NOVA WANTS VIEWERS TO ACTIVELY USE HBBTV. IT WILL OFFER MORE VIDEO AND VOTING

Czech viewers have become quite used to the fact that the red button on the remote control brings up additional functions to the broadcast. In the last year, TV Nova has also paid more attention to this area.

TV Nova invests in the development of HbbTV. Through connected smart TV technology, it offers bonus content, an archive of shows, live broadcast of Nova Lady or a fast news service. In the last year, it has launched several new functions and further development is planned. Under the red button, Nova wants to offer its customers more news videos and considers voting or applications for specific shows.

The latest addition is the SocialTV app intended to show content of social networks such as Instagram and TikTok. Nova has used the first one to promote the miniseries Iveta, the latter helps promote its daily reality show called Prague – Day & Night.

Another step will be to improve the news application. Today, Nova can show a banner providing information on an exceptional event to its audience. A news stream TN Live and videos on individual news items will come next. “If the pilot operation is successful and everything works as we wish, the service will be accessible under a special colour on the remote control. You will thus be able to access it through a campaign, via the main menu of HbbTV under the red button or by pressing a button of a specific colour on your remote control,” says Iva Dohnálková, the head of HbbTV in Nova.

Thanks to the data on online static content measuring by Nielsen Admosphere, you can easily identify how many people take note of HbbTV. The call to use the red button is seen by 2.4 million unique viewers a month across all Nova Group stations. The transition to DVB-T2 contributed to the expansion of HbbTV in local households as viewers were buying set-top boxes or TV sets supporting connection to the Internet and they had the HbbTV function activated.



Nova’s HbbTV environment is used by over 500,000 unique viewers per month. Once they are in the app, Nova can assess their movements through standard measurement scripts.

The most used section of HbbTV is the free archive of broadcast shows named Nova Plus, which is followed by the paid video library Voyo. Its statistics, however, is influenced by the fact that in the hybrid environment, Voyo app cannot be started by viewers whose TV set does not support the HbbTV 2.0 standard. It is  because of copyright protection as content security in the older HbbTV version is not sufficient for Nova to satisfy the requirements of show distributors. Owners of non-compliant TV sets can only see an apology recommending to watch Voyo via a Smart TV app.

“We can detect whether Voyo is installed on the TV or if it is at least in the app store of the TV set manufacturer. We are able to provide installation instructions,” explains Iva Dohnálková.

“In my opinion, HbbTV has several opportunities. It has a large potential for commercial messages as we can offer clients additional space on the big screen. Viewers click through to the app and see the commercial message. We have been developing the advertising system and have some knowledge of viewer behaviour. What we do not know is whether the specific user is a man or woman, whether they are 15 or 30 but we know what they are watching, how often they are watching and whether they watch repeatedly or just once,” she continues.



Using HbbTV, Nova can increase the reach of its own programme promotion and advertisers’ campaigns. The above-mentioned targeting of ad messages by user behaviour works, for example, when we want to attract viewers to watch a new show. Nova shows trailers only to those who have not seen it elsewhere. “Not everyone will get a spot promoting a new programme. Thanks to HbbTV and the new functionality Max Reach, which we developed with our tech partner ČRA last year, we can tell our viewers what we are going to show and when. We have good feedback in Nova’s marketing department and from our business partners because we increase the incremental reach of their TV campaigns,” she adds.

Behavioural targeting will now expand by predefined viewer groups. They were formed by aggregating devices on which similar content was watched with a certain frequency. It will thus be possible to target commercial messages e.g. on TV sets where crime series were watched the most frequently.

While Prima tried to incorporate simple games into HbbTV to keep the viewer in the app as long as possible, Nova relies on video content. We are also inspired by apps related to specific shows for which bonus content may be delivered via the red button. “Personally, I would go for it but we have yet to see if we are able to connect it with a specific show and produce additional content beyond the video we already have,” adds the HbbTV manager. “I would like to have the Nova Plus archive app refreshed in some time and introduce new features. But the news application will come first.“

Through HbbTV, Nova wants to increase awareness of Nova Lady, its station dedicated to women. At one click, you access a stream with linear broadcast of this programme. It has its viewers, their number is steadily around several thousand a day. The average viewing time is tens of minutes. Thanks to the above-mentioned options, Nova managed to shows a campaign for Nova Lady in HbbTV only to those viewers who had not tuned to the station using traditional ways.

Compared to European projects, HbbTV is performing very well in the Czech Republic. “Three years ago, at a symposium in Greece, we were one of the best. We had nothing to be ashamed of compared to Germany where HbbTV was established and where large amounts of money and capacities are allocated to it,” describes Dohnálková. Germany is slightly ahead now again in HbbTV, however, it is focusing more on the creative approach to advertising formats and product placement than on user content.



For Nova, voting is worth using in the HbbTV environment. “Voting is very interesting. We definitely want our viewers to interact with us and get more involved in the story. For example, the mobile app for Love Island Czechia & Slovakia was very successful. People were spending a lot of time in it on average. If we had anything similar via HbbTV, it would be great and for sure, we would make a good use of it,“ considers Iva Dohnálková.

HbbTV’s weakness is the option to pay for content. Older versions do not support monetisation, the more recent ones do but viewers are not willing to input data on their payment card in a TV app. That is why other TV networks test generating QR codes to pay by mobile phones or code delivery upon sending a Premium SMS in a certain amount. “This would be possible but our strategic decision is that we do not have any pay-gate or payment via QR codes or SMS. Voyo costs CZK 159 per month, which is on the verge of being unacceptable for this payment method. It would also be difficult and instable given the differences among HbbTV versions on TV sets,” observes the HbbTV development manager. Viewers who wish to activate Voyo in HbbTV have to pair it with an active mobile application or another active user account.

Representatives of global TV stations will discuss the development potential of HbbTV in Europe at the jubilee tenth HbbTV Symposium to be hosted by Prague in early November. As part of the conference, this year’s award winners for the best hybrid applications in various categories will be announced.

Source: lupa.cz