Danish national broadcaster launches HbbTV pilot

Watch broadcast from the biggest Danish national broadcaster whenever you want. DR HbbTV is on air

The biggest Danish national broadcaster DR is now launching a pilot project. A new service is developed in cooperation with the Danish company Nordija. It is now possible to watch pre-releases and broadcast from DR whenever the viewers want.

The name of the new service is “DR NU”, and is available on www.dr.dk, and it is based on the fokusOn middleware from Nordija. The new service is being tested on TV, and it is possible to watch pre-releases and broadcast from DR on TV’s that support HbbTV.

The fokusOn middleware from Nordija offers an efficient and cost-effective solution that can be quickly and easily deployed for delivering advanced Hybrid TV and over-the-top (OTT) services.

HbbTV or “hybrid broadcast broadband TV” is a major new pan-European initiative aimed at harmonising the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment to the end consumer through connected TVs and set-top boxes.

“With DR NU on your TV it is possible to watch broadcast from DR whenever you want, and with a single click on your remote. We are very happy with the cooperation with DR and with the technical solution for DR hbbTV pilot service. We are proud to be the first company in the Nordic with a HbbTV service which is on air”, says Thomas Christensen, CEO of Nordija.

According to Thomas Christensen it open up a new services which can be obtained through the combination of TV and broadband, and it opens up for new services within interactivity, and we are expecting that a number of other broadcast content providers also will introduce HbbTV.

According to technical project manager from DR Thomas Elton Jensen “We have chosen to cooperate with Nordija as they are the leading company within developing of interactive solutions on TV. DR HbbTV pilot project will run as a pilot test in 2012 in order to evaluate how the viewers will achieve the new services. Afterwards, DR will assess the project, and evaluate whether we will continue with HbbTV services”.

The cooperation with DR fits very well with overall strategy of Nordija. “Since the first installation of IPTV in 2001, Nordija has focused on offering innovative solutions where the needs of the customer were in focus, and with the new HbbTV open standard for interactive TV the end customer will have a brand new opportunity with internet content on the TV screen”, according to Thomas Christensen.

From 9 March 2012 people with a TV that supports HbbTV can watch pre-releases and broadcast from DR on TV.