ANGA Cable 2010 – Cologne. The sale of hybrid TVs equipped with HbbTV has turned out to be a major retail success in Germany, according to the latest figures from research firm GfK. Speaking at the ANGA Cable conference, Gerhard Schaas, chairman of the German TV-Platform, said that 546,000 connected TV sets have been sold during 2009. The figure represents a market share of around 14% of all TV sets sold in the country during 2009. The actual percentage of new TV sets might be higher, as HbbTV sets only began shipping in October 2009.
For 2010, GfK predicts that at least 2 million hybrid TV sets will be sold, a figure set to rise to 4 million in 2011.
German broadcasters, both private and public, have been quick to develop services for the new standard and ARD, ZDF, the RTL Group and ProSiebenSat.1 are now actively broadcasting HbbTV content on their respective channels. (See also Broadband TV News passim)
The success of the connected TV system is even more remarkable given the fact that ETSI ratification is still pending, but this hasn’t stopped broadcasters and manufacturers backing HbbTV in a big way.
