GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A Canadian digital TV industry expert has been asked to help the European-based HbbTV consortium lead a global marketing campaign to raise awareness of the HTML5-based hybrid TV standard.
Kirk Edwardson, director of marketing at Ottawa-based digital TV and IPTV software provider Espial, has been appointed co-chair of the consortium’s marketing group, along with Régis Saint Girons, CEO of httv, a digital TV provider based in France and Singapore. Saint Girons is also president of the French HD Forum.
Edwardson and Saint Girons will work with the HbbTV membership to increase market awareness of HbbTV and accelerate the worldwide deployment of the standard.
Established in 2010, the HbbTV consortium is made up of more than 60 TV broadcasters and consumer electronics companies focused on providing the hybrid broadcast broadband TV standard. This standard provides the industry with an open and business-neutral technology platform that seamlessly combines TV services delivered via broadcast with services delivered via broadband, in addition to enabling access to Internet-only services on connected TVs and set-top boxes.
The standard is already deployed in various European countries including Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Turkey. A large majority of all connected TV sets sold in Western Europe implement the HbbTV standard, according to a release from the consortium.
There are currently more than two million active HbbTV receivers in Germany and over half a million active receivers in France. Future HbbTV deployments have also been announced in Europe, Australia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. It is also gaining additional supporters in the Americas and Asia.
“Over the last several years, HbbTV has gained significant market momentum and international support,” said HbbTV president Klaus Illgner in a release. “We’re very pleased with this growth and look to further increase the presence of HbbTV in Europe and the rest of the world with a renewed marketing focus that will push hybrid television services closer toward becoming a standard feature on connected TVs everywhere.”
