Augmented Hybrid TV Services. Habits, Preferences, Opinions and Expectations of Spanish Consumers
Abstract: The convergence of hybrid broadcast and broadband delivery, companion devices, and immersive technologies enables new forms of interactive, personalized, and accessible TV services. This paper introduces the concept of Augmented Hybrid TV services and presents an exploratory user requirements and preliminary acceptance assessment for 5 representative use cases. They were selected through an exploratory stakeholder consultation and 3 co-design workshops with audiovisual professionals and participants from organizations supporting people with visual or hearing impairments. They combine conventional TV with complementary content delivered to connected devices, including AR/VR HMD. They were subsequently evaluated through a cross-sectional CAWI survey of 626 Internet and connected TV users in Spain. Each participant viewed standardized video demonstrations of 2 randomly assigned cases and assessed their perceived usefulness, anticipated benefits/limitations, and interest in them. The results show substantial interest across all five use cases, ranging from 64.7% to 76.9%. Adaptive and personalized augmented subtitles received the highest level of interest and were particularly valued for their accessibility, language-learning, and personalization benefits. Immersive services involving complementary AR content, virtual screens, 3D objects, and 360 video were also evaluated positively, although participants identified device cost, ergonomics, connectivity, usability, and synchronization as anticipated limitations. The findings provide user-centered evidence that can inform the prioritization, design, and subsequent prototype-based evaluation of standards-compliant Augmented Hybrid TV services. Because the study assessed video-based scenarios rather than functional systems, the results represent perceived usefulness and stated interest rather than observed adoption or technically validated QoE.