Monthly Archives: November 2015

HbbTV 2.0: three steps forward

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HbbTV2.0 brings a lot of innovations to HbbTV. Some of them seem logical: new codecs, better MPEG Dash profiles etc. Others a bit esoteric: sophisticated second screen synchronization: not your everyday issue. Nevertheless doing interactivity in conjunction withg broadcasting is starting to make sense using HbbTV. The article below makes a deep dive into some of the technicalities involved.

The next version of HbbTV is bringing a much more powerful toolset with it, and has the potential to change the current worldwide television landscape.

Source: HbbTV 2.0: Could This Standard Become the Future of Television?

OTT and DTT in the Netherlands

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The latest development in the Dutch media landscape is that the Dutch broadcasters are aggregating their OTT and offering live streaming in one online platform. Dutch internet penetration is high. Access speeds are high based on pervasive, cable and decent A/VDSL and also gradually increasingly FTH infrastructure. Netflix took the Netherlands in no time.  As part of their TV everywhere offer Ziggo (cable) and KPN (fiber, telecom) already offered streaming content in homes and also outside homes (including over 3&4G networks, as regular data – i.e. not for mainstream watching).  KPN also intends to make a network indepedent OTT offer KPN Play.

NLZiet

Not to be outdone and gradually become insignificant the Dutch broadcasters are moving to stream their content online from one aggregated platform called NLZiet  indepedent of the network operator. For €8,- a month you can catchup 4000 episodes and without adds and (in the near future) watch live TV from all main and thematic channels. An app is available for iOS and it works with Chromecast and AppleTV. The Android app is in test phase. PC may follow.

With this much emphasis on online distribution and such high high-speed internet penetration one may wonder what the lifetime of DTT in the Netherlands still can be. KPN still operates the PayTV service Digitenne which has been jacked up in price all the time from €7 a month when it started to €14 a month now: this for essentially the basic broadcast channels and no catchup content. It seems that KPN is trying their utmost to move their Digitenne customers onto IPTV or KPN Play and stop DTT. The license is up for renewal in 2017. KPN seems not very eager to invest in DVB-T2 and HD. Dutch public broadcasters are considering to move in; if this would be permitted. There is also a plan to extend the Digitenne license for 3 years (which sounds like an end-of-life construct). KPN is also rumoured to test 4G broadcasting.

Source a.o. BroadbandTVNews: Dutch broadcasters test live OTT streaming