The HbbTV Association, a global initiative dedicated to providing open standards for the delivery of advanced interactive TV services through broadcast and broadband networks for connected TVs and set-top boxes, has announced a new specification for the integration of Digital Rights Management (DRM) in HbbTV implementations and services.
The specification was approved at the latest meeting of the HbbTV Steering Group and marks a significant step forward in enabling widespread secure delivery of premium content via HbbTV-based services. The new specification formalises the predictable and reliable use of DRM in HbbTV services, especially for applications approaching the complexity and content protection demands of Video-on-Demand (VOD) platforms.
While HbbTV has been used with DRM for many years, the HbbTV/DRM integration has previously been on an ad-hoc basis, led separately by a number of countries or markets with other countries or markets relying on the efforts of the leaders. There was no harmonised approach to benefit the entire ecosystem. With the growing importance of premium content and content owners’ requirements for their content to be secured, the need for a fully specified, interoperable DRM integration at the core of the HbbTV standard has become increasingly important.
“Over the past few years, we have observed that advanced HbbTV services often ran into technical challenges due to incomplete integration between HbbTV and DRM, even though most connected TVs already supported DRM at the device level,” said Vincent Grivet, Chair of the HbbTV Association. “This new specification provides predictability and reliability for the proper functioning of HbbTV applications in association with DRM, enabling our ecosystem to meet growing usage and more sophisticated HbbTV applications delivering advanced TV services.”
The newly approved specification formalises the integration of widely used DRM systems, specifically Microsoft PlayReady and Google Widevine, into the HbbTV framework. It builds on the experience gathered with HbbTV’s DASH-DRM Reference Application, which has already been adopted by many broadcasters and platform operators as a de facto standard for initial DRM implementation.
To support manufacturers and application developers, HbbTV is collaborating with leading hybrid TV platforms including tivù in Italy and Everyone TV in the UK as well as Google. These partnerships aim to integrate previous national-level or private DRM unit tests into the HbbTV Conformance Test Suite, ensuring seamless and consistent implementation across devices and markets.
The specification is available on the HbbTV website and is expected to be adopted by broadcasters, platform operators and hardware manufacturers in upcoming product cycles.
About the HbbTV Association
Hybrid broadcast broadband TV (or "HbbTV") is a global initiative developing a specification enabling the delivery of advanced and interactive TV and entertainment services to consumers through a combined use of both broadcast and broadband networks. The HbbTV specification is developed by industry leaders to improve the video experience of consumers on connected TV sets, set-top boxes and multiscreen devices. The HbbTV specification uses elements of existing specifications from other standards including OIPF, CEA, DVB, MPEG-DASH and W3C. With the incorporation of activities from the Open IPTV Forum (OIPF) in 2014 and Smart TV Alliance in 2016, HbbTV is able to address service providers and technology suppliers for IPTV services as well as the combined scope of broadcast and over-the-top (OTT) services.
HbbTV is organised as a non-profit association registered in Switzerland and has around 80 members which include all global TV manufacturers, the large European broadcasters and TV platforms as well as a vast array of global technology and chipset vendors.
Info: www.hbbtv.org
Notes: Press Release | Hybrid broadcast broadband TV (HbbTV) Association | Geneva, 16 July 2025
