July 22, 2026

HbbTV Awards 2026 open for entries

Geneva, 22 July 2026 – The HbbTV Association, a global initiative dedicated to providing open standards for the delivery of advanced interactive TV services through broadcast and broadband networks for connected TV sets and set-top boxes, today announced the opening of entries for the HbbTV Awards 2026.

The contest will take place as part of the 14th HbbTV Symposium and Awards on 18-19 November 2026 in Barcelona, Spain, jointly hosted by the HbbTV Association and 3Cat, Catalonia’s public media corporation. The event will be held at the Catalonia Barcelona Plaza Hotel and will bring together leading figures from across the connected TV ecosystem.

The HbbTV Awards, now in their ninth edition, showcase and celebrate best practice, innovation and excellence within the HbbTV community. The HbbTV Awards ceremony will take place on the evening of 18 November, the first day of the conference.

Providers of HbbTV applications, services, technologies and solutions are invited to submit their entries through the online submission form. The competition is free to enter, and the website also provides further details.

Entries can be submitted via https://forms.gle/rLrfLJH1P5dgSPwY7

For 2026, the HbbTV Association has streamlined and updated the Awards categories to reflect current developments and market dynamics. A new category, Excellence in HbbTV Audience Measurement & Analytics, recognises the increasing importance of HbbTV-enabled TV audience insights, improved measurement accuracy and advanced analytics. The growing relevance of HbbTV in audience management solutions is also highlighted in this year’s Symposium conference programme and supported by the recently established HbbTV Audience Measurement Application Interest Group.

The categories for the HbbTV Awards 2026 are:

• Excellence in HbbTV Audience Measurement & Analytics
• Outstanding HbbTV Advertising Campaign
• HbbTV Application Innovation Award
• HbbTV Enabling Technology Award
• HbbTV Rising Star Award

Companies may enter as many submissions as they like in up to two categories, with each submission requiring a separate form to be completed. Entries will be judged by a panel of industry experts based on criteria including innovation, technical excellence, execution, impact and contribution to the HbbTV ecosystem.

The HbbTV Rising Star Award, formerly known as the “HbbTV Newcomer of the Year” Judges’ Award, has been changed into a regular award category. Companies can now nominate themselves or third-party organisations, including customers, partners, suppliers or other companies. This award celebrates organisations that are relatively new to HbbTV and have demonstrated exceptional innovation, technical excellence, market impact or commitment to the growth of the ecosystem.

The closing date for submissions is 18 September 2026. A shortlist of finalists will be put forward to a panel of industry experts who will select the winners.

“The HbbTV Awards have become an important platform for recognising innovation and excellence across the connected TV ecosystem. The updated categories reflect the evolution of the market, including the growing importance of audience measurement, advanced advertising, innovative applications and the technologies enabling new services. I encourage all companies developing HbbTV-based solutions to submit their achievements and compete for recognition at the HbbTV Symposium and Awards in Barcelona,” said Vincent Grivet, Chair of the HbbTV Association.

The HbbTV Application Showcase provides examples of the broad variety of innovative applications enabled by HbbTV, including many previous Awards submissions, shortlisted candidates and winners: https://developer.hbbtv.org/showcase_app/

The winners of the HbbTV Awards 2025, held in Istanbul, included 3Cat, TVekstra, Everyone TV and BCi Digital for their outstanding achievements in accessibility, advertising, technology innovation, content discovery and HbbTV service delivery.

Click here for the PDF version of this press release.