Pay-TV operators and free-to-air (FTA) broadcasters are being offered an oven-ready package for multi-screen TV services as the result of a tie up between multiscreen and content security vendor Nagra, and Spanish telecom infrastructure company Abertis Telecom.
The hosted service is based on a shared infrastructure cloud TV platform, enabling delivery of live or on-demand content to set-top boxes, laptops, tablets, smartphones and connected TVs. It is geared to services based on the European HbbTV hybrid platform, and was demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week.
One of the first applications will be for hosting an EBU initiative offering its members off-the-shelf interactive HbbTV applications during the European Song Contest in May, and following that in the Olympics at the end of July into August.
Pitched at both FTA and pay TV broadcasters, this EBU project will provide interactive HbbTV applications that can be used during both events. Nagra’s contribution is the content management, service delivery, digital rights management, analytics and metadata management, and the user interface, while Abertis is hosting and operating the platform within its datacenters.
This is likely to accelerate the subsequent rate of HbbTV deployment for hybrid services across Europe after the Olympic Games are over.
