KOBA is the annual broadcast exhibition and conference held in June in Korea. The national broadcaster, KBS, was there in strength. A highlight of their demonstrations was the 'OHTV' (Open Hybrid Television) system developed by a consortium of manufacturers and broadcasters, and seen first last year. Plans are to start a service next year.
'Applications' available via a broadband portal are superimposed on the normal TV image, or replace it entirely. The OHTV set (the next generation of TV sets) includes a broadband connection and a CE-HTML browser. The system seems similar to the HbbTV system developed in Europe.
| In the demonstrations, the applications catalogue, which includes EPG and catch-up TV, is displayed on a scroll bar across the lowest 25% of the screen. It operates with some similarity to the TV widgets system of Intel and Yahoo. Broadband is very fast in Korea, so the VOD can be high quality.
OHTV is one of several measures taken by KBS to be, in their words "with the people". The others are a substantial web site and an App ('KoreaView') that runs on PCs, Tablets, or smart phones with extensive content. |  Open Hybrid TV at KOBA 2011 |
Seeing the technical similarity to HbbTV, could it be interesting for the HbbTV group to get together with OHTV? In which case, could they have a 'world-beating' single system?