HbbTV Association calls for speakers for 14th annual Barcelona symposium

The symposium signals an industry-wide push to unify the fragmented connected TV landscape through open standards like HbbTV and DVB-I. For broadcasters, these frameworks are essential to maintain direct audience relationships and data ownership as device manufacturers and proprietary operating systems increasingly intermediate the viewing experience. The focus on real-time analytics and HbbTV-TA suggests that large-scale, frame-accurate addressable advertising is moving from pilot stages to a core monetization requirement. Watch for the success of first-mover DVB-I deployments in markets like Germany and New Zealand to dictate the speed of adoption in other European regions by late 2026.

The 2026 symposium arrives as HbbTV penetration reaches a critical mass in Europe. Per Dataxis (May 2026), approximately 120 million European households are expected to have at least one connected HbbTV television by the end of 2026, representing half of all households in the region. This installed base is supporting the rollout of the Targeted Advertising (HbbTV-TA) specification, which HbbTV Chair Vincent Grivet estimated in December 2025 would be integrated into 15 to 20 million compliant devices by 2026. This technical foundation allows broadcasters to substitute linear ads with personalized broadband-delivered content with frame-level precision.

Simultaneously, the DVB-I standard is transitioning from conceptual trials to production-ready platforms. Freeview New Zealand announced in May 2026 that it would launch the world’s first nationwide DVB-I platform in Q3 2026, partnering with manufacturers Hisense and TCL to integrate IP-based service discovery directly into native TV interfaces. In Europe, momentum is building through the publication of the 'DVB-I Book Germany' in May 2026, which established the regulatory framework for a planned commercial launch in Germany later this year. These deployments aim to solve broadcaster discoverability issues by merging linear broadcast and streaming channels into a single, standardized electronic program guide.

Operational collaboration is also intensifying to ensure these standards work across varied hardware. Per Broadband TV News (March 2026), engineers from 32 companies participated in the 2026 DTG Plugfest in London to test interoperability between HbbTV, DVB-I, and DASH protocols. These technical efforts, combined with the integration of HbbTV data into national measurement frameworks in Spain and the UK, are positioning open standards as a primary counter-strategy to the 'walled garden' ecosystems controlled by global tech platforms.