10 Year HbbTV Anniversary Special
Explore HbbTV Milestones
The history of HbbTV begins a few years before 2010. This section features important milestones which paved the way for the ongoing development of the open standard from its beginning until today. One thing becomes clear: HbbTV is an international project, which has its roots in close collaboration by European market players and continues to drive the technical capabilities of broadcast and broadband networks and services.
Before»
IRT presented at an ARD workshop a hybrid conception that besides MHP/JAVA also envisage pure HTML based end devices
Satellite operator ASTRA plans a new interactive device platform based on HTML. In a meeting Astra, Bayerischer Rundfunk and IRT decide for a common approach. Astra and IRT develop an appropriate specification.
First demo based on the Astra/IRT specification is presented at IFA in Berlin at the ARD stand. ARD and ZDF demonstrate first services and first devices are delivered by Technotrend and the browser by ANT.
First meeting at IRT in Munich of the French H4TV project and the German HTML profile project. The result: German and French projects will work on a joint specification.
The new partners select for the new standard the abbreviation „HbbTV“ (Hybrid broadcast broadband TV). The HbbTV logo has been designed by Arthur Mayrand (France Televisions)
HbbTV was first demonstrated at Roland Garros tennis sport event on a DTT transmission and an IP connection by France Télévisions and the two developers of Set Top Box technologies Inverto Digital Labs and Pleyo.
The Technical Committee of the European Broadcasting Union has agreed a set of measures for Hybrid Broadcast Broadband (HBB) services and devices.
2010»
Philips, ANT, Sony, Samsung, OpenTV, SES Astra, IRT, TF1, EBU, France Televisions sign the „Carter“ of the HbbTV Consortium. Dr. Klaus Illgner-Fehns, MD IRT (Germany) was elected as First Chairman of the Steering Board is,
Broadcast and Beyond Conference in London
At IFA all German public, the leading private broadcasters, arte and the Eutelsat „KabelKiosk“ presented their HbbTV offers. RTL and Pro7Sat1 offers got in regular operation. 10 companies present their HbbTV TV devices. 4 manufacturers presented HbbTV STBs
2011»
HbbTV offers were launched or announced in France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Czechia, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands
Germany became first European mass market for HbbTV with a broad number of broadcasters and connected TVs
HbbTV Association counts almost 60 members.
23 members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have agreed to collaborate on the development of hybrid TV to enable a full roll out of the technology next year. The announcement came at the EBU’s 67th annual assembly.
2012»
Version 1.5 of HbbTV Specification Released
ARD and ZDF offered first live streams of the Olympic Summer Games based special streaming configuration developed by IRT
ETSI pulished a new version of the HbbTV specification („HbbTV 1.5“) that complements HbbTV with a standardized procedure for adaptive streaming: MPEG-DASH.
2013»
First HbbTV service RTS+ launched in Switzerland
Launch of HbbTV in Austria
2014»
Italy and UK announce adoption of the HbbTV standard
Anixe is the first broadcaster to use HbbTV to present UHD videos to its viewers on the screen
Italy launched HbbTV services
2015»
RTL launches its portal Clipfish with almost 880 free available movies via HbbTV that can be accessed via the red button.
HbbTV EUROPEAN ROUND TABLE 2015 in Lucca (Italy)
Freeview New Zealand launched its HbbTV platform
Over 45 companies showcasing HbbTV at IBC 2015 in Amsterdam
Bosnian satellite DTH platform Hayat TV has launched its HbbTV service portal.
2016»
HbbTV Association joined panel at Digital Broadcasting Africa Forum 2016
Italy adopts HbbTV 2.0.1 interactive TV standard
ETSI adopted the specification HbbTV Application Discovery over Broadband (ADB)
Adoption of HbbTV in Greece by Cosmote TV
2017»
ETSI published the standard IP-delivered Broadcast Channels and Related Signaling of HbbTV Applications.
6. HbbTV Symposium (Rome)
2018»
SevenOne Media and pilot Hamburg presented first addressable TV spot campaign in real operation
7th HbbTV Symposium and Awards in cooperation with Deutsche TV-Plattform (Berlin)
2019»
8th HbbTV Symposium and Awards in cooperation with Greek public broadcaster ERT (Athens)
2020»
HbbTV to launch webinar series on industry topics and developments
Quotes by Eyewitnesses
The development and success story of HbbTV in the last decade and earlier is the result of many people from different nations and professions working together. In this section you will find a selection of quotes by people involved with HbbTV and statements about how they see HbbTV personally.
Crossing borders
“I am proud that I could start the development of HbbTV in Poland in 2012. HbbTV gives us a lot of possibilities that have enabled me to redefine interactive television, interactive TV advertising. By developing HbbTV applications I have the freedom to create new TV services, where there is no longer a border between what is broadcasted live or on demand. I am a huge enthusiast of hybrid TV based on the HbbTV standard.”
Making sure a clear value of HbbTV to all involved
“HbbTV came from two different product development activities, and my overriding memories of initial HbbTV meetings is the feeling of a single well-aligned team working towards a product. Initially, HbbTV was very much about quickly delivering products and services that consumers wanted to use. Some people’s reaction was that HbbTV was too simple to be a big success because there were many things it couldn’t do; but this was due to a deliberate focus on the 20% of functionality that provided 80% of the value to consumers. By making sure that there was clear value to all of the organisations involved – content providers, broadcasters, technology providers and device manufacturers – it was easy to get co-operation and work towards the goal of getting devices and services in people’s homes.”
Steve Morris, Enghouse Networks
