February 24, 2020

New Milestone: HbbTV Association releases Targeted Advertising Specification

Geneva, February 24, 2020 – The HbbTV Association, a global initiative dedicated to providing open standards for the delivery of advanced interactive TV services through broadcast and broadband networks for connected TV sets and set-top boxes, is proud to announce the release of the HbbTV specification for targeted advertising (HbbTV-TA).

The landmark move will set a standard for broadcasters and the advertising industry to create new business models and generate new revenue sources by making use of targeted advertising opportunities which have so far been largely restricted to the advertising market on the internet or OTT/streaming services.

“The release of the HbbTV-TA specification marks a new chapter in the digital transformation of broadcasters. While keeping their unique asset of addressing a large mass market, they can now also address highly differentiated audiences, opening up new prospects for business growth,” said Vincent Grivet, Chair of the HbbTV Association.

“HbbTV-TA is the first open standard dedicated to targeted advertising in live broadcast TV, and it has a huge potential of adoption in Europe as the market is currently highly fragmented with several proprietary solutions,” added Grivet. “The development of the specification follows requests by broadcasters, once again confirming the close alignment of HbbTV with market requirements and business needs.”

The HbbTV-TA specification, initiated in collaboration with DVB, enables broadcasters to provide specific audience groups with customised advertising during commercial breaks, where the ‘normal’ advertisement on the TV channel’s conventional broadcast feed is replaced on a screen-by-screen basis with a specific targeted advertisement. The addressable TV capabilities of the new specification also enable personalisation and localisation features which will open up significantly improved accessibility options for people with vision or hearing impairments.

At the same time, DVB is releasing its targeted advertising specification that complements the HbbTV-TA specification with a standardised way of signalling the advertisement substitution opportunities in the live TV broadcast.