May 31, 2016

HbbTV Announces New Steering Group Members

GENEVA — May 31st, 2016 — The HbbTV Association, a global initiative dedicated to providing an open standard for the delivery of broadcast and broadband services through connected TVs and set-top boxes, is pleased to announce the composition of its new Steering Group.

The new Steering Group re-elected Klaus Illgner-Fehns and Jon Piesing as Chair and Vice-chair, respectively. Rob Koenen continues to serve as Treasurer.

Over the upcoming two-year term, the HbbTV Steering Group will focus on further extending the consumer benefits of Hybrid broadcast TV with the deployment of HbbTV 2.0. They will also continue capabilities to support new HbbTV services and its wider adoption across the world with, for example, new work items to address HbbTV applications for TV operators.

“With over 35 million HbbTV devices deployed and hundreds of services on air, HbbTV is the largest interactive TV platform available for broadcasters to build new and attractive TV and OTT services,” stated Klaus Illgner, chair, HbbTV Association. “Our new Steering Group is strengthened with the addition of these new industry leaders who have the experience, vision and determination to take HbbTV services to the next level. We look forward to continuing our work with HbbTV members, other standards organizations, regulatory organizations, and national TV bodies to enable us to keep bringing new interactive TV services to consumers across the world.”

The Steering Group will continue to operate the organization with focused sub-groups – including testing, technical specifications, certification, and marketing – each with mandates to implement approved goals.

The newly elected Steering Group includes the following members:

• Xavi Redon, Cellnex Telecom
• Nicolai Leymann, Deutsche Telekom
• Ian Medland, Digital TV Group
• Peter MacAvock, EBU
• Bob Campbell, Eurofins Digital Testing
• Matthew Huntington, Freesat
• Klaus Illgner-Fehns, IRT
• Stuart Savage, LG Electronics
• Frode Hernes, Opera TV
• Angelo Pettazzi, Reti Televisive Italiane
• Henry Rivero, RTL Group SA
• John Adam, Samsung Electronics
• Nigel Moore, Sony Europe
• Pedro Valiente Echezarreta, Tivù
• Rob Koenen, TNO
• Jon Piesing, TP Vision

###

For further information about the HbbTV Association visit: www.hbbtv.org

About HbbTV Association (hbbtv.com)
Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (or “HbbTV”) is a major global initiative aimed at harmonising the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment services to the end consumer through connected TVs and set‐top boxes. The HbbTV specification was developed by industry leaders to effectively manage the rapidly increasing amount of available content targeted at today’s end consumer. It is based on elements of existing specifications including OIPF (Open IPTV Forum), CEA, DVB, MPEG-DASH and W3C.

HbbTV Association Contacts:
Kirk Edwardson and Régis Saint Girons
Co-Chairs, HbbTV Marketing Group
Email: press@hbbtv.org