Slowly but surely, HbbTV is becoming established in Central and Eastern Europe.
Just in the last few days, we have seen the Czech public broadcaster Ceske Televize (CT) – one of the prime movers in the field – announce the addition of two more apps to its growing portfolio. Known as iVysilani:D and AbeceDecko, they give access to archived children’s programming and quizzes for children respectively.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Slovakia, its counterpart RTVS is set to officially launch an HbbTV service on July 1.
In Poland, perhaps the most active country in the HbbTV space, HbbTV.pl has just reported that the commercial station Polo TV, which is distributed on the country’s first DTT multiplex, has launched an HbbTV service.
It adds that the station is the second in the group owned by ZPR to do so, with the first – Eska TV – having done last November. Since then, Eska TV, which is accessible via Hot Bird, has upgraded its HbbTV service and added such functions as VOD.
HbbTV.pl also says that another channel – Focus TV, distributed via DTT – will introduce an HbbTV service at the end of this month.
Elsewhere, the Hungarian national transmission company Antenna Hungária began an HbbTV trial on its DTT network last October, working in partnership with the Finnish interactive TV company Sofia Digital. Giving MinDig TV subscribers access to a number of services including VOD, it has just been extended for another six months.
In Russia, the introduction of HbbTV is being overseen by the Russian Television and Broadcasting Network (RTRS), which is understood to have undertaken three pilots in 2013 with a view to launching a hybrid platform on its network this year.
However, doubts were expressed late last year as to whether the country was yet ready for HbbTV services.
Although developments are almost certainly also taking place in other CEE markets, the real pioneers in HbbTV are undoubtedly CT and the Polish public broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP).
The latter, in particular, has been very much at the forefront of developments for the last two years, launching its first apps ahead of Euro 2012.
Speaking at a conference in January, TVP said its hybrid platform already had 170,000 users and that it was aiming to increase the total to 500,000 by the end of the year.
Also in Poland, the commercial broadcaster TV Puls began HbbTV tests on its two, DTT-distributed channels TV Puls and Puls 2 as recently as last month.