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Appendix G: HBBTV System
HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) is a new industry standard that seamlessly combines TV services
delivered via broadcast with services delivered via broadband and also enables access to Internet only
services for consumers using connected TVs and set-top boxes. Services delivered through HbbTV include
traditional broadcast TV channels, catch-up services, video-on-demand, EPG, interactive advertising,
personalisation, voting, games, social networking and other multimedia applications.
HbbTV applications are available on channels where they are signalled by the broadcaster (currently
various channels on Astra broadcast HbbTV applications). The broadcaster marks one application as
“autostart” and this one is started by the platform automatically. The autostart applications are generally
launched with a small red button icon to notify the user that there is an HbbTV application on that channel
(The shape and the location of the red button depends on the application). The red button is displayed for
some and then may disappear. The user then should press the red button to open the application page.
After the page is displayed the user can go back to the initial red button icon state by pressing the red
button again. The user can toggle between the red button icon mode and full UI mode of the application
via pressing red button. It should be noted that the red button switching capability is provided by the
application and some application may behave differently.
If the user swicthes to another channel while an HbbTv application is active (either in red button icon
mode or full UI mode), the following scenarios can occur.
- The application can continue running.
- The application can be terminated.
- The application can be terminated and another autostart red button application can be launched.
HbbTv allows the applications to be retrieved both from broadband or broadcast. The broadcaster may
enable both ways or one of them. If the platfrom does not have an operational broadband connection,
the platform can still launch applications transmitted on broadcast.
The autostart red button applications generally provide links to other applications. An example of this is
shown below. The user then can switch to other applications by using the links provided. The applications
should provide a way to terminate themselves, usually button 0 is used for this.
