DTG makes UK connected TV spec openly available

The UK’s Digital Television Group (DTG) has made its HbbTV-based connected TV specification openly available to the industry.

The D-Book 7 Part B version 2 is designed to build on HbbTV to align the UK with pan-European standards. The spec includes additional features to meet the requirements of UK service providers.

As well as incorporating parts of the HbbTV specification the D-Book is also built upon international standards, including those published by the OIPF, ETSI, incorporating HbbTV and ISO/IEC – MPEG-DASH – with extensions to cater for UK-specific features.

The DTG will propose UK requirements to HbbTV for inclusion in HbbTV version 2. The DTG Council has approved the DTG to present, non-exclusively, the consolidated UK requirements for connected TV to the HbbTV working group, and later provide technical solutions, for HbbTV version 2 and future iterations.

“D-Book 7 Part B reflects over three years of critical industry collaboration to meet the UK requirements for connected TV. The publication of Part B not only ensures world leading services for UK consumers but demonstrates our continued commitment to the harmonisation of standards across the European Union and the rest of the world.” said DTG director-general Richard Lindsay-Davies, “This latest development is particularly important because it clearly references and builds on the most recent HbbTV standard, currently with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute for ratification. The DTG will continue to develop the D-Book as new innovations are discussed.”