Advanced Television

Spaniards are not into MHP DTT services

October 10, 2007

from David del Valle in Madrid

Interactive DTT applications are not popular amongst most of Spaniards who, even though they know their existence they use them very little. That is the main conclusion from a test with a sample 40 homes in the cities of Madrid and Salamanca which, equipped with a MHP DTT box, could enjoy several MHP services -a multimedia portal, EPG, and information services on the Stock Market, Traffic, Meteo- over the last few months through TVE

The most widely used MHP services were the meteo (weather information) and the digital teletext applications. The results from the test showed that the MHP services may have potential in the future, but Spaniards are not interested in them for the time being. Children and young people are good at using the DTT box but they think that the current MHP services are boring. Adult Internet users said that interactive DTT is not as complete as the Internet TV services.

The trial has been carried out by the tecnology companies Plot 4 and Fresh IT in collaboration with the Madrid Politecnica University. Currently, 98 per cent of all DTT boxes sold in the Spanish market are not ready for MHP services. The Government has undertaken to boost the market with an injection of around E20 million in 2008. Currently, DTT coverage reaches 85 per cent of the Spanish population with around 30 per cent of all citizens having access to DTT with an audience share of around 8 per cent.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTT/DSO