The 13th HbbTV Symposium and Awards, held earlier this November in Istanbul, highlighted the accelerating international momentum of HbbTV across Europe and beyond, particularly in Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Co-hosted by the HbbTV Association and Turkish addressable advertising solutions provider TVekstra, the event demonstrated HbbTV’s role as a unifying standard in an increasingly fragmented Connected TV (CTV) landscape.

The programme brought together broadcasters, platform operators, manufacturers, technology and advertising service providers and researchers for keynotes, presentations and roundtable discussions. Core themes included the fragmentation of the CTV environment across over a dozen operating systems, rapid growth in HbbTV-based addressable advertising, audience measurement, analytics and consent management solutions, opportunities emerging through FAST Channels and the role of HbbTV and DVB-I in hybrid and IP-only environments. Turkey’s own ecosystem stood out as a fast-moving hub, with strong deployments, advanced ad-tech capabilities and a thriving community of technology innovators.

The 8th HbbTV Awards on November 12th recognised excellence in advertising innovation, accessibility, content discovery, AI-driven applications and next-generation user experiences.

“This was probably our best Symposium yet – exceptional in its setting, content, engagement and the many new participants it attracted. Istanbul clearly showed how far HbbTV has expanded globally, with 34 million reachable homes in MENA adding to the 100-million milestone reached in Europe this year,” said HbbTV Chairman Vincent Grivet. “The standard now goes well beyond the red button into advertising, measurement, analytics and consent solutions. In today’s highly fragmented CTV environment, HbbTV provides a unifying framework that allows a single application to run reliably across diverse operating systems and devices, reducing complexity, saving time and costs while improving efficiency.”

Merve Eraslanoğlu, CEO, TVekstra, added: “HbbTV’s Istanbul Symposium clearly demonstrated how rapidly the CTV ecosystem is maturing across the MENA region and how essential interoperable standards are to unlocking its full potential. For TVekstra, the event underscored the rising demand for transparent, scalable and privacy-first advertising solutions that work reliably across diverse platforms and devices. With millions of households now reachable and strong momentum from broadcasters and advertisers alike, the market is primed for meaningful transformation. We were proud to co-host an event that fostered collaboration, aligned industry expectations and set the foundation for the next stage of CTV growth in the region.”

The 14th HbbTV Symposium and Awards will take place in Spain in 2026, continuing the event’s rotation across major HbbTV markets while inspiring and encouraging broader international engagement.

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Categories: Press Releases

Tags: hbbtv, istanbul