Spain’s three leading broadcasters RTVE, Atresmedia and Mediasat have joined forces to launch a rival to Netflix and other pay services.
According to El Economista, LovesTV is a DTT platform based on HbbTV technology that aims to eventually include all of the country’s public and autonomous DTT channels.
It adds the fact that the platform uses HbbTV allows the DTT channels to be offered with an additional layer of digital information, thereby having functionalities traditionally associated with internet platforms.
Its features include an EPG, seven-day catch-up, recommendations, and parental control. It also includes apps, with RTVE, for instance, giving access to those for RTVE, Clan TVE, Playz and 4K RTVE.
Accessing LovesTV requires a smart TV, internet connection and terrestrial antenna.
Speaking at the platform’s launch and quoted by El Periódico, Albert Cuatrecasas, director of the HbbTV technology provider Cellnex Spain, said: “There are currently more than two million smart TVs (in Spain), although it is expected to exceed five million by 2020”.
He added that the platform represented a “quantum leap in the user experience”, comparable in importance to the transition from, analogue to digital TV or the launch of HD services.
Cuatrecasas also said that LovesTV technology is installed in some of the models of the main smart TV manufacturers free of charge, since this is part of the standard for DTT in Spain.
As previously reported by Broadband TV News, plans to launch LovesTV were first announced in May this year.
LovesTV won the Judges’ Grand Prix Prize at this year’s HbbTV Symposium and Awards, which took place in Berlin.
Source: https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2018/11/29/hbbtv-based-netflix-rival-debuts-in-spain/