the HbbTV specification. The HbbTV 2.0 specification is the result of more than 2 years work in HbbTV as well as partner organisations including DVB and the Open IPTV Forum. The specification is a major update to the previous HbbTV specification which;

• adds new features to make existing services more attractive to the end-user or the service provider
• enables new services such as push VoD
• updates technologies from earlier specifications
• improves interoperability between services and terminals

Two major themes of the specification are the addition of support for companion screens (tablets or phones) and synchronisation to broadcast delivered content.

As well as these two major themes, other significant additions concern privacy, broadband subtitles, DVB CI Plus 1.4 and push VoD.

The most significant technologies that have been updated are HTML, video codecs and MPEG DASH.

First HbbTV 2.0 receivers are expected to appear in the market in 2016. HbbTV will award a contract for a test suite for receivers in April / May 2015 with deliveries during the remainder of 2015. This should permit the release of a validated and approved test suite some time during 2016.

Australia sets HbbTV launch date

WATCH VIDEO.Australian broadcasters Seven, Nine, Ten and ABC have announced a September 2 launch date for their HbbTV service to be called FreeviewPlus.

Lastr June, Multicultural broadcaster SBS launched its offering early releasing their product in June ahead of the rest of the industry.

The teaser campaign was launched on all Australian networks as part of an extensive marketing campaign that will support retailers and manufacturers and drive consumer awareness of FreeviewPlus.

“FreeviewPlus is one of the most important advances in free-to-air television in Australia since the introduction of digital TV so it’s important we start to generate a buzz about the new service among Australian viewers,” said Liz Ross, general manager of Freeview, in a statement.

FreeviewPlus will offer a range of new features including a 7-day EPG; Access to available FTA Catch Up TV in one place on the TV; Recommendations of the best programmes on today, on Catch Up and in the future and the ability to browse and search programs across the next seven days. There is also a favourites function that keeps track of programmes on live and Catch Up TV.

Manufacturers will release a range of FreeviewPlus receivers to coincide with the launch of FreeviewPlus and these will be available from all major appliance and electronics retailers.
FreeviewPlus will continue to be made available through an increasing number of new connected receivers carrying the FreeviewPlus logo including panel TVs, set top boxes and recording devices.

Italy plans to move from DVB-MHP to HbbTV 2.0

Italy’s Confindustria Radio Televisioni has released a position paper, stating the intention of Italian broadcasters to move from DVB-MHP to HbbTV 2.0 as their preferred digital TV middleware.

Italy’s soon to be released HD-Book 3.0 will retain MHP, but the plan is to endorse HbbTV 2.0 as the standard middleware in HD-Book 4.0. The release of this document is driven by the availability of the ‘UHD-1 Phase 2′ technical specification from DVB in order to be able to support Ultra HD services, and so is not likely to be available until late 2015 or early 2016.

200,000 HbbTV-enabled televisions in Hungary

According to Antenna Hungária, there are more than 200,000 HbbTV-enabled televisions in Hungary, with 10% of owners having taken advantage of the feature. About one third of flat screen TVs available in the market are now also HbbTV-capable.

Antenna Hungária launched a free HbbTV trial on its MinDig TV Extra digital terrestrial pay TV service in October 2013.

HbbTV already supported by 93% of connected TVs

Approximately 93% of the connected televisions for sale support HbbTV and HbbTV services are being deployed by broadcasters throughout Europe, according to the EBU.

Audience research shows that users appreciate HbbTV, not just to access on-demand video, but also to find out more about a specific programme or even to browse through the extended EPG-like data.

In Spain RTVE now reaches more than 700.000 homes with their 90.000 hours of HbbTV offerings, which were soft-launched only eight months ago.

In Germany, in which HbbTV services have been available already since 2009, the ZDF HbbTV platform now generates over 2.5 million views per day. Ten million HbbTV enabled televisions have already been sold in that country.

The Dutch HbbTV Forum recently published a free report with an overview of HbbTV services in Europe. It is available for download here.

The success of HbbTV shows that the EBU needs to continue to invest in standardisation efforts that allow broadcasters to run their own cost efficient services and stay in direct contact with their audience in the future.

Currently the EBU is focusing on HbbTV v2, which is being developed in close cooperation with the industry. It will enable the use of new popular browser technology (HTML5), an improved streaming format (DASH) and pairing with second screens. These extensions will guarantee the growing popularity of the standard in the future. HbbTV 2.0 is expected to be finalised later this year, and to appear in products soon after.

