The adaptation of television to HbbTV

The growth of the television offer of HbbTV (Hybrid broadcast broadband TV) and the intention to reinforce the weight of the television service by cable telecommunication operators can convergently converge in a diaphanous intersection between audiovisual and telecommunications.

HbbTV is an interactive standard that, unlike Smart TV, confers power to networks, not manufacturers. Dialogue options with the end customer are multiplied, which can trigger creative news from the journalistic and audiovisual point of view and more seductive formulas from the advertising perspective.

An unstoppable phenomenon that cable operators are aware of is the growth of non-linear television. This has meant a break with the traditional television canons, in every way: the loyalty of the audience at certain times, the differential fact of the direct, the mooring advertising following the criteria of advertising horizontality...

Over The Top (OTT) proposals flood television grills, so that synergies with the Internet multiply. The increase in streaming applications, of daily events that require a large amount of data and annual downloads are driving non-linear viewers, so that non-linear tracking hours have grown by 63% in one year, and those of connected television, 57%. In fact, the reception through mobile or tablet grew 57% alert to mobile television), through the computer it was reduced by 18% and 145% was shot through the connected TV, according to data from Conviva 2017- 18.

Operators face a change of television paradigm. The traditional transmission model follows a one-to-many structure, where viewers play a purely passive role. Consumer habits and behaviour are transforming, so that viewers now aspire to take control over where, when and how they view the content.
In addition, the rise in consumption is generating a wider variety in the content offered thanks to the proliferation of OTT platforms. According to Sony, it is likely that the traditional transmission will no longer be profitable by itself in the future. This does not mean that the powerful broadcasting industry is in decline, but that the business model must be rethought to increase revenue. Thus, it is necessary to reconstruct the traditional broadcasting and adapt it to the Broadband Society and the Cloud Journalism, that is, to the guaranteed connectivity and the need for a constant flow of data and content.
In this new ecosystem, HbbTV stands as a possible solution, as it provides the consumer with an enriched television experience, its reach is already massive (more than 44 million HbbTV devices in the world, a park that is growing at a high rate), has an open, widely accepted and fast-growing standard and expands the monetization capabilities of diffusers. The alliances between broadcasters (LovesTV in Spain, ProSieben and Discovery in Germany, Tivù in Italy, French networks) proliferate as a reflection of the prospects of the standard. In Spain, the HbbTV deployments of Canal Sur Radio y Televisión, Castilla-LaMancha Media (CMM), Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals (CCMA), EITB (Euskal Irrati Telebista), IB3 (Televisió de les Illes Balears), RadioTelevisión Canaria, Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), Televisión de Galicia, Telemadrid and 7rm (7 Region of Murcia) confirm the firmness of this commitment.

In fact, this standardization is updated with some frequency. HbbTV 1.0 / 1.5 is the one that dominates in Austria, Bosnia Herzegovina, Slovenia, Spain, Finland France, Sweden and Switzerland, while HbbTV 2.0.1 is in Germany, Denmark, Slovakia, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, United Kingdom and Czech Republic.
The new versions of HbbTV 2.0.x will update the previous ones in order to improve the user experience and content reception options. Thus, the HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) or H.265, a successor video compression standard of H.264 that doubles the compressive capacity while maintaining quality level, is incorporated.
It is also committed to the Ultra High Definition (UHD), whose image has a resolution 16 times higher than high definition and 75 times more than the PAL system, thanks to the 4,000 horizontal scan lines and the screen resolution of 33 million pixels The link to the NGA (New Generation Access) improves synchronization, HTML + CSS support and support for multi-screen services.
The fact that new companies entered HbbTV during 2018 is another consolidation indicator. Google, Sky, RAI or Skyworth have been seduced by the interactive standard. Another trend is the replacement of content, localized or personal experience and the replacement of audio and video and advertising.
One of the sectors that will change the most in order to take advantage of the advantages of interactivity is advertising. Currently, the VOD (Video on Demand) ad is in the pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll format, but you can get more engagement thanks to the dialogue with the end user.
In Spain, scientific research on HbbTV is cutting edge. The Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness awarded Blanquerna-Universitat Ramon Llull (URL), Cellnex and Cable Studies Center (CECABLE) the project “New Forms of Interactive Advertising on Television, Internet and Digital Media. Real Applications on HbbTV” (INTADTV), from 2018 to 2020, focused on analyzing interactive applications of the technology transfer key standard. In fact, of the twenty international indexed scientific articles on HbbTV, a fortnight corresponds to the research task of CECABLE and URL, together with universities such as CesineUniversity Center, Pompeu Fabra University, Escola UniversitàriaMediterrani-Universitat de Girona, Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​Universitat de Barcelona, ​​EAE Business School, Euncet-Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya or Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, among others.
A key way in which HbbTV can generate revenue for broadcasters and operators is through the improvement of advertisements and promotions. The standard can be used to improve advertising through addressability and interactivity.
In short, the Internet and broadband provide new functionalities and generate new opportunities for traditional television. Business models are adapting to new technologies, and content providers can use these new technology options to provide higher quality content and a better user experience. HbbTV is the way to integrate these innovations in the field of traditional television, so that cable operators get an interactive mana from which they can extract great performance.
We analyze HbbTV in this blog, in Research Group about Digital Journalism and Marketing and Broadband and in Research Group on Innovative Monetization Systems of Digital Journalism, Marketing and Tourism (SIMPED), from CECABLE,  Escola Universitària Mediterrani of UdG, UPF and Blanquerna-URL, in Twitter (@CECABLEresearch), Google+, in the group of LinkedIn, in the page of LinkedIn, in the group of Facebook, in Instagram (CECABLE), in Pinterest and in this blog. We will go in deep in the XXV Cable and Broadband Catalonia Congress (31 March-1 April 2020, Barcelona).