June 20, 2018

HbbTV Association – New Steering Group, Chair and Vice-Chair elected

Geneva, June 20, 2018 – 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 election of a new Chair, Vice-Chair and Steering Group.

• Vincent Grivet from TDF was elected as Chair replacing Klaus Illgner from IRT who resigned due to personal reasons earlier this year.
• Jon Piesing from TP Vision was re-elected as Vice-Chair and Xavier Redon from Cellnex Telecom continues to serve as Treasurer.
• Panasonic, RAI and TDF are newly elected to the Steering Group.

Over the upcoming two-year term, the HbbTV Steering Group will focus on further extending the consumer benefits of Hybrid broadcast broadband Television with the deployment of HbbTV 2.0. They will create means to support the wider adoption of HbbTV across the world, the introduction of new HbbTV services like Operator Applications and help the HbbTV ecosystem adjust to new privacy regulations like GDPR and ePrivacy while still delivering services that consumers find attractive.

“With over 44 million HbbTV devices deployed and hundreds of services on air, HbbTV is the largest interactive TV platform available for broadcasters and service providers to build new and attractive TV and OTT services,” stated Vincent Grivet, chair of the HbbTV Association. “HbbTV technology and organization are key to enable the broadcast / TV ecosystem to adapt to new consumer demands and market paradigms. Our new Steering Group is further strengthened with the addition of industry leaders who have the experience, vision and determination to take HbbTV services to the next level. HbbTV will continue to play its role as the place where manufacturers and broadcasters work together (along with other standards organizations, regulatory organizations and national TV associations) to prepare and enable the future of TV.”

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

The newly elected Steering Group includes the following member companies and representatives:

•          Xavier Redon, Cellnex Telecom
•          Dr Jens Johann, Deutsche Telekom
•          Peter MacAvock, EBU
•          Dr Bob Campbell, Eurofins Digital Testing
•          Klaus Merkel, IRT
•          Stuart Savage, LG Electronics
•          Martin Faehnrich, Panasonic
•          Daniele Alberto Rascio, RAI
•          Angelo Pettazzi, Reti Televisive Italiane
•          Martin Boronski, RTL Group SA
•          John Adam, Samsung Electronics
•          Nigel Moore, Sony Europe
•          Vincent Grivet, TDF
•          Pedro Valiente Echezarreta, Tivù
•          Jon Piesing, TP Vision
•          Frode Hernes, Vewd

The 7th HbbTV Symposium and Awards will take place at the beginning of November in Berlin. This year‘s symposium is in collaboration with the “Deutsche TV Plattform” and the overall theme is “Growing Value Through HbbTV”. The “Call for Speakers” includes the topics we would like to debate during our two days conference. More information can be found on www.hbbtv.org.

About HbbTV Association
Hybrid broadcast broadband TV (or “HbbTV”) is a global initiative aimed at harmonizing the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment services to consumers through connected TVs, set-top boxes and multiscreen devices. The HbbTV specification is developed by industry leaders to improve the video user experience for consumers by enabling innovative, interactive services over networks. The specification uses elements of existing specifications from other standards including OIPF, CEA, DVB, MPEG-DASH and W3C. With the incorporation of activities from the Open IPTV Forum (OIPF) in 2014 and Smart TV Alliance in 2016, HbbTV is able to address service providers and technology suppliers for IPTV services as well as the combined scope of broadcast and over-the-top services. More information: www.hbbtv.org

Contact HbbTV Association:
Heinrich E. Haase
Project Coordinator HbbTV Association
email: heinrich.haase@htbc.de
Tel: +49 160 96 25 37 92

Press Contact:
Thomas Fuchs
Fuchs Media Consult GmbH
email: tfuchs@fuchsmc.com
Tel: +49 171 4483 168