Central and Eastern Europe may not be at the forefront of HbbTV, but it is certainly not far behind.
That, at least was the impression given at the third annual HbbTV Summit Poland, held in Warsaw on January 15. Though largely focused on the host country, it included important presentations from ProSiebenSat.1 Digital (Germany), Mautilus (Czech Republic) and Httv, in the latter case providing an overview of not only its home market France but also most other key European countries and several much further afield.
In Poland and Czech Republic, the two CEE countries in which HbbTV is most widely used, the public broadcasters TVP and CT have until now been driving its adoption. TVP’s hybrid platform, it seems, goes from strength to strength, ending 2014 with close to 800,000 users and with the number set to increase to 1.5 million this year and 2.5 million in 2016.
Also, having had a successful 2014, with highlights including coverage of the Sochi Winter Olympics and World Cup, along with the launch of ‘virtual’ channels and the on demand channel TV Bieszczady, it plans to be equally active this year. Having launched an EPG with recommendation on the day of the HbbTV summit, it is now preparing for Ultra HD via DVB-T2 tests, along with multiscreen.
Although the ZPR Group, whose interests include the channels Fokus TV, Polo TV, Eska TV and Music Vox TV, has also made progress with HbbTV, the same cannot be said for other, larger Polish private broadcasters.
Speaking in a panel discussion, executives from TVN and TV Puls were reluctant to discuss what HbbTV plans, if any, their companies have. Which was perhaps not surprising, given that the former is in the process of being sold and latter concentrating on launching new/HD channels.
Meanwhile, in the Czech Republic, CT has from the onset been in the vanguard of HbbTV and its commercial rivals reluctant to follow in its footsteps. This, as an executive from the multiscreen OTT development company Mautilus explained, was principally because they see no commercial advantage in doing so.
Although this situation could be turned around – a number of action points were identified – it is likely to take both time and effort.
Looking outside the region, Germany is undoubtedly the European HbbTV success story, as is, perhaps surprisingly, Australia.
However, adoption is now taking place in a multitude of countries around the world, with the standard becoming increasingly accepted as the way forward.
