Spain starts first HbbTV broadcasts
June 20, 2011
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Mediaset Spain, owner of commercial TV channels Tele 5 and Cuatro and operator of other DTT channels like Fiction Factory, La Siete, Boing and Divinity , has started first HbbTV transmission aimed at boosting the connected TV market.
Telecinco is offering its news programmes and prime time fiction series Piratas and Angel o Demonio, as well as Internet-orientated programmes like Becario@s, Novios y Residentes with HbbTV technology.
The company will be increasingly distributing HbbTV content through all its channels following the pilot test. The move comes at a time when the whole electronic industry and even the Government recently supported HbbTV as the standard for connected TV in line with France and Germany. It is also the result of a recent strategic alliance with Spanish telco Telefonica to launch a trial over Telefonica’s IPTV, VoD and Internet platforms and services, Movistar Imagenio, Movistar Videoclub and Terra TV, respectively.
Initially, the HbbTV trial project will include a side bar on the TV screen with access to interactive applications enriched with additional information and links to social networks to allow viewers to interact on real time with the content they are watching. Mediaset España will launch a VoD TV channel through Telefonica’s OTT service Movistar Videoclub with pay-per-view content. In addition, Mediaset claims that it will be the first Spanish TV company to develop a plethora of TV Apps through IPTV platform Movistar Imagenio to allow viewers to have more information for example about the characters or presenters of a particular series or programme or to participate in voting systems or surveys or even have access to photos through a RSS system.