Accedo develops Australia’s first HbbTV catch-up TV application: SBS ON DEMAND

Sydney, Australia, 23 June 2014 – Accedo, the global market leader in TV application solutions, today confirmed the successful launch of the Special Broadcasting Service’s (SBS) catch-up TV application, SBS ON DEMAND, for new HbbTV-enabled devices in Australia.

Accedo has assisted SBS to become the first of the local free-to-air broadcasters to launch their own full-featured catch-up TV service using the new HbbTV standard – SBS ON DEMAND will from today be available to the public in beta (pre-release test version).

The SBS ON DEMAND application enables viewers to gain access to SBS TV shows and movies using an HbbTV enabled connected TV, by clicking the “red button” that appears while watching SBS’s free-to-air channels.

Marshall Heald, SBS Chief Digital Officer, said: “Today’s launch of the SBS ON DEMAND application for HbbTV-enabled TVs is yet another example of SBS continuing to lead the way in offering viewers access to their favourite shows across the very latest devices and technology. We’re releasing the app in beta to elicit feedback from audiences to help us make further enhancements and improvements to the product during the 2014 FIFA World Cup and ahead of the Tour de France next month.  Early-adopters of this new technology will be able to provide us with valuable feedback to maximise the SBS ON DEMAND experience”.

“Accedo has been a strong partner for many years, and they continue to provide valuable services to SBS in our quest to provide our audiences with access to SBS’s unique content, where and when they want it”.

Matt Kossatz, VP Australia and New Zealand, Accedo, said: “SBS is an extremely forward-looking media organisation, which shares our passion and enthusiasm. We’re extremely excited to be behind the successful design, development and deployment of Australia’s first HbbTV catch-up TV application. We are especially pleased to once again help SBS pave the way in this space and we look forward to continuing to work closely with them to roll out more SBS content and features in the coming months.”

Accedo has previously helped SBS successfully launch their SBS ON DEMAND service across several connected device platforms – including Samsung, LG, Sony, TCL, Panasonic and Hisense Smart TV devices – as well as on Android phone and tablet devices, and most recently on Sony PlayStation 4.

For more information about the new SBS ON DEMAND application for HbbTV-enabled televisions, please visit: http://www.sbs.com.au/aboutus/news-media-releases/view/id/902/h/SBS-ON-DEMAND-Launches-in-beta-on-HbbTV-enabled-Televisions

ENDS


About SBS

With a background as Australia’s multicultural broadcaster, SBS holds a unique place in the Australian media landscape. As described in the SBS Charter, SBS’s principal function is to provide multilingual, multicultural and Indigenous radio, television and digital media services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians, reflecting Australia’s diverse society. SBS carries out this function through an ever-increasing number of distribution platforms including free-to-air television channels, subscription television, analogue and digital radio, online, and via mobile devices and apps. SBS inspires all Australians to explore, appreciate and celebrate our diverse world, and in doing so contributes to a cohesive society.

For more information visit www.sbs.com.au
Twitter: @SBS Facebook: Facebook.com/SBSAustralia

About Accedo

Accedo is the market leading enabler of TV application solutions. Accedo provides applications, tools and services to media companies, consumer electronics and TV operators globally, to help them deliver the next-generation TV experience. Accedo’s cloud-based platform solutions enable customers to cost-efficiently roll out and manage application offerings and stores for multiple devices and markets.

Accedo is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden with branch offices in London, Madrid, New York, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Sydney, Santiago de Chile, and Cologne.

Accedo’s local clients in Australia and New Zealand include FOXTEL, Telstra, SBS, ABC, Telecom New Zealand, TVNZ, Mediaworks, Fairfax Digital, Yahoo!7, Samsung Electronics and others.
For more info, please see www.accedo.tv,
Twitter: www.twitter.com/accedotv, Facebook: www.facebook.com/accedo.smarttv.

Media Contact

Helen Weedon
Communications Manager
Accedo
+44 (1570) 434632
helen.weedon@accedo.tv

HbbTV: a new perspective

HbbTV is no longer a European phenomenon, with interest growing strongly in other parts of the world, according to Dr Klaus Illgner-Fehns, MD, IRT and chairman of the HbbTV consortium.

However, speaking at the HbbTV Summit in Warsaw, he provided strong evidence of how developed it is in Germany.

Speaking generally, he also revealed that the target to publish the specification for HbbTV V2 is this year.

According to Illgner-Fehns, HbbTV is already established in a number of European countries including Germany, France, Spain and Benelux, with trials taking place is several others including Russia and Portugal.

Elsewhere, there is interest in the US and Brazil, many trials are taking place in China and regular services will start in Australia this year. In Germany, over 90% of the broadcast market supports it, there are over 70 apps on air and in 2013 90% of smart TVs had HbbTV and there were 5.5 million devices sold, with the connection rate of 70%.

