As television viewing continues to spread across broadcast, streaming and connected TV environments, audience measurement is becoming one of the industry’s most complex challenges.
At the asi International Television & Video Conference 2025 in Copenhagen, HbbTV Chair Vincent Grivet outlined how the open HbbTV standard is increasingly being adopted as a practical response to this fragmentation, offering broadcasters and measurement bodies a way to restore consistency and transparency in audience data.
Grivet’s presentation came at a time when established measurement systems are under pressure. National audience currencies, traditionally built around representative panels, are struggling to capture viewing behaviour that now spans linear television, broadcaster-owned apps, global streaming services and platform-native environments. At the same time, much of the data generated by connected TVs is controlled by a small number of global technology companies, raising concerns over access, comparability and long-term neutrality.
Measurement community looks beyond platform-controlled data
The asi conference, which brings together audience researchers, broadcasters and data specialists from around the world, reflected a growing interest in alternatives to proprietary measurement ecosystems. While some national audience bodies – including AGTT in Austria, AGF in Germany, Kantar in Spain and BARB in the UK – already use or are trialling HbbTV-based analytics, many attendees were encountering the standard’s measurement capabilities for the first time.
According to participants, one of the notable aspects of the discussion was the maturity of HbbTV as a measurement layer. Unlike platform-specific analytics, HbbTV operates across multiple TV manufacturers and distribution networks. This horizontal approach contrasts with the current landscape, where audience data is often siloed within individual operating systems and commercial platforms. For measurement professionals accustomed to negotiating access with platform owners, the prospect of a cross-manufacturer technology offering consistent data collection was seen as a significant shift.
Connected TV fragmentation complicates audience measurement
The conference also reinforced a broader industry concern: the structural fragmentation of the connected TV ecosystem itself. More than ten major TV operating systems are now in use globally, each with different technical frameworks, data policies and commercial priorities. While connected TVs have become the primary screen for video consumption in many households, control over the software layer increasingly sits outside the traditional broadcast sector.
This development has direct implications for audience measurement. Access to granular viewing data is often restricted, standardisation across platforms remains limited and smaller broadcasters or niche channels can be under-represented in traditional systems. In some cases, low-volume viewing is effectively treated as non-existent, even though it can be meaningful at a local or regional level.
HbbTV positioned as an open and unified alternative
HbbTV was originally designed to combine broadcast and broadband delivery, creating a common application environment on connected TVs. Over time, it has expanded to support services typically associated with proprietary platforms, including catch-up TV, enriched electronic programme guides, personalisation features and multi-camera streams. Commercial use cases such as audience measurement, addressable advertising and interactive services are also supported within the standard.
For measurement purposes, HbbTV enables large-scale data collection that can complement traditional panel-based systems with census-style insights. Consent mechanisms are built into the technical framework, helping to align data collection with European privacy and data protection requirements. Because HbbTV operates across manufacturer-controlled environments, it provides a harmonised layer for capturing actual viewing behaviour, including audiences for smaller or local channels that may be overlooked by legacy measurement methods.
Deployments demonstrate growing analytical value
Existing deployments across Europe already illustrate the role HbbTV can play in audience analytics. Broadcasters and national measurement bodies use HbbTV applications to collect real-time viewing data, refine audience curves, enrich panel datasets and evaluate the performance of addressable advertising campaigns.
The connection between HbbTV-based analytics and the expansion of addressable advertising featured prominently in Grivet’s presentation. The HbbTV-TA specification, which enables frame-accurate substitution of broadcast advertising, is being integrated into reception devices by major global manufacturers. Grivet estimates that between 15 and 20 million compliant devices will be in the market by 2026, strengthening the case for using HbbTV analytics to assess campaign reach and effectiveness in a transparent way.
Structural challenges persist for audience measurement
Despite these developments, measurement specialists at the conference emphasised that technology alone cannot resolve all challenges. Fragmented viewing habits, inconsistent aggregation efforts, the growing influence of global streaming platforms and the changing role of live sports continue to complicate the production of reliable national audience currencies.
Within this context, HbbTV’s neutrality, openness and scale were repeatedly cited as sources of stability. Europe now counts more than 100 million HbbTV-capable households, with adoption accelerating in markets such as Turkey and across the Middle East and North Africa. The standard provides broadcasters with a single application environment across manufacturers and networks, allowing them to retain control over their data and limit reliance on proprietary intermediaries.
These factors suggest that HbbTV is evolving beyond its original role as an enhancement layer for broadcast television, positioning itself as a key infrastructure component for audience measurement and analytics in an increasingly complex connected TV market.
The presentation by HbbTV Chair Vincent Grivet is available for download, and a recording of the session can also be accessed online. Further details on the asi International Television & Video Conference 2025 in Copenhagen are available on the event website.