IMPALA - the International MHEG Promotion Alliance

IMPALA - the International MHEG Promotion Alliance - launched in 2006 to promote the widespread adoption of MHEG-5 for interactive digital TV by broadcasters around the world following on from its initial successes.

MHEG-5 is a cost-effective, highly efficient, market-proven public standard interactive TV middleware that is used to both send and receive interactive TV signals. It allows a wide range of TV-centric iTV services to be deployed; services that are proven to enhance viewer loyalty and “stickiness”.

It is used as the middleware of choice by Freeview and the new Freesat service in the UK, enabling a multitude of services on the platforms. MHEG-5 is platform agnostic and has successfully been deployed on terrestrial, satellite and cable platforms in New Zealand, Hong Kong and soon India.

MHEG-5 also has an active technology roadmap enabling the rollout of new products driven by the need for broadcasters to provide better interactive services to cater for future consumer needs. From its early days of providing basic teletext-like services and enhanced interactivity, MHEG-5 now incorporates support for HD, push video-on-demand and support for broadband/IP return channel functionality.

Freeview New Zealand took its lead from the successful Freeview UK platform in its business structure, brand positioning, and a number of technology decisions. It made sense for us to go with a cost-effect and proven open standard middleware platform – MHEG-5 - for interactive broadcast applications.

Steve Browning,
General Manager of Freeview in New Zealand

IMPALA consists of Promoter and Supporter members. The Promoter members are: Strategy & Technology, Cabot Communications and Echostar Europe. It has a further 14 Supporter members, including Sony, Panasonic and Hitachi.