Mediaset Begins The First Beta Test Broadcast Of HbbTV In Spain

Friday, June 17th, 2011
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  • Telecinco’s mid-day and prime time news programme (Informativos de Telecinco), fiction series (Piratas, Ángel o demonio, Vida loca, La que se avecina), entertainment shows (La Noria, Más allá de la vida) and products specifically designed for Internet (Becari@s, Novios y residentes en Malaguita) will be the first programmes to be broadcast using HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) technology.
  • This is the first technical stage to establish the compatibility standards to access this technology.
  • Once this stage is completed, the offer will be increased with more contents, introducing full navigability and extending the broadcasts to all of the Group’s stations.
  • This project is open to participation by the rest of the audiovisual industry players.

MADRID — News programmes, fiction series and entertainment shows will be the first Television Connected to Internet contents to be broadcast using HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) technology. Mediaset España [formerly Gestevision Telecinco] (Madrid: TL5) will start the Beta tests (in Internet terms) of this technology tomorrow through the technological development carried out by Telefónica (Madrid and NYSE: TEF), thus becoming a forerunner in implementing HbbTV in Spain.

In order to enhance the programming of the Group’s various stations, contributing the value of combined interactivity, Informativos Telecinco 15:00 y 21:00 horas, episodes of the series Piratas, Ángel o demonio, Vida loca and La que se avecina, webisodes of the shortmovie Becari@s and the reality show Novios y residentes en Malaguita, in addition to La Noria and Más allá de la vida, will be aired through this system, which enables the user to access additional information on the Internet about all of the contents that are being broadcast at that given time, as well as to the social networks – all of this through the television screen itself.

This pilot project – open to all of the Spanish audiovisual players – starts off by defining compatibility standards with TV sets manufacturers and by standardising access to this technology, which allows watching TV through a combination of the broadcast signal and broadband.

Once this stage has been completed, Mediaset Spain and Telefónica will enhance their offer through more contents, improving and furthering navigability on the Internet and exporting the model to the rest of the Group’s stations through Telefónica’s OTT (Over the Top) environments currently available, such as Imagenio, MoviStar Videoclub and Terra TV.

Technical Specifications

Backed up by the European Broadcast Union (EBU), HbbTV is based on three standards: CE-HTML, Open IPTV Forum browser profile and DVB signal and transmission.

In the near future, users having a set-top-box or HbbTV standard-based television will be able to access this added-value offer, tailored to television new consumption habits.

An Agreement to Develop New Ways of Watching TV

In May this year, Mediaset Spain and Telefónica entered into an agreement to set off the first Television Connected to Internet tests. This partnership has been agreed on a tight schedule to set standards and reference technologies as promptly as possible, as well as to identify the key interactive services, to establish the capabilities required for the service delivery and to commission the set of compatible devices through the manufacturers so that, at a later stage, the business model options brought about by this new space-time combination between television and Internet can be further explored.