All told, there are now 10 million devices with HbbTV equipment in the country.

A study by SevenOne Media (Sat 1, ProSieben and Kanal Eins) showed that the usage of unique HbbTV devices grew by 380% between November 2012 and November 2013.

HbbTV apps extend across a growing range of areas in Germany including gaming.

Second screen is meanwhile supported by a service operated by ARD.

The HbbTV consortium was established in 2010 and already has over 60 members.

Illgner-Fehns pointed out that the introduction of HbbTV 1.5 in 2012 was now making it possible for broadcasters to offer VOD services on a commercial basis.

Dutch delay HbbTV must-carry enforcement

The Dutch government is still studying the effects of enforcing must-carry legislation for HbbTV services on cable networks.

In a letter to Parliament, Sander Dekker, the secretary for media, has written that he is awaiting the results of a study on the economic and technical effects of enforced HbbTV carriage. Until now, the country’s two largest cable operators, Ziggo and UPC, are blocking the HbbTV signals.

Dekker said that research institute TNO will be completing its study in March. He also said he is seeking judicial advice on European regulation regarding must-carry requirements before making a final decision.

Dutch Parliament has requested to implement must-carry for HbbTV services. At the moment, Dutch public broadcaster NPO is offering the service with catch-up TV and streaming radio services.

However, only a limited number of TV distribution platforms are carrying the service, including the Digitenne DTT network, the CanalDigitaal DTH service and a few cable networks including Delta.

Apart from the thee Dutch national public channels, SBS is also testing HbbTV, while a number of foreign channels distributed over Dutch cable nets also offer HbbTV, such as ARD, ZDF, TVE and RTL Germany.

Ziggo and UPC are not carrying the HbbTV signals and both even have made moves to make implementation difficult. The remote control of the UPC Horizon set-top box has no red button at all, and Ziggo uses the red button for its cloud-based interactive services without a set-top box.

Although Ziggo and UPC have never given a reason for filtering the signals, it looks like they want to prevent their customers from using over-the-top services such as the on-demand functions on the HbbTV platform.

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Eutelsat KabelKiosk deploys first HbbTV IPTV solution

Eutelsat KabelKiosk has selected HTTV‘s open-middleware to deploy the first HbbTV IPTV network wholesale solution.

Using httvLink, a HbbTV open-middleware for connected TV STBs, will power Kabelkiosk’s new wholesale HbbTV IPTV offering. This will be the first time worldwide, that HbbTV will be deployed on IPTV networks.

Eutelsat KabelKiosk is a head-end-in-the-sky for network operators.

KabelKiosk will use HbbTV 1.5 compliant httvLink middleware and IP STB’s from Korean manufacturer, Kaon Media, for its new HbbTV IPTV offering. It will enable IPTV Network Operators (IPNO) such as cities carrier or local communities to provide advanced connected TV set top boxes to more than five million German households.

These IPNO would be able to operate pay TV networks under their own brands by using KabelKiosk’s infrastructure and content.

Eutelsat KabelKiosk will make the content available on HbbTV STBs as well as on iOS, Android smartphone, tablets, PCs and Macs.

“HTTV is proud to have been selected by a leading provider such as KabelKiosk for this first HbbTV IPTV network wholesale offer” said Regis Saint Girons, HTTV’s CEO, “This demonstrates that HbbTV is a flexible and powerful standard not only for free to air but also for PayTV and IPTV networks”

“Our KabelKiosk platform is the engine of innovation in the German speaking cable and IP network markets. Therefore working with httv, one of the true digital TV software innovators, is a perfect match. Its leading position on HbbTV middleware has made it the natural choice to contribute to our new offer and to consolidate our technological leadership”, says Martina Rutenbeck, managing Ddrector of Eutelsat Germany, that operates the KabelKiosk.

Delta launches HbbTV-based service

Dutch cable operator Delta is launching interactive services using the HbbTV standard.

Starting on December 1, viewers can access the service by tuning into Delta’s local information Channel 12 and activating the service by pushing the red button.

In order to receive the service, customers need the Humax HD Fox C cable tuner or a HbbTV equipped smart TV, as well as a subscription to the cabler’s broadband service Zeelandnet.

Called Het Portaal van Zeeland Delta offers catch-up TV from the Dutch public broadcasters (Uitzending Gemist) VOD from Videoland as well as a number of national and regional services including weather and news from the province’s pubic broadcaster Omroep Zeeland.

