Poland is the latest European country to warm to the hybrid HbbTV standard after its public broadcaster TVP launched an HbbTV app in time for the ongoing Euro 2012 football championships.
The app, demonstrated on a Samsung smart TV before Euro 2012, which Poland is co-hosting with the Ukraine, is available on TVP’s flagship TV service TVP 1, on a DTT platform covering 32 percent of the population. The app was being used by at least 5000 people a day to view information around programming while Poland was still in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Polish HbbTV has been boosted by public commitment from Samsung, which is testing the technology for various functions in Warsaw. Samsung has hinted that it is technically ready to deploy HbbTV itself with its smart TVs in the country, but wants to be sure it is catering properly for the requirements of the Polish market.
Samsung already supplies TVs for HbbTV in Germany, which is Europe’s most advanced market for hybrid TV, with broadcasters ZDF, ARD, arte, ProSieben, SAT1 and RTL, having all deployed it.
France is not far behind, with public broadcaster France 5, part of France Televisions, launching its first HbbTV service around its daily flagship show C dans l’air, in April 2012. This is the broadcaster’s most popular daily show, with an audience between 2 and 2.5 million.
