November 21, 2017

HbbTV and RadioDNS Announce Start of HbbTV Application Discovery Service

Geneva, November 21, 2018 – RadioDNS and HbbTV today announced that RadioDNS has implemented support for HbbTV’s “Application Discovery over Broadband” specification. This new functionality is intended to benefit consumers that live in markets where the existing HbbTV triggers are not universally available. Using Application Discovery, such consumers can now get access to the enhancements that HbbTV Applications provide to broadcast television.

The DNS functionality allows broadcasters to register the location of their HbbTV servers in the new hbbtvdns.org domain. Using information that is always present in a DVB broadcast signal, HbbTV terminals that support Application Discovery (TV sets or STBs) can communicate with this new service to learn where to download the HbbTV application.

The technical approach of using DNS to provide access to online resources using information present in broadcast signals is similar to what is used by RadioDNS Hybrid Radio. RadioDNS will be operating the hbbtvdns.org domain on behalf of the HbbTV Association, providing a proven service to broadcasters.

“Working with HbbTV experts from the German broadcast technology centre IRT, we have completed successful tests, and we are pleased that we can now start offering HbbTV DNS services to broadcasters”, said Nick Piggott, Project Director at RadioDNS.

Broadcasters who wish to use HbbTV Application Discovery can visit http://hbbtvdns.org for further information. HbbTV’s specifications, including “Application Discovery over Broadband” can be found at https://www.hbbtv.org/resource-library/#specifications.