The HbbTV Association has taken on five new members — Admongrel, Konodrac, NIQ, TVekstra and wedotv — pushing its total membership to 65, the strongest intake the hybrid-broadcast standards body has recorded in several years.

The October 14 announcement caps a run of growth that the Association attributes directly to a membership overhaul approved at its General Assembly on June 12. Two new tiers now sit alongside the traditional Full Membership, and the Association says the early returns validate the redesign.

Who are the newcomers?

The five arrivals do not fit the classic HbbTV mould of broadcasters, smart TV makers and platform operators. Instead, they span audience measurement and data analytics, advertising technology and FAST channels. NIQ is a well-known global measurement and analytics firm; wedotv operates in the free streaming space. The mix signals, in the Association's reading, that parties beyond the broadcast chain now see HbbTV's open specifications as a workable platform for commercial advanced-TV use cases such as analytics and audience measurement.

That claim comes from the Association itself, and it is worth separating the marketing from the mechanics. What the intake demonstrably shows is that a lower cost of entry has widened the funnel. Whether the newcomers convert into deployed HbbTV-based advertising or measurement products remains to be seen.

What did the June 12 reform change?

The General Assembly approved two complementary categories:

• Small Member — open to companies with annual revenues of up to €3 million that are active and innovative in the HbbTV ecosystem. They hold the same rights as Full Members, including access to all working groups and member resources, but cannot sit on the Steering Group.
• Associate Member — aimed at organisations outside the traditional HbbTV market. Associates get access to all member resources, the right to use the HbbTV logo, and may participate in and chair the new Application Interest Groups (AIGs).

The Associate tier is aimed squarely at companies with an interest in specific application areas — audience measurement, addressable advertising, identity and consent. In effect, HbbTV has built a side door for the ad-tech and data industries that previously had little reason to pay for full membership.

Why does this matter for the TV market?

HbbTV's specifications sit under a large installed base of connected TVs across Europe, where broadcasters and manufacturers use them to deliver hybrid broadcast-broadband services such as catch-up players and red-button content. Expanding membership into measurement and advertising firms aligns the Association with where commercial attention in television is heading: targeted advertising and standardised audience data.

The creation of AIGs gives those companies a structured route in — chairing a group on, say, addressable advertising is a more concrete commitment than passive membership. For broadcasters, the risk is that standards work skews toward advertising use cases; the benefit is a broader ecosystem funding and contributing to the specifications.

What happens next?

The Association will look to sustain momentum from the new tiers, with the June 12 structure now fully in force and AIG participation open to Associate Members. If the intake pace continues, HbbTV's ecosystem will increasingly be measured not by broadcaster adoption alone, but by whether the new advertising and analytics entrants ship HbbTV-based products.

By Elena Vasquez