The EBU together with the ACT (Association of Commercial Television) organised a seminar on Hybrid TV for the European Commission at the EBU Brussels office last week. The seminar, attended by more than 70 participants, provided an insight into existing services along with an overview of technological developments and regulatory challenges and their market impact. For the Commission, Hybrid TV is seen as a potential driver in the rollout of high speed internet and in the creation of new markets for European content producers.

There were demonstrations of Hybrid TV applications from ARD/ZDF, France Télévisions, RAI/Mediaset and RTL. Among the speakers were Peter MacAvock of the EBU Technology and Development Department, Sylvain Audigier from TF1, Hans-Martin Schmidt from ARD and Michael Wagner of the EBU Legal Department. The lively discussion that followed the presentations  raised a number of issues including:

• fragmentation of the market and standardisation of Hybrid TV;
• capability of the internet to transmit services and net neutrality;
• level playing field with non-EU providers;
• the challenge of personalisation of services;
• the risk of creating “walled gardens” and the question of the consumer interest.

At the seminar Gerard de Graaf, Director Audiovisual, Media and Internet at Directorate General Information Society and Media (pictured), announced the Commission’s plan to publish a Green Paper on connected TV before the end of the year. It will examine the related opportunities, risks and threats.

The EBU has an interdisciplinary group on HBB chaired by Hans-Martin Schmidt (ARD), with some 25 members actively participating. The group aims to promote and facilitate the launch of Hybrid TV among EBU members. 2012 promises to be an important year for Hybrid TV with a number of key sporting and political events. In this context the EBU is promoting a set of white label applications available to members who wish to launch Hybrid TV.

At a technical level, the HBB group works with EBU Technical Committee groups BBN (Broadband Networks) and TVP (Television Platforms). The EBU is actively involved in the standardization efforts in DVB (developers of MHP/GEM) and HbbTV.