euro news_news 26/11/2014 19:52 Page 7
HbbTV momentum
continues to grow
The HbbTV Association, a
global initiative dedicated
to providing an open
standard for the delivery of
broadcast and broadband
services through connected
TVs and set-top boxes, is
achieving strong global
momentum with new
members, contributions and
deployments, it reports.
Within the last 12 months,
the Association has achieved
membership growth of 25%,
has had hundreds of apps
deployed, and grown
adoption to over 20 countries
- including services launched
outside of Europe.
Additionally, a growing range
of devices supporting the
standard have been released
and it is now estimated that
there are more than 20
million devices with HbbTV
compatibility.
Over the last year, the
HbbTV Association
membership has grown to 74
members. HbbTV is enjoying
a worldwide growth moving
out of Europe, with testing
and deployment taking place
in the Asia Pacific, the Middle
East and Africa. This has led
to a significant increase in
the availability of enabled
devices, with new
broadcasters going live and a
variety of services being
deployed. The recent HbbTV
Symposium Europe on
October 8th and 9th was
attended by more than 200
delegates from 28 countries
demonstrating HbbTV’s
growing recognition as an
international TV standard.
“We are truly excited to
see HbbTV achieve traction
across the globe. It is
rewarding to see the rich
innovation that is made
possible with HbbTV and its
impact on TV viewers around
the world,” said Klaus Illgner,
chair, HbbTV Association.
“We remain dedicated to
continuing our work to the
benefit of the global TV
community. To this end, the
HbbTV Association continues
to focus on extending the
scope of its standard and
providing the tools to help its
implementation to benefit the
entire ecosystem.”
BT considering
mobile return
UK telco BT has responded
to recent press speculation
relating to a potential
takeover of cellco
Telefónica UK (O2) in the
UK, the business it sold to
the Spanish telco in 2005
for £18 billion (€22bn). Such
a move would make BT a
full quad-play operator,
restoring mobile to its
voice, broadband and TV
operations.
“We continue to develop
our own plans for providing
enhanced mobile services to
business and consumer
customers, in line with our
previous announcements. We
remain confident of delivering
on these plans and have also
been exploring ways of
accelerating them, including
assessing the merits of an
acquisition of a mobile
network operator in the UK,”
it said in a Regulatory
Statement.
“We have received
expressions of interest from
shareholders in two UK
mobile network operators, of
which one is O2, about a
possible transaction in which
BT would acquire their UK
mobile business. All
discussions are at a highly
preliminary stage and there
can be no certainty that any
transaction will occur,” said
BT, adding that a further
announcement would be
made if and when
appropriate.
EUROMEDIA 13