Channelbox shortlisted for the Best HbbTV technology innovation

London, 27 October 2021 – Channelbox, has been shortlisted for the Best technology innovation in an HbbTV product or service award.  

Channelbox is a free-to-air multi-channel linear streaming HbbTV application, created by Synapse TV Ltd and managed by Global Distribution Services that aggregates IP linear streamed content from multiple content-owners into a single selection menu.   The Channelbox HbbTV application is currently available in the UK via Freeview channel 271 and has been written to make use of HbbTV 1.5+ features as required to maximise reach in a mature HbbTV market. 

The unique features of the Channelbox HbbTV application include recall on application start-up of the last viewed stream and dynamic ad insertion into linear streams for monetization purposes. 

This means that the viewer of a particular stream can access their content simply by navigating to the LCN in the same way that they would a broadcast video channel.   This feature allows any content owner to market the Channelbox LCN as their own. 

Linear dynamic ad insertion is performed via a custom Server Side Ad Insertion system.  The SSAI is built on standard broadcast and advertising interfaces to enable just-in-time replacement of signaled ad-breaks in the linear feed with breaks that can be targeted at the individual viewer.  The SSAI system used by the Channelbox HbbTV application includes auto-ad-ingest to support both pre-sold and programmatic advertising models.

The Channelbox service is therefore an extremely cost-effective method of making linear streamed content available to the UK Freeview audience or to any platform that includes HbbTV1.5 devices and later.   The low start-up costs mean that owners of niche-content can now not only make their content available to that audience but they can also monetise it.  They can do this without the otherwise necessary investment in broadcast bandwidth.

The Channelbox HbbTV application launched in September 2021 and currently includes 20 TV channels that include Music, News, Sport, Films and General Entertainment content but has a constantly expanding channel line-up.

The winners of all categories will be announced at the Awards ceremony being held on the evening of 24th November as part of the HbbTV Symposium.