Freeview

BBC Worldwide-owned TV listings magazine, Radio Times, has been tapped by EPG specialist, Inview Interactive, to provide a branded EPG for the UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial platform, Freeview, replacing Inview's existing Teletext Extra guide. The EPG, branded as Radio Times Extra and slated to be available on 37 Freeview set-top models from 21 different manufacturers (which collectively serve around 3.8 million Freeview households), offers 14 days of programming listings and synopses and some editorial content, including daily programming picks.

Strategy & Technology, a UK-based provider of interactive TV playout systems and middleware, said last week that it is setting up a dedicated Hybrid Systems business unit.

Due to the large volume of interactive TV-related news generated over the past few days, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up format. Our regular news coverage will return shortly.

Due to the large volume of interactive TV-related news generated over the past few days by the IFA and the run-up to the IBC, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up format. We anticipate that it will take a couple of days for us to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us. Our regular news coverage will return shortly.

In a posting on its Internet blog, Monday, by Mark Hatton, a senior software engineer from the BBC's TV Platforms Group, the BBC Red Button team announced the open source release of its MHEG+ toolkit under the Apache 2.0 license.

The HbbTV Consortium--the group behind "Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV" (HbbTV), a pan-European initiative that was launched last August and that describes its goal as "harmonizing the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment services to the end-consumer through connected TV's and set-top boxes" (note: according to the Consortium, the HbbTV initiative is based on elements of existing specs, including OIPF, CEA, DVB and W3C specs; the consortium's founding members are ANT software, the EBU, France Televisions, Germany's Institut fuer Rundfunktechnik, OpenTV, Philips, Samsung, SES Astra, Sony and TF1)--said last week that version 1.1.1 of its specification has been approved by European standards agency, ETSI and l

Strategy & Technology--a UK-based provider of interactive TV playout systems and middleware, which recently received the Queen's Award for Enterprise in recognition of the significant growth in international sales of its products that it has achieved over the past four years (see the article published on itvt.com, April 21st)--contacted [itvt] last week to let us know that Freeview Australia's EPG platform has launched nationally (note: Freeview Australia, which is a non-profit joint venture between broadcasters ABC, SBS, Network Seven, Nine Network, Network Ten, Prime Southern Cross and WIN, is designed to bring free-to-air digital terrestrial TV to Australian viewers).

Syabas, a Fremont, Calif.-based company that specializes in over-the-top set-top hardware and software, said last week that it is partnering with 3D technology provider, RealD, to equip its new PopBox OTT set-top box with the ability to display high-definition 3D content (note: for more on the device, which features a user interface design from Moxi UI designer, Dewey Reid, see the article published on itvt.com, January 5th).

Bristol, UK-based digital TV software provider, Ocean Blue, said Tuesday that its Voyager MHEG-5 engine is now compliant with the UK's specification for DVB-T2 Freeview HD receivers. The announcement comes in time for an anticipated surge in demand for HD services on Freeview, the UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial television platform, in the run-up to the World Cup, the company points out.

UK satellite-TV provider, BSkyB, said Wednesday that its Sky Player broadband video service will be available on Humax's new range of high-definition hybrid DTT/IP set-top boxes for the UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial platform, Freeview (note: Humax is the UK's largest provider of Freeview set-tops). Those boxes include the Humax HD-FOX T2, which launched in February and which Humax claims is the UK's first Freeview HD box (note: the box also allows users to access the BBC iPlayer broadband TV service), and an HD DVR that is slated to launch in the coming months.

Electra Entertainment--a company that was founded in early 2003 by Static 2358 founder, Jasper Smith, and former Gemstar-TV Guide CTO, Jonathan Drazin (note: Smith serves as its CEO and Drazin as its CTO; its chairman is former BT and BSkyB director, John Swingewood)--said Monday that it has secured a deal with the UK's largest retailer, Tesco, that will see it distributing its Trove hybrid interactive TV technology on standard- and high-definition Freeview-ready (note: Freeview is the UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial platform) TV sets, set-top boxes and DVR's which will be available in Tesco stores starting this June.

Miniweb, a London-based company that offers a platform designed to enable converged broadcast and broadband entertainment on the TV, said Wednesday that it has signed a deal with Eurosat, an EU-wide distributor of terrestrial and satellite TV products, to integrated its flagship Connected TV Services Platform and its broadband content guide with Eurosat's new Manhattan range of set-top boxes, which are designed for use with Freeview HD, the new HDTV service from the UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial platform. The Miniweb-equipped boxes are slated to be available in retail later this year.

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we are covering a number of stories in this issue in summary form:

A UK company called 3View unveiled a hard drive-equipped, broadband-connected HD set-top box, Tuesday, that combines the ability to receive standard- and high-definition linear-TV programming from the UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial platform, Freeview, with various Internet/OTT capabilities. The company says that the box--which is slated to be available in retail in March--will allow users to receive a range of over-the-top video services, as well as browse the Web and use Facebook and Twitter. It bills it as "the world's first Internet-connected HD free-to-air set-top box."