More than 20 members of the European Broadcasting Union have agreed to a European-wide rollout of hybrid TV during 2012.
The group, which includes France Télévisions, Germany’s ARD and ZDF, the Netherlands’ NPO, Norway’s NRK and Poland’s TVP, made the announcement at the opening of the 67th General Assembly at the EBU headquarters in Geneva. British broadcasters including the BBC that have put their weight behind the YouView project are missing from the list.
“This group of public service broadcasters will exchange best practices and support one another to push through a fast, comprehensive rollout of hybrid television services by EBU Members in 2012,” said the EBU. “In signing up to the Hybrid TV project, these EBU Members make a commitment both to open standards, like HbbTV, MHP and MHEG-5, and to delivering a compelling new experience to their audiences”.
The full list of participating EBU Members is ARMTV (Armenia); ORF (Austria); RTBF (Belgium); HRT (Croatia); CyBC (Cyprus); Czech TV (Czech Republic); DR (Denmark); YLE (Finland); France Télévisions (France); ARD and ZDF (Germany); MTV Magyar Radio (Hungary); RTE (Ireland); RAI (Italy); RTCG (Montenegro); NPO (Netherlands); NRK (Norway); TVP (Poland); TVR (Romania); Rozhlas (Slovakia); RTVSLO (Slovenia); RTVE (Spain); TRT (Turkey); NTU (Ukraine).
