The HbbTV Association has announced the programme for its 14th annual Symposium and Awards, taking place in Barcelona on November 18-19, 2026. The event will focus on technical and business developments in connected TV, including addressable advertising, audience measurement, and AI-powered user interfaces.
The focus on addressable advertising and AI-driven interfaces signals a shift toward bringing digital-native capabilities to traditional broadcast infrastructure. As the industry navigates the transition from linear broadcast to IP-based delivery, standardized frameworks like HbbTV and DVB-I are becoming essential for maintaining audience measurement accuracy across fragmented platforms. This event serves as a critical alignment point for European public broadcasters like 3Cat and ARD as they compete with global streamers for ad revenue. Watch for specific technical updates regarding DVB-I integration strategies that could standardize how IP-delivered content appears in traditional electronic program guides.
The HbbTV Association has been actively pushing DVB-I adoption across European markets as the bridge between broadcast and IP delivery. The Barcelona symposium sessions from Fraunhofer FOKUS and Cellnex Telecom are expected to build on these operational deployment considerations.
On the addressable advertising front, the HbbTV Association's Targeted Advertising specification defines how digital video adverts delivered over broadband replace part of linear TV services received via DVB-T, DVB-C, or DVB-S. The specification's Fast Media Switch API enables the content switch to be pushed deep into the terminal software stack, producing more accurate and cleaner transitions than pure JavaScript implementations. Meanwhile, DVB's own Technical Module for addressable advertising is advancing complementary work. DVB-TA Part 3 extends addressable advertising into DVB-DASH environments with ad reporting callbacks from players, enabling consistent measurement and reporting across hybrid delivery.
The HbbTV 2.0.5 specification also introduces formal DRM integration into the core standard, requiring devices to support at least one of Microsoft PlayReady or Google Widevine, and adds defined support for VVC and AV1 video codecs on an optional basis. These technical changes provide the foundation for the AI-powered user interfaces and personalization topics on the Barcelona symposium agenda.
Add StreamingMeme as a preferred source on Google to see more of our streaming news at the top of your Search results.
Add as preferred source
