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DVB Developments You Should Know About

It is a huge decade for television. The competition of streaming and on-demand services combined with the technical advancements in UHD, audio, colour depth and immersive media like VR or AR have all forced DVB to do what it does very well.

Carving an identity for DVB in the current landscape isn't easy. Here's all the newest ways DVB TV is going to change in the next decade:

What We Use Now

DVB-T

First off, let's establish what DVB currently does for us. DVB supplies the UK and Europe with free-to-air TV services such as Everyone TV's Freeview.

DVB-T is the "standard" TV experience. SD quality, full channel guide, etc.

DVB-T2

DVB-T2 is equally well-established at this point, and is the "high definition" TV experience. This gives us our BBC1 HD channel, for example.

New Technology in Development

DVB-I

DVB-I is the most important bit of jargon to know about. DVB-I is the combination of years of terrestrial TV networks with new, internet-based channels.

DVB-I was concepted and pitched for testing in just 6 months (About how long it took France to rollout UHD channels for the Olympics) and is currently in use in tests in Italy and Germany.

DVB-I is a framework for TV to be accessible through the internet rather than an aerial.

DVB-I vs HbbTV OpApps

You might think Live TV over the Internet sounds like "Freely", but actually Freely is using a different approach using bespoke apps called "HbbTV OpApps".

"HbbTV OpApps require bilateral agreements between operators/ platforms and manufacturers, and some vendors are less willing than others to facilitate platform customization."

Regular readers will know that Freely is only accessible on certain models of TV from specific years (Namely, 2024). The "HbbTV OpApps" statement above demonstrates why, as supporting Freely isn't as simple as just installing an app due to needing a mutual agreement of use and implementation with every single manufacturer who uses it.

DVB-I, however, will be a solution that can be applied to almost every IP-enabled TV on the market. This means no brand-partners, no hardware restrictions, just connect your TV and you're set.

Needless to say, this may outclass the efforts of Freely, should DVB-I find widespread use after testing in Europe.

DVB-TA

This one is sneaky, and really not designed so much for the public eye as the others, but I want to share it with you regardless.

DVB-TA is DVB "Targeted Advertising".

See, we all know that if you search how to rock climb, and then go on Amazon and look at climbing gloves, that your Facebook later that day will be full of Ads for climbing.

This is targeted advertising.

In an online space like Google and Facebook we normalised this, but how would it work on TV?

The idea is that ad breaks on Live TV would no longer be pre-set, but instead use a bank of content supplied by advertisers and be reactively placed into slots on the day of broadcast.

For example, you might have an advert for a new car in the ad break on TV while your neighbour watching the same program, Live, on the same channel, gets an advert for a coffee brand.

TA is also designed to make sure we aren't shown the same adverts back-to-back or shown competitor adverts too close to each other.

It's nothing "new", as YouTube and other streaming services operate like this already. But, for this type of advertising to hit Live TV, that is new.

And, potentially, not welcome by many users...

DVB-HB

Finally, DVB are working on making aerial cables a thing of the past, even for TV broadcast received via aerial. DVB-HB stands for "home Broadcast". This isn't IPTV, the TV signal is still received by your rooftop aerial. However, rather than going from your roof to your TV via a cable, it does so wirelessly.

A diagram shows a DVB-HB set up
  • Just like now, the TV signal is received by your roof aerial.
  • Then, the aerial connects to your router or DVB-HB device by cable.
  • Finally, the router or DVB-HB device send the TV signal to any Television sets, set top boxes, tablets, phones etc that are on the Wifi.

This is a hybrid system, where real Live terrestrial TV is received, but then distributed through your house using Wifi.

Honestly, it works in exactly the same way as the DVB-T405 device, but that device only supports mobile phones via an IoS / Android App, whereas DVB-HB will support actual TV sets, too.

TV is Changing

These developments, alongside the possibility of a UHD switchover and huge changes to streaming delivery are all ongoing, and poised to reshape how we watch TV in the coming decade.

When these concepts are followed to completion, be sure to check back with our blogs!

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