News

German pilot reports success

22 May 2023

A pilot project to evaluate the potential of the new DVB-I standard in the German television market has announced the successful completion of a first phase proof of concept. The report on the project provides recommendations for a second phase of evaluation before a potential market launch.

The DVB-I standard enables the integration of television services, whether they are delivered over established broadcast satellite, cable or terrestrial channels, or online. It can support the delivery of services to media devices and handheld screens, as well as televisions. It also enables the introduction of higher quality audio and video, and cost-effective online delivery for special interest or regional programming.

The DVB-I Pilot Germany project began in September 2022 and the first phase ended in March 2023.

The pilot involved over 20 stakeholders from across the media sector, including public and private broadcasters, television providers, service operators, software developers and research institutions.

Leading German broadcasters ARD, RBB, ProSiebenSat.1, RTL, WDR and ZDF participated in the pilot, together with consumer electronics companies LG, Sony, TP Vision and Vestel.

Remo Vogel of RBB, the public broadcaster for Berlin and Brandenburg, who project managed the pilot, said: “The aggregation of the service lists of the participating broadcasting families into a central service list was successfully realised and presented on first prototypical TV devices and mobile apps.”

A core element of the DVB-I specification is the definition of service lists, which specify and prioritise one or more distribution variants of each service. The pilot evaluated the inclusion of regional programming based on postcodes, automatic switching between broadcast and online delivery, and channel change times.

In the light of the successful pilot, the broad support from the broadcasting industry and the positive national and international responses, the members recommend an additional second phase of the pilot to address outstanding issues in preparation for a possible market launch.

Aspects to be considered include the organisation and aggregation of further service providers, the implementation of digital rights management and authentication systems for subscription offers, the expansion of the availability of prototype devices, the evaluation of new use cases and the potential for personalisation.

Further information is available online at:

dvb-i.tv