This week brings news of significant specification-related developments for HbbTV, the pan-European initiative that is harmonizing the delivery of hybrid television services to Connected TVs. On one hand the newly published MPEG DASH specification has been i 
ncorporated into the latest revision of HbbTV, while on the other HbbTV has itself been incorporated into the NorDig specification for hybrid television receivers.
DASH in HbbTV...
MPEG DASH, the recently published specification for the delivery of video content over the internet, has been included in Version 1.5 of the HbbTV specification. The inclusion of DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) expands the HbbTV toolbox that already incorporates standards and specifications from the DVB Project, the Open IPTV Forum, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In addition to fostering the HbbTV initiative, the EBU is also a member of the recently formed DASH Promoter’s Group.
2012 is fast becoming the Year of HbbTV, with services now on air in Germany, France, Austria and Spain, along with trial services in various countries including the Netherlands and Switzerland. Just this week, the France Télévisions channel France 5 launched its first HbbTV service, adding hybrid content to its popular daily programme C dans l’air.
...and HbbTV in NorDig
In a further boost for HbbTV, it has now been added to the NorDig specification for IRDs (Integrated Receiver and Decoder), now known as hybridIRDs. The NorDig group specifies the common platform used for digital TV services in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, as well as in Ireland. In a newly published Addendum to its receiver specification, HbbTV succeeds MHP, which was previously the chosen API for interactive services.