DVB WORLD 2012 – ROME. Catch-up TV services from Italy’s leading broadcasters form part of the introduction of over-the-top content delivered to the nation’s terrestrial receivers this May.
Italy remains one of the largest markets for the MHP application programming interface, backed by the DVB, and now known under its US moniker GEM. The new over-the-top TV services include catch-up TV from the public broadcaster RAI, commercial broadcasters Mediaset and La 7, and an EPG from the Tivu organization that also runs the FTA satellite platform Tivusat.
Marco Pellegrinato, vice president, HD Forum Italia, explained that an over-arching application would provide search functionality that would allow viewers to retrieve content through a single server, regardless of the broadcaster. The delivered content would then be presented in the content providers’ own environment.
“HD Forum Italy is an association in which the industry participates and we found a real environment for discussion. Most of the manufacturers sit in the technical group with the broadcasters and Tivu helped decide on the specifications themselves,” said Pellegrinato.
The specification has been published through the HD Book 2.1, which extends the DTT requirements through the addition of the BAS Framework, a common encryption format in MPEG-CENC and enhanced streaming support from MPEG-DASH.