Broadband TV Views. Delta choosing HbbTV is an interesting development, since the two major Dutch cablers, Ziggo and UPC, seem to ignore the existence of the standard.

Earlier this week, we learned that Ziggo has chosen the red button to activate its cloud based interactive services using the CI+ 1.3 CAM, while Liberty Global’s UPC remote control for the Horizon set-top box doesn’t even haven a red button.

Also, both UPC and Ziggo do not distribute the HbbTV signaling of the channels on their respective networks.

Russia voices HbbTV concerns

Russia seems unprepared for HbbTV despite plans by the Russian Television and Broadcasting Network (RTRS) to launch a hybrid TV platform on its network in 2014.

Quoted by AKTR and Comnews, RTRS’s deputy director general Victor Pinchuk said that broadcasters should make themselves fully conversant with what will be a new advertising market now, otherwise they would have difficulties in catching up afterwards.

Interestingly, there is also a lesson to learn from Teletext, which was actively promoted in Russia in the early 1990s but failed to make an impression on either broadcasters or indeed viewers.

Russian broadcasters may also feel it is too early to introduce HbbTV, given that the country has yet to launch its second multiplex, for which TV channels have already paid RTRS for carriage.

Earlier this year, RTRS announced that it was testing three HbbTV platforms.

It planned to launch pilots in three large cities, each with a population of over one million, employing DVB-T2 consoles with internet connections.

TVP assesses HbbTV progress

TVP now has 160,000 HbbTV users a month, according to Wieslaw Lodzikowski, the public broadcaster’s director of technology.

Speaking in a panel discussion entitledInteractive Television: How to reach and engage audiences, he added that this figure compared to 1,500 when it launched its first hybrid apps 15 months ago, initially for Euro 2012.

According to Lodzikowski, TVP’s strategy is one of educating viewers and making them interactive.

However, to do so requires it to find out as much as possible about them and this was not always welcome, with some believing they were being checked to see if they had paid their receiver licence fees.

Lodzikowski also spoke highly of the HbbTV service being developed by TVP’s Spanish counterpart RTVE and the fact that some of its elements have been developed specifically for kids.

Antenna Hungária starts HbbTV pilot

Hungarian transmission services provider Antenna Hungária is launching a HbbTV services platform on its DTTV network.

It is a six months trial starting from October 2013 with the system provided by Sofia Digital, the Finnish pioneer of interactive television.

The trial marks another deployment of the Sofia Backstage HbbTV platform on the market. The HbbTV applications within the trial are accessed via the familiar red button functionality or with a full-screen portal application.

The Antenna Hungária HbbTV trial will cover almost the entire territory of Hungary and target devices are HbbTV 1.0 (and potentially 1.5) receivers including connected TVs and set-top boxes.

Sofia Digital HbbTV platform includes the Sofia Backstage HbbTV play-out server and HbbTV application services. The end-user applications included in the trial phase are news, Enhanced EPG, on-demand video content, live video and audio streaming and local weather services integrated into the portal.

The weather services for HbbTV are provided together with Sofia Digital by a leading digital weather data provider Foreca Ltd. Weather data interface of Foreca is supported in Sofia Digital HbbTV platform to enable new innovative user interfaces with embedded weather data including support for location-based queries in different languages.

Germany launches HbbTV awareness campaign

The TV set’s Red Button is the central theme of a new, nationwide campaign in Germany to raise awareness of the HbbTV services.

In a combined effort, all German private and public broadcasters will launch the Auf ROT geht´s los! (It all starts with RED) campaign on September 5. The campaign will comprise TV spots, information leaflets and more to inform viewers of the possibilities of their smart TV sets.

The campaign will show how HbbTV offers on-demand programming, EPGs, extended information with programmes, high quality teletext pages, live streams, special events and more.

According to research by GfK Retail and Technology there are now five million HbbTV sets in the German homes and an installed base of a total of seven million is expected by year’s end.

The following German broadcaster are now offering HbbTV services: Das Erste and all TV and radio stations that are part of ARD, Channel 21 (shopping), HSE24 (shopping), Kabel eins, n-tv, ProSieben, RTL Television, RTL II, RTL Nitro, SAT.1, sixx, Sonnenklar.TV, Super RTL, Vox, QVC (shopping), ZDF and all partners of ARD and ZDF.

Czech HbbTV progress continues

The Czech public broadcaster Ceske Televize (CT) has launched what is its third HbbTV application.

According to Digizone, it gives access to the iVysilani video archive, which currently contains nearly 3,000 days of content, through smart TVs and set-top boxes.

Alongside its Polish counterpart TVP, CT has been one of the pioneers of HbbTV in Central and Eastern Europe.