What is HbbTV?

HbbTV stands for Hybrid Broadcast and Broadband Television.

Put simply it is a standard for developing HTML based applications for televisions. HbbTV application types include:

VOD
Catch-up, replay TV, start-over
Program guides (i.e. EPG)
Information services (e.g. news, sport, weather information)
Enhanced TV (e.g. quizzes, extra info)
Interactive advertising and e-commerce
Early warning systems
E-government services (e.g. education, health)
Games
Addressable/targeted advertising

HbbTV application are often known as red button applications as historically enhanced TV applications have been launched by pressing the red teletext button on a television remote control.

HbbTV is needed as televisions are a different environment to standard desktops or mobile devices. HbbTV profiles and extends existing web standards from W3C to make them work in a television environment. HbbTV has built on the work of other standards bodies including MPEG, DVB, CTA and OIPF.

The HbbTV specification and its supporting test suites are developed under the umbrella of the HbbTV Association. The HbbTV Association is a cooperation between broadcasters, operators, manufacturers and technology providers worldwide. Any organisation can become a member. Today the HbbTV Association has around 80 members from all over the world. It is a non-profit association registered in Switzerland.

The main elements defined in the HbbTV specification are the following:

A set of minimum web technologies that are to be available to an HTML pages in an HbbTV application
A minimum baseline set of video, audio and subtitle/caption technologies to be supported in a television
Extensions for features specific to the television environment
Mechanisms for linking linear TV channels to HbbTV applications
Integration of all the various technologies into an overall system
Handling of security and privacy in the overall system

Many of these are defined by reference to specifications from other organisations and not by HbbTV itself. Many of the interfaces are prefixed with ‘oipf’ as they were specified by the Open IPTV Forum (OIPF). While originally an independent body with different membership, OIPF was merged with HbbTV in 2014.

Since the first version of the HbbTV specification in 2010, it has evolved, with multiple subsequent versions published. When developing an application it is important to understand if you are developing for a specific version or maintain compatibility across versions. Details about the different HbbTV versions is given here.