What is HbbTV?

Hybrid Broadcast Broadband Television (HbbTV) is a pan-European specification for interactive television delivered over both broadcast and broadband Internet connections, delivering information and entertainment services to HbbTV-enabled set-top boxes and iDTVs.

The specification is based on a number of existing standards including OIPF (Open IPTV Forum), DVB, W3C and CE-HTML. The current version of the specification (ETSI TS 102 796) can be downloaded from the ETSI web site.

Services such as digital teletext, catch-up TV, electronic programme guides, interactive advertising, games and voting are all possible with HbbTV and many services are already being provided by broadcasters in France and Germany.

S&T is an active member of the HbbTV Consortium and supplies core HbbTV technologies including TSBroadcaster for delivery of HbbTV applications via a DSM-CC object carousel. It also generates complete HbbTV signalling via AIT with support for application lifecycle management, application visibility, digital teletext and priority settings.

For more information on HbbTV and its uses see www.hbbtv.org