ZDF to expand HbbTV, online offering

German public broadcaster ZDF plans to expand its zdf-de Telemedia, heute.de and sport.zdf.de portals and launch new HbbTV offerings.

The broadcaster will make short news, sports and weather programmes available via HbbTV in addition to its existing ZDFmediathek offerings. Documentary channel Phoenix will add new social networking features and 3sat is developing an app for the Apple and Android platforms, according to ZDF.

ZDF plans to highlight the presence of its digital channels ZDFinfo, ZDFkultur and ZDFnew on its portals, and the public broadcaster will also add a message centre and additional background pages to its heute.de news offering.

ZDF said that the number of users of the three sites  was close to six million at the end of March, up 49% year-on-year.